WEST Ham United visit the City of Manchester Stadium for the first
time on Sunday, to take on ex-Hammer Stuart Pearce's Manchester
City side.
The teams have met in the league on 74 previous occasions, with City just edging it 32 wins to 31.
In the Premiership however, the Hammers lead the line with five wins to three, and two 0-0 draws.
In November 2000, Man City took a first half lead at Upton Park, through Spencer Prior, but were eventually defeated 4-1. Steve Lomas, Trevor Sinclair, Ian Pearce and Paolo Di Canio claimed the goals.
A Tony Cottee hat-trick secured a 3-0 victory at Upton Park in 1994, and the last time the sides met, Freddie Kanoute snatched three valuable points in the final minute at Maine Road, as West Ham battled to avoid relegation.
The Hammers and City have only met twice in the cup, with one victory a-piece. The Sky Blues took the spoils in the League Cup in 1984, but West Ham advanced to the Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup, at the expense of the Lancashire side, in 1998.
Eyal Berkovic, who would later play for City, put the Hammers in the lead, but Georgiou Kinkladze equalised on the hour. Man City missed a penalty, then, old boy Lomas struck to put Harry Redknapp's side into the last eight.
West Ham have enjoyed some big victories over City in the past,
including
5-1 at Upton Park in 1959, and 5-3 at Maine Road two years
later.
Extraordinarily though, in the 1962/63 season, Hammers met Manchester City twice in the league and ran out 6-1 winners on both occasions. Malcolm Musgrove twice, Tony Scott, Johnny Byrne, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst netted for West Ham at Maine Road, and Hurst twice, Alan Sealey twice, Peter Brabrook and Ronnie Boyce scored at Upton Park on the final day of the season.
Boyce went on to score one of the most spectacular Hammers goals, at Maine Road, in 1970, during another free scoring outing for Ron Greenwood's team.
Hurst struck twice again in a 5-1 win. Jimmy Greaves, making his debut, claimed two goals, but the pick of the bunch that day went to Ronnie 'Ticker' Boyce.
City keeper Joe Corrigan drop kicked the ball out but Boyce returned it with interest on the full volley, just outside the centre circle, straight past the stranded goalkeeper and back into the net!