Attendance: 22,605
Scorers: {United} Musgrove : {Town} Les Massie {2}, Bill McGarry, Jack Connor {2}
Ranked at the time: 119
When
Second Division Huddersfield failed to beat First Division West Ham at
Leeds road in their cup third round tie, there was a sense of
resignation among many of the Yorkshire faithful. It was just six years
since the then First Division Terriers had travelled to the then Second
Division Hammers and been well and truly stuffed 0-4 in one of the
darkest days in Huddersfield's cup history. Two years later Huddersfield
were relegated and two years after that West Ham promoted to complete
the role reversal. Bill Shankly was the man tasked with getting
Huddersfield back into the top flight at the dawn of the sixties.
With
promotion looking increasingly unlikely by November, the Scot
surprisingly resigned to take up the position as manager of Liverpool, a
side two points worse off in the division than Huddersfield, thanks to
Shankly's last game in charge being a 1-0 victory at Anfield. Eddie Boot
was placed in temporary charge and made a good start with just one
defeat in his first six games to keep the men from Leeds Road in fifth
spot, without making any impact on the wide gap between them and second
placed Cardiff.
West Ham thrived on the good
pitches of the closing weeks of 1959 to top the First Division in
November and their fans enjoyed the rare experience of talking about
being crowned Champions for the first time. Then the winter kicked in,
the pitches started to cut up and West Ham's polished game began to
suffer as they embarked on a slow tortuous journey down the First
Division table, only rarely interrupted by the occasional victory to
cheer along the way. By the time they boarded the train for
Huddersfield, they'd lost five of their last seven, with the manner of
some of the defeats being more worrying. They conceded five goals at
home to Burnley, six at Blackburn and seven at Sheffield Wednesday.
No
wonder Huddersfield fans were disappointed not to win a tie that many
earmarked on the day as a prime cupset. The replay was set for a wintry
afternoon in East London with a healthy midweek afternoon crowd bunking
off work or school early to catch the action. Most Londoners wished
they'd stayed at work as Huddersfield took a remarkable revenge for
their humiliation six years earlier.
West Ham
started positively with both Phil Woosnam and Malcolm Musgrove both
going close to opening the scoring but Huddersfield had a secret weapon
and it began to clearly pay dividends as the first half unfolded. Eddie
Boot had been in contact with a local rubber manufacturer that was
experimenting with a new rubber soled training boot. Boot, the manager,
issued the boots to his players to wear on the snow covered conditions
of the Boleyn Ground. As the West Ham players began slipping and sliding
all over the place, the sure footed Huddersfield men enjoyed their day.
Les Massie was first to profit and he plucked a
long ball out of he air and placed it past Ray Wood to open the scoring.
Bill McGarry soon made it two before Musgrove made amends for his
earlier miss by getting the Hammers back in the game. A crucial killer
goal from Massie on the stroke of half time knocked the resistance out
of the First Division side whose misery was compounded when Denis Law
laid on a fourth goal for Jack Connor two minutes into the second
period.
With the tie over as a contest, the
Huddersfield men enjoyed themselves at the expense of their tortured
opponents whose league defensive failings were coming back to haunt them
in this cup tie. Two further Huddersfield goals were chalked off before
Connor hit a deserved fifth. Back in Yorkshire they could barely
believe their ears to hear the result.
West Ham's
miserable season didn't improve and three more teams would put five past
them before the season was out with them finishing dangerously close to
relegation. Huddersfield meanwhile marched on to a fourth round tie at
the First Division basement club, Luton. The Hatters, cup finalists ten
months earlier, hadn't been out of the relegation zone since September
but yet again Huddersfield let their fans down in front of a home crowd.
A match widely tipped to see the Second Division
side win, ended with a rare and welcome single goal victory for the
First Division strugglers in a warm up for what would be a league
fixture next season. Eddie Boot's reward however was to land the
Huddersfield job on a permanent basis, keeping the club consistent
enough to finish sixth and show promise that they could issue a stronger
promotion push next season if they could hold on to the likes of the
young talents of Denis Law.
United: 1:Noel
Dwyer, 2:John Bond, 3:Noel Cantwell, 4:Andy Malcolm, 5:Ken Brown,
6:John Smith, 7:Mike Grice, 8:Phil Woosnam, 9:Harry Obeney, 10:Andy
Smillie, 11:Malcolm Musgrove
Town:
1:Ray Wood, 2:Brian Gibson, 3:Ray Wilson, 4:Bill McGarry, 5:Ken Taylor,
6:John Coddington, 7:Derek Hawksworth, 8:Jack Connor, 9:Denis Law,
10:Les Massie
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario