West Ham United secured the FA Cup for the second time in the Club’s history by defeating Fulham on this day in 1975 - and you can watch the whole final again here!
Alan Taylor scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over their Second Division opponents at Wembley, firing home two close-range finishes and delighting the Claret and Blue Army members in the 100,000-strong crowd.
Billy Bonds captained the Irons to glory against a Fulham side that included his predecessor, West Ham legend Bobby Moore, having recovered from injury just in time to lead the Irons out at the Home of Football.
“I’d picked up a niggly groin strain before Christmas and it’d got progressively worse as we got into our 1974/75 FA Cup run,” Bonds recalled. “I’d tried resting, I’d seen specialists who wanted to operate, had cortisone injections and taken some horrible-tasting pain-killers to get me through our ties against Southampton, Swindon Town, QPR, Arsenal and Ipswich Town, while I had to miss nine of our last dozen league games, too.
“Going into the final against Fulham it was still touch and go whether I’d play. I warned John Lyall: ‘Look, I’m only 75% fit and I’m worried I won’t last 90 minutes’. But John replied: ‘Bill, that’s fine, just get out there and go for it’.
“Thankfully, I got through my first-ever Wembley final and Alan Taylor’s two goals meant that I finally got to lift a trophy for the Hammers.
“Everyone remembers Bobby Moore playing for Fulham that afternoon – I’d been in awe of him since I’d met him as a 14-year-old kid – and as a former West Ham team-mate, too, we all went and shook his hand because we had such tremendous respect for him.
“It was also a great afternoon for my dad, Arthur, who’d been a big part of my life both in terms of football and how he’d brought me up. He had a window-cleaning round and you could see the spring in his step as he walked off with his ladders knowing that I now had an FA Cup winner’s medal in my pocket!”
Enjoy Bonds, Taylor and West Ham’s fantastic afternoon Wembley again here!