Congestion and indigestion.
Not the ideal combination for a rookie goalkeeper about to take his first steps onto the European stage.
But from the very moment when Alan Dickie left his Abbey Wood home on 7 October 1964, the 20-year-old found himself featuring in a Boy’s Own Paper adventure, quite literally all of his very own.
“It was just like any other Wednesday afternoon,” recalls the former Hammers shot-stopper some six decades on. “As far as I was concerned, I was merely going to Upton Park to watch the first team playing La Gantoise and, after wolfing down a giant steak and kidney pie for my tea, I’d headed off in my little Austin A30 to soak up the Boleyn Ground atmosphere ahead of the 7.30 kick-off.
“Although I’d made my senior debut a couple of years earlier, going on to play seven first-team games, I was merely part of Ron Greenwood’s wider 16-man European Cup Winners’ Cup squad and understudy to Jim Standen, our established ‘keeper.
“I’d already travelled to Belgium for the first leg a fortnight before, but I’d really only just gone for the ride because Jim used played in every single game – safe as houses and steady rather than flamboyant, he was just such consistent, first-choice ‘keeper.
“As well as lifting the FA Cup back in May 1964, he’d also just won cricket’s County Championship with Worcestershire. Whenever they put Jim in the slips, he wouldn’t drop a catch and, likewise, if you put him between a set of goalposts he wouldn’t drop a football either because he was just so reliable.
“That trip to Belgium had already been an adventure in itself because we’d got the train down to Dover, where we then crossed the English Channel by ferry to Ostend before being bussed into Gent.
“I’ve never been the best traveller in the world and I really didn’t like going on boats because I always felt so sea-sick,” confides the 79-year-old. “Just imagine David Moyes telling tonight’s team: ‘Right lads, we’re all going down to Dover to catch a ferry!’ But that’s what it was like back then.”
That inaugural Cup Winners’ Cup tie in Gent had been West Ham United’s first-ever competitive match against continental opposition and, with Ronnie Boyce’s header securing victory, Greenwood’s gang now brought their hard-fought one-goal advantage into the Upton Park return – yet another contest that Dickie typically expected to be watching from the Boleyn Ground players’ pen.
“As soon I got into the Blackwell Tunnel that afternoon, I hit a wall of traffic because two articulated lorries had managed to get wedged together on a bend,” sighs Alan. “Then, by the time I came out on the other side, the delay had meant that the Barking Road was now totally congested with both rush-hour and football traffic.
“Obviously, there were no mobile phones in those days and, when I finally pulled into the stadium car park at ten-past-seven, our coach Ernie Gregory was waving frantically at me.
“‘Crikey, where have you been?’ he asked, with the kick-off just 20 minutes away. ‘Hurry up, son’ he continued. ‘Jim can’t play and you’re in tonight’s team!’
“Now, Ernie could pull off the odd wind-up but I immediately realised that he wasn’t joking this time around. I sprinted into the dressing room, where the lads were already changed. All of my kit was hanging up there on its peg and I quickly got ready before running out down the tunnel still feeling that steak and kidney pie bouncing up and down.
“Gantoise were a dogged team – we’d already seen that over at their place – and defending deep they just wanted to try and hit us on the break.
“Sure enough, on the half-hour mark, one of their strikers raced onto a long through-pass and, chasing back, Martin Peters stuck out one of his long legs and diverted the ball past me and in-off the far post.
“Traffic jams. Pies. Own-goals. Welcome to the world of European football!
“Thankfully, Johnny Byrne equalised just before half-time and – after the break – the game just petered out into a 1-1 draw that meant we were through to the second round, 2-1 on aggregate.
“Like I say, it was a night – and an afternoon - that I’ve never forgotten and, after that, Ron made sure that his entire first-team squad met at a hotel in Stratford a few hours before our matches.”
With Standen returning between the sticks for the rest of the campaign, that second-leg outing would prove to be Dickie’s only European appearance during a 1964/65 tournament that saw the Hammers famously go on and lift the Cup Winners’ Cup with a wonderful Wembley win over TSV Munich 1860, seven months later.
While Alan did not receive a winner’s medal for October’s 90-minute cameo, he did get an inscribed gold watch from the Club plus the gift of a specially-commissioned beer stein from the West Germans,
Later, the board of directors would mark the 50th anniversary with the presentation of a silver salver and, in 2021, Dickie was proudly in attendance at the unveiling of the Champions Statue commemorating that historic Hammers victory.
“I played in Europe for West Ham’s first team and no-one can ever take my memories away from me,” insists Alan, who eventually made 15 appearances down West Ham way after originally becoming the Club’s youngest-ever goalkeeper aged 18 years and 89 days. “There was a really great set of lads at West Ham. Everyone got along together and when you’ve got a good team spirit you’re normally getting good results.
“Growing up in south London I’d sent letters to my two local teams – Charlton Athletic and Millwall – but I only ever got a reply from the third Club that I’d written to…West Ham United. I went to my trial with the Hammers having not even played in goal for my school but I was tall and I just stood there shouting at the defenders and catching all the high balls coming into my penalty area. Fortunately, they signed me!
“Then in April 1962, Lawrie Leslie and Brian Rhodes were both injured and as third-choice, Ron put me in up at Bolton Wanderers, who had England ‘keeper Eddie Hopkinson in goal at the other end.
“We ended up losing 0-1 but after the game Eddie – who was about 5ft 8ins tall – came across and looked up towards me, saying: ‘Sonny, can I have a word?’ It was funny because I was 6ft 3ins and towering over him. ‘Our manager told the team that West Ham only had a young lad in goal so we should rough him up, send in loads of crosses and shoot on sight,’ he continued. ‘But no-one got the better of you, while you caught all the crosses and saved nearly all of the shots. Well done!’ It’d been really nice of Eddie to take the time to do that.
“Later on in my Hammers career, I also played well in a 1-1 draw at Anfield, where Ian St John and Roger Hunt were playing up-front for Liverpool and I’d made a few decent early saves. Running out for the second half, I looked up towards the Kop which was like one big red sky-scraper and was really chuffed when all the home fans generously gave me a big round of applause.
“As the years went on, though, everyone suddenly seemed to start leaving at around the same time and that successful West Ham team began to break up,” explains Dickie, who went on to join Jimmy Hill’s Coventry City in spring 1967 before then signing for Aldershot.
Failing to arrest his slide down the footballing pyramid, Alan then dramatically swapped his goalie’s cap for a policeman’s helmet, catching criminals not crosses.
“I’d often been invited to guest for the Bexley police cricket team after school because some of their players had been detained on duty elsewhere and couldn’t make it to the afternoon matches in time,” reveals Alan. “Looking at things from a schoolboy’s viewpoint, they seemed to be a decent set of lads and there was a certain spirit amongst them that made me think I’d like to join the force, one day.
“Of course, all kids want to be footballers but sadly if they don’t make it, they haven’t always got a Plan B. Remember, this was only 20-odd years after the Second World War and there were still signs of the damage done in the blitz all around the East End. Back in those days, we weren’t earning millions so the further you dropped through the leagues, then the less you were likely to get paid.
“Life has to go on and, when I look back now, my Plan B to join the police force was the best thing that I ever did. I ended up being seconded to the Coroner’s Office at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup where I helped people at inquests. I was the go-to person to support those who’d lost their loved ones in traumatic circumstances. Helping the family of, say, some back-street murder victim or a tragic road accident put a real perspective on things. Forget my reservations over that choppy ferry crossing to Ostend, this was real life and totally a world apart from football.”
These days, the steak and kidney pies may be smaller, while the Blackwall Tunnels are wider and the now-retired Dickie – beer in hand – can often be spotted at Blackheath Rugby Club, alongside his son and a former classmate.
But Association Football and West Ham United will always be close to his heart, too
“Memories are forever and I’m told that I’m the third-youngest ‘keeper – behind Neil Finn and Mervyn Day – ever to play for the Hammers,” concludes Alan signing-off with a deadpan, trademark smile. “And apparently, I’m also the Club’s third-oldest living goalie after Jim and Peter Shearing, albeit that’s a statistic you don’t really want to hear when you’re heading towards your 80th birthday!”
