Cross powers into #50GreatestHammers list

Our #50GreatestHammers countdown, in association with Official Investment Partner Basset & Gold, reaches number 28…

David Cross

Years with West Ham United: 1977-82
Appearances: 224
Goals: 97

David Cross cost the Hammers a then-Club record £180,000 when they took him to east London from West Bromwich Albion – and it proved to be money well spent.

Cross would go on to feature in two major cup finals with the Club, help them win promotion back to the top flight, and forever earn a place in the hearts of the West Ham faithful.

Nicknamed ‘Psycho’ for his physical presence and forceful style, Cross would prove himself to be a menace to defenders throughout his time with the Hammers, scoring 97 goals in 224 games, including 33 in the promotion-winning 1980/81 season.

It wasn’t just Division Two that he was prolific in either – the following season saw the striker bag a further 19 strikes as West Ham announced their return to the top flight with a top-half finish.

His most famous day in Claret and Blue came early in that season, when he scored all four goals in a 4-0 rout of Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

David Cross

He also started the glorious 1980 FA Cup final victory against Arsenal, and played In both matches of the narrow League Cup final defeat to Liverpool a year later, when the Hammers were edged out after a replay.

Cross chalked up another record in October 1980, when he scored the Club’s first, and to date only, hat-trick in European competition in a 5-1 Cup Winners’ Cup victory against Castilla.

There were certainly plenty of successful days for the Lancastrian striker to reflect on when he moved on from the Boleyn Ground to join Manchester City in the summer of 1982.

He would later play for Vancouver Whitecaps, Oldham Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion again, but his feats in east London will always be remembered by those of a Claret & Blue persuasion.