Crucially netting four times in eleven outings down West Ham way, former West Ham United striker David Speedie helped Billy Bonds’ side secure promotion during a brief yet barnstorming loan spell towards the end of the 1992/93 campaign. On the day he celebrates his 63rd birthday, Speedie recalls his favourite moments in Claret and Blue...
Loan striker
I may only have been joining West Ham United on loan until the end of the season but I was determined to do everything I could to help the Club – sitting in second behind Newcastle United – secure automatic promotion into the Premier League.
I’d started 1992/93 as a Southampton player, but had since found myself on loan at West Bromwich Albion, where Ossie Ardiles would make us train until late into the afternoon.
Aged 33, I was physically knackered. It was a nightmare for me and I’d made my mind up that I was going to be leaving The Hawthorns regardless. Things weren’t much better at The Dell, where I’d left after being in, let’s say, a bit of a gunfight the O.K. Corral!
Alongside the likes of Kerry Dixon and Ken Monkou, for some reason the former Chelsea lads didn’t appear to be particularly welcome in the dressing room and there was a bit of a ‘them and us’ situation with some of the Saints players. Personally, I’d hated every minute of my time down on the South Coast and I always tell people that the two things that left Southampton never to return were the Titanic and David Speedie!
My March 1993 move to Upton Park had only become a possibility one Thursday evening and, with the paperwork hurriedly being completed with just a quarter-hour to spare the following morning, I went straight into Billy Bonds’ side to face seventh-placed Tranmere Rovers on Saturday afternoon.
Sitting in the Boleyn Ground dressing room before kick-off, assistant manager Harry Redknapp had simply told me: ‘Play the way you’ve always played and they’ll take you to your hearts.’
As a former Chelsea player who’d had many past battles against West Ham, though, I always knew that things wouldn’t necessarily go that smoothly!
Thrown to the Lions
With Trevor Morley being fouled twice, Julian Dicks fired home two penalties to give us a 2-0 victory over Tranmere.
No matter where I was playing throughout my career, I always made sure that I did a proper job for the people who I was working for. Now, I was a West Ham United player and, although I was sitting in the dressing room afterwards with ice-packs on both ankles following my debut, I’d been pleased with my contribution.
Looking around, there was a great set of lads at the Club. I may have gone eye-to-eye with a Hammers defence containing the likes of Tim Breacker and Dicksy in the past, but now I was on their side and we were all teammates together.
Following a narrow midweek loss at Oxford United (0-1), we then faced Millwall at a very hostile Upton Park. Having been at Stamford Bridge for five years, I knew all about the different London rivalries, but I’d always treated every match as a local derby game no matter who our opponents were!
We went 2-1 up before Millwall forced an equaliser with a quarter-hour remaining and, on what was widely regarded as a poor pitch, I missed two late chances that left us having to settle for a 2-2 draw.
The Hammers supporters were now booing me! But, to be honest, I’d taken stick from my own fans wherever I’d played and knew that I just had to keep working hard to try and win them back again.
Beneath it all, football supporters aren’t stupid and they know whether or not a player is trying their hardest and I was determined to carry on grafting so that I could turn those jeers back into cheers...
David at the double
Following a late victory at Birmingham City (2-1) we then lost at Southend United (0-1) in midweek before meeting Leicester City in a live TV match.
Following the late disappointment of that draw with Millwall, my next game at the Boleyn Ground now couldn’t have gone any better. With just eight minutes on the clock, Mark Robson set me up for my first-ever Hammers goal. And then fellow winger Kevin Keen made my second on the half-hour mark before scoring himself to give us a 3-0 victory.
Ironically, that game was, effectively, my interview for a subsequent end-of-season transfer to Brian Little’s Leicester!
Despite everything that I was doing during my loan spell at West Ham, Billy Bonds had already told me that the Club wouldn’t have the money to make any move from Southampton permanent. I’d really wanted to stay at Upton Park but the Hammers just couldn’t afford me and, after the game, my best mate in football Kev Smith telephoned. ‘Fancy a move to Filbert Street instead?’ he asked. ‘I know that Brian wants to sign you!’
Only the previous season, I’d won the decisive penalty in the Play-Off final at Wembley and [future Hammer] Mike Newell’s spot-kick had then secured Blackburn Rovers’ promotion to the top-flight at the expense of Leicester.
‘Are you trying to get me lynched, Smudge?’ I replied, knowing exactly how unhappy the Foxes fans had been just a year or so earlier. For now, though, I had my job to do for West Ham and, having just scored my first two goals for the Club, was concentrating on our final five matches of the season...
Braveheart
Although we then lost at Luton Town (0-2), we got back on track with a niggly 4-0 win over Brentford at Upton Park to leave us in third three points behind second-placed Portsmouth with just three games to play.
Not caring how big their defenders were, I got involved in a couple of tangles but, overall, was pleased that many observers reckoned that I’d done well in our hard-fought victory.
Next-up, we faced bottom-placed Bristol Rovers in another eventful match at the Boleyn Ground. Needing nothing but victory to avoid relegation, Rovers took the lead and, now facing the prospect of the Play-Offs and the possibility of another season in the second-tier, the worried West Ham fans certainly made their frustrations felt as the boos again rang around the stadium.
But when my cross was then handled, Julian Dicks equalised from the penalty-spot and, two minutes later, I gave us a 2-1 victory with a diving header that left me needing treatment. As a striker, I was good at headers and always kept my eyes on the ball whether that meant going up for the high, hanging ones or diving down into the defender’s studs.
And when Trevor Morley’s shot crashed back off the crossbar, I’d taken a boot in the head going in for the rebound and was out stone-cold for a few seconds. Then again, I was always prepared to go in where it hurts. Like I say, I always made sure that I did that proper job for the people who I was working for.
Inside the space of less than quarter-of-an-hour, I’d been jeered, I’d been cheered, I’d got injured and I’d scored, too. Looking back, those few minutes were probably a snapshot of my career at every club!
Full Speedo ahead!
Victory at fourth-placed Swindon Town (3-1) on the penultimate weekend of the season saw us go into our final match against Cambridge United level on points with Portsmouth, who were hosting Grimsby Town on the last day. We were ahead of Pompey on ‘Goals Scored’ by 79-78 and needing to maintain our one-goal advantage at the Boleyn Ground were still goalless at half-time.
Then, just after the break, I volleyed us into the lead and, although Portsmouth made it a nervy finish by taking a late 2-1 lead at Fratton Park, Clive Allen thankfully then made it 2-0. That 90th-minute goal led to wild celebrations as some of the 27,399 crowd surged onto the pitch. They couldn’t get back over the wall and the match somehow continued with supporters standing along the touchlines!
When the full-time whistle finally blew there was another invasion and, while it had been a brilliant afternoon for West Ham United, it was also a sad day for Cambridge. I never got relegated as a player and, although it was all about the entire 46 matches, it didn’t feel particularly good sending another team down to the third tier.
I did subsequently then join Leicester – and yes they did boo me at first! – but once again I turned those jeers to cheers by helping them into the Premier League via the Play-Offs. I won three successive promotions – Blackburn (1992), West Ham (1993) and Leicester (1994) and that was an amazing experience.
It’s my 63rd birthday today, 20 February, and nowadays I’m trying to play the odd round of golf while managing the pain in my creaking ankles. Back in early-December, I was invited to a dinner celebrating the 30th anniversary of West Ham’s 1992/93 success and, considering I only played eleven games for the Club it was amazing that they’d even asked me along.
It was great to see all the boys again and I reckon that the likes of Ian Bishop and Trevor Morley would’ve gone on well into the early hours. By the Saturday lunchtime, though, I was already back home in Yorkshire shopping in my local Asda, while some of those lads were probably still only getting up!
I got a great reception from everyone connected with West Ham United that night and, some three decades on, it was both a very humbling experience and absolutely unbelievable to think that it all happened nearly 30 years ago.
