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West Ham - 2nd Division runners-up


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After all these years I finally got the story from a West Ham fan on Thursday who was actually at Upton Park whilst 200 miles away Redders was doing his magic with THAT pen!!!!

 

West Ham fans at the final whistle invaded the pitch and joyfully starting singing champions as it filtered throught that we were two down with no mention of the delayed KO.

 

The players eventually made their way to the directors section of the main stand looking slightly uncomfortable with all the singing as there were now well aware that our match was delayed.... this started to get throughto the crowd and the singing started to die down when it was suddenly announced that it was two all and that Oldham had a injury time penalty.

 

The trophy didn't actually make a public appearance, although the guy who told me the story admitted that they knew it had been engraved.

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The trophy didn't actually make a public appearance, although the guy who told me the story admitted that they knew it had been engraved.

 

The camera doesn't lie:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/224202...6807d61.jpg?v=0

 

Picture courtesy of the publication:

One Hundred Years

One Hundred Images

One Ground

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What a great story, i'd have loved to see all there faces on the pitch, "we are the champions" Oh s..t we're not, the jammy sods have just got a pen in the last minute. (priceless)

 

My dad wangled me and him into the ceremony dinner at the Civic Centre the day after that game and I remember seeing the trophy for me own eyes, complete with engraving. They had footage on a big screen with all the goals of the season too, weeks before that video was available.

 

Someone should do a write up for When Saturday Comes or something about that whole palarva. It's a fantastic football story, and we had some great rivalry with them during those couple of seasons when they were down in the 2nd division.

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We did have a bit of rivalry going with West Ham at the time. One of my favourite bits was Liam Brady talking about the up coming league cup semi final on Sportsnight. He was going on about how they were the big club with the quality players, and we were the under dogs and stuff............................................ then we go and beat them 6-0 at BP. Big club eh Brady!

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IIrc the stabbing was due to Mrs Morley catching him in bed with "another PERSON". (and another rumour was that Kendall got rid of Morley and Bishop from City due to an incident)

 

It prompted a good few songs:

 

"One Mrs Morley, there's only one Mrs Morley"

 

and

 

"Thank you very much for stabbing Morley, thank you very much, thank you very very very much"

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Someone should do a write up for When Saturday Comes or something about that whole palarva. It's a fantastic football story, and we had some great rivalry with them during those couple of seasons when they were down in the 2nd division.

 

If anyone does write it you are welcome to add my own particular angle to it. Firstly it was only half an hour after the game, going ballistic and still being in the Chaddy that I realised I had betting slips in my wallet worth £175+. I'd started with £5 ew at 8/1 at the start of the season and as the odds remined the same for several weeks kept having another couple of quid here and there. I even had some on the morning of the match as we were still odds against. That amount of money had been totally forgotten in the euphoria of that game and winning the league which I think says a lot.

Secondly you will remember the roof had been taken off the Chaddy in preparation for the demolition. My girlfriend and I therefore failed to hear the dulcet tones at Alan Hardy at half time (he never had the mike out of his mouth that year) and missed the announcements.

The following day my girlfriend's dad rang to say he'd met a mate in the pub on the saturday night who said was that your lass who won the £500 in the Starline draw this afternoon? Happy days, not so much the icing on the cake but the cherry, the flake and the hundreds and thousands as well.

(Redders pen was still the best bit!)

Edited by astottie
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:stretcher:

If anyone does write it you are welcome to add my own particular angle to it. Firstly it was only half an hour after the game, going ballistic and still being in the Chaddy that I realised I had betting slips in my wallet worth £175+. I'd started with £5 ew at 8/1 at the start of the season and as the odds remined the same for several weeks kept having another couple of quid here and there. I even had some on the morning of the match as we were still odds against. That amount of money had been totally forgotten in the euphoria of that game and winning the league which I think says a lot.

Secondly you will remember the roof had been taken off the Chaddy in preparation for the demolition. My girlfriend and I therefore failed to hear the dulcet tones at Alan Hardy at half time (he never had the mike out of his mouth that year) and missed the announcements.

The following day my girlfriend's dad rang to say he'd met a mate in the pub on the saturday night who said was that your lass who won the £500 in the Starline draw this afternoon? Happy days, not so much the icing on the cake but the cherry, the flake and the hundreds and thousands as well.

(Redders pen was still the best bit!)

 

The other great memories of that penalty for me were: -

 

Neil Adams swinging off Redders and flying into a supporter invading the pitch :stretcher: and a young lad with a pathetic owl suit on. :grin:

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I paid £25 for a ticket to that game - I was away from oldham at the time and turned up on the morning of the game with no ticket.

And it was for the Rocky Rd end with the Wednesday fans!

I think at least one of the sections ended up being mainly latics.

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I paid £25 for a ticket to that game - I was away from oldham at the time and turned up on the morning of the game with no ticket.

And it was for the Rocky Rd end with the Wednesday fans!

I think at least one of the sections ended up being mainly latics.

 

There were Wednesday fans in the Chaddy, who revealed themselves when they scored the first goal. A fight broke out and they were escorted to the RRE.

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You can see the real trophy with our name gloriously emblazoned all over it at the footy museum at Deepdale. It's free to get in too (well at least it used to be).

 

KtF,

 

Derek.

 

Do they let you touch it if you ask nicely? Having said that i did once nearly destroy the Stanley cup (it was probably a replica).

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i missed it all ......

 

still in the RAF at the time...

 

although i do remember listening to the radio for the scores coming in, when one of my mates who was a west ham fan taunted me saying that there was no point in listening, we had lost it, we were s..t (i remember that bit like it was yesterday!) and i should stop crying and follow the rest of the lads to the mess for some grub!!!

 

i waited that extra few mins, and then proceeded to yell at the top of my voice to the cockney spiv when i entered the mess, as once he saw me he was in mickey taking mode trying to show off!!

 

told him that he was talking through his harris and if we weren't champions i would buy every person in there a drink! (a few 100 or so!) he then began to take me very seriously and went white as a sheet and ran to the phone box (yes, we are all aware it were in the days before moby's!) to phone his dad! bless........

 

great days which alas i think we will never see again in such regular doses...

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A few years later I had a work colleague and friend who was a Notts County supporter, he was at the West Ham game where County won 2-1 and he told me about the crowd's euphoria followed by disbelief.

 

He always argued that County had made us champions. However as their record against West Ham and Latics was identical ie lost one won one, I maintained it was nothing to do with County.

Edited by laticsrblue
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