Continuing our series commemorating the 40th-anniversary of the Hammers highest-ever, top-flight finish, former West Ham United defender Steve Walford recalls the proud part he played in the Club’s record-breaking 1985/86 season...
A warm August wind blows gently along the Thames Estuary.
The sun is shining and, 40 years on, Steve Walford is in breezy mood as he reflects on the Club’s whirlwind 1985/86 campaign.
“I don’t think that anyone saw that great season coming,” insists the Essex-based, former defender who made 147 outings during his half-dozen years down West Ham way. “Something just clicked. It just happened.”
Certainly, Walford had gone the long way round when it came to pulling on the Claret & Blue – raised in Finsbury Park, he trained with the Hammers as a 12-year-old before the weekly East End expedition just became too time-consuming for the young schoolboy, who, ironically, ended up kicking-off his career with today’s opponents, Tottenham Hotspur.
“I enjoyed it at West Ham, but it was some journey to get to Upton Park and, whenever I needed to be at the Chadwell Heath training ground, it was even worse because I had to get the Green Line bus all the way down the Romford Road from Mile End. With all the changes and connections, everything took ages,” he explains. “Then, Spurs offered me the chance train with them and, as a local kid, it was just one, quick bus ride along the Seven Sisters Road.”
Becoming the 500th player to represent the Lilywhites in 1975, Steve made a couple of senior appearances at White Hart Lane, before crossing the north London divide to rejoin former Spurs boss turned Arsenal manager Terry Neill in 1977, ahead of moving to Ken Brown’s Norwich City four years later.
In July 1983, Walford winged his way back to the capital to join the Hammers from the Canaries in a £165,000 deal.
“West Ham’s chief scout Eddie Baily, who I’d known from Spurs, phoned to say that John Lyall wanted to sign me. Although my three kids were picking up Norfolk accents, I’d been enjoying life at Norwich but it was a great chance to come home to London,” continues Steve. “I was really excited as I walked into the Holiday Inn at Epping to meet them knowing I really wanted to sign for the Club, I’d left some 13 years earlier. Having seen me grow up at White Hart Lane, I got the impression it was the chief scout, not the manager, who was behind my transfer. After we’d shaken hands on the deal, out of John’s earshot, Eddie whispered: ‘Don’t let me down!’
“I’d always regarded myself as a centre-half but John told me that he was signing me as his left-back. I just wanted to come back and play for West Ham so I agreed to it. To be honest, I would’ve done anything just for the chance to sign for the Club.”
Certainly, 1983/84 saw Steve enjoy a fine, first season in which he found himself challenging for Europe all the way through until Easter before the wheels calamitously came off the West Ham wagon.
“We were top three in early March but then had some killer results and only won one of our last 12 matches,” grimaces Walford, who made a half-century of outings during an inaugural campaign in Hammers colours. “I’d mainly ended up playing centre-back anyway but injuries eventually took their toll and we ended up in ninth place, when we could so easily have qualified for Europe if we’d managed to keep going.”
After that spluttering end to what had for so long looked set to be a stand-out season, the Hammers then found themselves running on empty throughout 1984/85.
Indeed, Lyall’s lads only secured their top-flight status with victory at Ipswich Town (1-0) in their penultimate game of an underwhelming campaign.
“Putting my finger on what happened? Trevor Brooking had just retired, while Alan Devonshire – a top, top player – got badly injured, too. Both were big misses in my second season, when Paul Allen was probably one of the few people who played consistently well that year. In fact, ‘Ollie’ probably got his move to Spurs based on his personal performances.”
Certainly, there was little hint of what was to come during Walford’s third term at the Boleyn Ground.
“We’d even got beaten at Orient (1-3) in a friendly just before the season began,” he sighs, recounting a sorry start to 1985/86, when West Ham won just one of their opening seven league matches. “And our main forward Paul Goddard got injured in the first game up at Birmingham City (0-1), too. Alan Dickens came off the bench at St Andrew’s and Frank McAvennie moved up front from midfield to cover for ‘Sarge’.
“As they say: ‘The rest is history.’ Things worked out well!”
Yes, slowly yet surely, the Hammers started clicking into gear as they headed into early-autumn buoyed by the summer arrivals of McAvennie (St Mirren) and Mark Ward (Oldham Athletic).
“Frank went on to have one of those first seasons that come along for strikers every now and again. He couldn’t do anything wrong – everything Frank touched turned to gold. Wardie also brought energy and effort into the team and we quickly saw him delivering some fantastic crosses into the box for Frank and Tony Cottee.
“TC was another top, top goal-scorer and, while everyone remembers Frank’s 28 goals, don’t forget that Tony scored 26 times, too,” contends the 67-year-old, who later enjoyed a highly-successful coaching career as No2 to Martin O’Neill at the likes of Leicester City, Celtic and Republic of Ireland before swapping the dug-out for a deckchair.
“It was really good to link-up with Tony later in his career. By the time TC arrived at Leicester, he’d become an all-round player rather than just a goal-scorer. His footballing intelligence really shone through and he became more involved in the overall team play – as he got older, Tony just got better and better.
“Alan Devonshire had also returned from his terrible knee injury. Dev would admit that he wasn’t the same player after everything he’d gone through but – as a left back – it was brilliant having him right there in front of me.
“All I had to do was get the ball and give it to him. That was always the easy bit – the hard part came when Dev wasn’t on the pitch because you couldn’t always find the others who were supposedly playing in his position!
“Pre-season training had also been different and, as the weeks wore on, we felt the benefits of that, too,” reveals Walford. “When I first arrived, we’d pound our way around Epping Forest on long summer runs. John’s sessions were always tough but this time around we’d covered shorter distances and that helped us to last the pace across the entire year. Somehow, we went back to the longer stuff the following summer and look what happened to West Ham after that!”
Preferring instead to concentrate on the stellar season that saw several new, high-bars set along the way, Steve was ever-present during an 18-match record-breaking unbeaten, top-flight run that included a scorching-hot, nine-game winning streak and the personal milestone of his 100th appearance for the Club in a draw at Manchester City (2-2).
“Although we’d only won one of our opening seven matches, like I say, something just clicked and we found ourselves beating good sides like Nottingham Forest (4-2), Newcastle United (2-1) Aston Villa (4-1), Watford (2-1) and Everton (2-1). It’s not often during your career that you walk down the tunnel every Saturday afternoon thinking: ‘We’re going to win today.’
“To be fair, though, we’d a decent team but our run unluckily ended on Boxing Day at Tottenham (0-1), where Steve Perryman got the winner. And Steve never, ever scored!”
Going into early-February, with the Hammers in fifth, Walford’s own, ever-present 32-match league and cup run was brought to a sudden halt.
“I’d fallen ill so George Parris slotted into my left-back slot,” he continues. “And George did alright there. I got myself better but couldn’t get back into the side – these things happen in football.
“Back then, we only had one substitute and, as a full-back, I didn’t get onto the bench too often. Obviously, I wanted to be back playing and helping the lads to keep winning their games. It was a hard time and three defeats against Villa (1-2), Chelsea (1-2) and Forest (1-2) also ended up killing us.”
That said, ten victories in a dozen matches – including avenging wins over Chelsea (4-0) and Spurs (2-1) – had still kept West Ham in serious contention for the title going into the final Saturday of the season at West Bromwich Albion.
Three points for West Ham and a draw or defeat for Liverpool at Chelsea would have meant that Lyall’s men would then need to overcome third-place Everton to win the title in two days’ time.
“I didn’t go to The Hawthorns because I was playing for the reserves against Oxford United (4-3) at the Boleyn Ground that day but when we got back to the dressing room it was gutting to hear that, despite the first-team beating West Brom (3-2), Liverpool had won at Chelsea (1-0) to win the league.
“I travelled up to Goodison Park on the Monday night but having spent the past month or so playing catch-up with all the fixtures, the lads were flat out by then. The buzz had gone following Saturday’s results and Everton ended up nicking it (3-1) to take runners-up spot which was disappointing, too.
“Finishing third was the nearest I ever came to winning the league. Our small squad had a great season but we endured a sad ending,” concludes Steve, who still enjoys regular breakfast meet-ups on Southend’s seafront with fellow Boys of 86, Cottee and Geoff Pike. “It was so close and we could’ve done it but our third-place finish is still one that hasn’t been repeated. What a great time to have been at West Ham United…”
