Affinity with West Ham. How did it start?

I have always liked West Ham and to be fair I think we have had an affinity with them dating back to the late 60's.
A proper football club is West Ham (before the Brady bunch rolled in!). Proper fans also - never had any aggro with them.
I always look out for their result and unless they are playing us I hope then win.
 
Remember the ICF in the gap between the North Stand & Main Stand doing the hokey-cokey in about 84-85. Don't think away fans bothered with the seats until the ICF. Always found them very respectful about City & have been in plenty of the boozers around Upton Park & out towards Plaidstow without any incidents (although we were advised to give the Vic a swerve).
 
There might be West Ham fans of a certain age who respect our heritage, but let's not kid ourselves that their new breed share the same attitude.

Upton Park-1986-87: "You're the pride of Manchester"
Upton Park-2013-14: "Where were you when you were shit?"


It's a bit like comparing the Jim Tolmie game at Stamford Bridge with the half-h-half, touristy ambience of last season, following KDB's winner.

Also, having attended the 87 relegation match at West Ham, I've always taken it as gospel that City took around 5,000.
It's amazing how the memory plays tricks, because the attendance was less than 19,000
 
There might be West Ham fans of a certain age who respect our heritage, but let's not kid ourselves that their new breed share the same attitude.

Upton Park-1986-87: "You're the pride of Manchester"
Upton Park-2013-14: "Where were you when you were shit?"


It's a bit like comparing the Jim Tolmie game at Stamford Bridge with the half-h-half, touristy ambience of last season, following KDB's winner.

Also, having attended the 87 relegation match at West Ham, I've always taken it as gospel that City took around 5,000.
It's amazing how the memory plays tricks, because the attendance was less than 19,000
That match was at the end of the season before i started regularly watching City,home and away....Any City fans i spoke too claimed there were 5k fans in the away end..... but as you say the attendance was 18k ...and Westham season ticket holders i know from that era were always keen to point the true attendance out to me..ie there is no way City took 5k that day their away end ,which was barely a third of a behind the goal terrace,simply couldnt fit 5k in it!...WHU had far more than 13k for a home gate.....and they were,shall we say,very clear in pointing this out lol.

Its also worth remembering ,in addition to your westham at Upton park 2013/14 comment above,that the hammers fanned clapped and cheered us as Champions at the Etihad,at the last game of the season,under Pellegrini....i went straight on the piss after the game with a group of hammers i,d known for years.
 
Last edited:
I think it's helped in the modern day also by the fact that west ham fans, unlike some such as Aston Villa, Everton and of course Arsenal, never saw our rise to power as unfair and unjust (ie a threat from a previously mostly unconcerning club), at least from what I heard and saw.

A few clubs didn't like little city leapfrogging them post take over, nabbing their best players, and put a lot of their energy into denouncing us, whereas I think West Ham and Sunderland in particular always had that same city mindset of 'sh*t happens, oh well let's have a beer and we'll probably get beat again next week'

That and living in the shadow of mouthy more successful clubs for years, being told you're wrong or idiotic for not supporting the team that always wins.

That said I still want us to beat the gits this weekend! Noble is a snidey arse at times and need to show pellers how far we've come.
 
There might be West Ham fans of a certain age who respect our heritage, but let's not kid ourselves that their new breed share the same attitude.

Upton Park-1986-87: "You're the pride of Manchester"
Upton Park-2013-14: "Where were you when you were shit?"


It's a bit like comparing the Jim Tolmie game at Stamford Bridge with the half-h-half, touristy ambience of last season, following KDB's winner.

Also, having attended the 87 relegation match at West Ham, I've always taken it as gospel that City took around 5,000.
It's amazing how the memory plays tricks, because the attendance was less than 19,000
I would have thought there were about 5k Blues there that day, so would it not be possible there were 14k West Ham fans, or even (heaven forbid) the given attendance was officially lower than it really was? (Happened a lot in those days, ask my namesake)
 
I like West Ham as a club and they are a decent bunch of fans but jeez, can we stop patting them all on the head now ?... Or perhaps we should have a big love in saturday and sing James/Sit Down together. Let's see how friendly they are after we've just thrashed 6 past them.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.