Sixty years on from one of the most iconic nights in West Ham United’s history, Brian Dear returns to Wembley.
The Hammers’ top goalscorer from that famous European Cup Winners' Cup campaign is back at the venue of a match he will never forget. While the stadium itself has been replaced, the memories have not. And there is a statue of his captain and friend outside.
In 1965, West Ham United became just the second English side to lift a European trophy. The Hammers had already won the FA Cup the year before, and within 12 months, three of their own would lift the biggest prize in football. For three unforgettable years, the Academy of Football showed the world what they could do.
Dear, known as ‘Stag’ to his teammates, was right at the heart of it… Eventually.
With over three quarters of the season done, Dear still had not made an appearance that season in Claret and Blue. No subs back then. You waited your turn. And when it came, you had to take it. Just three days before their quarter-final tie first leg against Swiss Cup holders Lausanne, after not featuring all season, it was suddenly Dear’s responsibility to lead the line. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“Ron [Greenwood] pulled me aside before a league game against Sunderland and said, ‘I’m playing you tomorrow.’ We lost 3-2, but I got both goals. Next thing I know, he’s asking if I’ve got a passport!”
“It was for our quarter-final against Lausanne, I said ‘I ain’t coming if I ain’t playing!’ He replied, just be there in the morning to get the coach. And from then on I played every game.”
“Eddie Bovington had broken his kneecap, so Martin [Peters] went back to a halfback where he normally played. So then it was Johnny Sissons, me, Geoff [Hurst], Ronnie Boyce and Alan Sealey up top.
“I scored early on in the first leg of the quarter final. And I got two back at home. And one of them, in the paper it said, Dear scores from an angle that will baffle a scientist. I hooked it from like the dead ball line!”
Dear went on to score ten times in ten league appearances including a record breaking five goals in 20 minutes against West Bromwich Albion. After scoring an 89th-minute winner against Lausanne at Upton Park, Dear and the Boleyn Boys hosted Real Zaragoza in the semi-finals.
“We then played the Spanish team. And I scored early on in that too! Johnny Byrne then made it 2-0. But they nicked an away goal in the second half. They were a tough side. They had a forward line called ‘Los Cinco Magnificos’. Every one of them was in the Spanish national side. And it was a horrible place to go to. It was right in the middle of Spain.”
After cruising into a 2-0 lead in the first leg, the Hammers were then trailing at half-time in Zaragoza in the second leg. By virtue of away goals, Bobby Moore’s Irons were on their way out at the second-to-last hurdle.
“We were really struggling. In the second half, I was in the middle of the field and someone played the ball to me, I knocked it forward to Sissons. He went flying through and scored to make it 2-2. So now we’re back in front and with an away goal and we went through to the final.”
“It was an incredible run. Sealey got the goals in the final. I had one ruled out for offside that still looks good to me!”
“And then next year, of course, the boys got the World Cup. Martin, Sir Geoff, and Bobby, all West Ham boys. For three years, West Ham United was on top of the world. We were everywhere. And we were an all-English side. Nine of them homegrown. They didn’t cost a penny. When we signed pro, we got £20 each!”
Now, 60 years on, Brian Dear stands where he and the East End boys made history, where West Ham United showed Europe what the Academy of Football was all about.