#50GreatestMatches - #23 West Ham United 7-0 Liverpool

West Ham United celebrates its 125th anniversary on 29 June – and as part of our celebrations we're counting down to the date with the Club’s #50GreatestMatches brought to you by Monster Energy!

Since the Hammers were formed as Thames Ironworks FC in 1895, we have played in excess of 5,500 matches – reaching five FA Cup finals - and one women's FA Cup final, lifting European silverware and competing across the globe and enjoying thousands of memorable moments.

With your help and recommendations, we've whittled down that list of 5,500 matches to a top 50, featuring landmark goals, trophies held aloft, heroic individual performances and remarkable collective efforts.

We continue the #50GreatestMatches countdown with a stunning win over Liverpool...

West Ham United's record against Liverpool over the years isn't one which makes for particularly pretty reading.

In 141 meetings between the clubs dating back to January 1901, the Hammers have only triumphed in 28 of them.

However, one of those 28 provided the east Londoners with one of their biggest-ever wins.

The Hammers began the 1930/31 Division One season with optimism, defeating Huddersfield Town 2-1 to kick the campaign off, and set up the visit of Liverpool on 1 September perfectly.

Any confidence Syd King's team had taken from their victory over the Terriers was certainly in evidence as they ran riot to overwhelm the Reds by a stunning 7-0 scoreline.

The prolific Vic Watson, fresh from a 50-goal season the previous year, was quickly into his stride again, following his opening day double against Huddersfield with a four-goal haul against Liverpool.
 

Embed from Getty Images

West Ham United's record goalscorer Vic Watson notched 326 times in Claret & Blue


And that wasn't all. Ably assisted by a two-goal blast from England international Stan Earle, and another from Wilf James, Liverpool simply had no answer.

The magnificent victory propelled West Ham right to the top of the early Division One table and had the Hammers looking forward to the season ahead.

Sadly, that was to be as good as it got that year - a 6-1 defeat to Aston Villa next time out brought them back down to earth and, hampered by a poor away record, they eventually finished 18th.

All that was in the future though as the Claret & Blue faithful celebrated a seven-goal win over Liverpool that would still be talked about generations later.

Don't miss our look back at game #22 tomorrow - our first Wembley triumph...