The weekend of 14-15 September 1957 was an important one in the history of West Ham United - although nobody at the Club would have known it at the time.
For it was that weekend, nearly seven decades ago, that Ron Greenwood and Bobby Moore first shared a training pitch.
Greenwood was the 35-year-old former Brentford, Chelsea and Fulham defender who had been appointed as the Football Association’s new coach for England’s youth team and was combining the role with that of manager of Metropolitan League club Eastbourne United.
Moore was the 16-year-old half-back who had joined West Ham’s recently-formed Academy of Football the previous year and had yet to sign his first professional contract.
The FA had selected 34 promising players to attend the National Recreation Centre at Lilleshall in Shropshire and Moore was one of the youngsters hoping to be selected for youth international matches against Spain, Holland and Romania to be played in the coming weeks.
Back then, a team of selectors picked the squad, rather than the coach or manager, but Greenwood’s input would likely have been sought, and Moore was one of those whose name was on the list.
However, in those days before substitutes, the young Hammer was not in Greenwood’s starting XI for the visit of Spain to St Andrew's Stadium in Birmingham on Thursday 26 September 1957. There, Crewe Alexandra’s David Jones scored a hat-trick in a 4-4 draw.
A week later, on Wednesday 2 October, Greenwood fielded a totally different team for the trip to Amsterdam’s Olympisch Stadion to face the Netherlands, and Moore was in it.
The London Evening News confirmed the news on Saturday 28 September: “Another Londoner ‘capped’ is Robert Moore, the Leyton boy who is an amateur with West Ham. Formerly an England schoolboy cricketer, Moore will play at centre-half.”
For the record, Moore’s first international teammates were Manchester United goalkeeper David Gaskell and winger Jimmy Elms, Doncaster Rovers’ Roger Collinson, Barnsley trio David Wright - who Greenwood named captain - David Barber and Frank Beaumont, Sheffield United winger Kevin Lewis, Mansfield attacker John Mitten, Southampton forward Peter Vine and Chelsea striker Barry Bridges.
Gaskell had been part of Manchester United’s team which defeated West Ham - without Moore - in the 1957 FA Youth Cup final, while Bridges lined up alongside Moore’s future England teammate and friend Jimmy Greaves for Chelsea in the 1958 final.
While Gaskell won the FA Cup with Manchester United in 1963 and Bridges was capped four times by England in 1965, neither would match the future achievements of Moore, who of course captained West Ham to FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup glory, then led England to FIFA World Cup glory in 1966.
Back to 2 October 1957 and things started inauspiciously for the Barking-born teenager as the Netherlands raced into a two-goal lead inside five minutes.
However, the Young Lions roared back to win 3-2, with Bridges among the goalscorers, and Moore’s England career made a winning start.
Greenwood would remain England youth coach until March 1958, capping Moore in nine of his eleven matches.
“I was magic that first night and I loved Ron for helping me,” Moore said. “Coming home on the plane, I grabbed the seat next to him and cross-questioned him wicked about football, football, football.
“For a long time it was the same. I followed him around like a puppy, being a pest to him, picking his brains.”
Moore would go on to make 18 youth appearances for England, matching the then-record set by Barber. His final cap saw him captain his country to a 4-2 win over Spain in front of over 53,000 fans at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid on 8 October 1958 - exactly a month after he had made his first-team debut for West Ham.
In the meantime, Greenwood had joined Arsenal as assistant manager to George Swindin in December 1957. He was promoted to coach England’s U23 side in May 1959 and capped Moore at that level in 1960 before he relinquished the role when he was appointed West Ham manager in April 1961.
“Ron told me one of his major reasons for coming to West Ham was that he knew he had me there to start building his team around,” Moore said later.
The duo would work together for the next 13 years through the most-successful period in West Ham’s history, with Greenwood continuing to select Moore on hundreds of occasions - and the first of them was on this day 68 years ago.
