We delve deep into The British Newspaper Archive to look at cuttings that shed light on West Ham United’s history...
Things looked decidedly bleak for West Ham United at the beginning of the 1971/72 season.
Ron Greenwood’s side lost their opening three First Division matches without scoring a goal to slump to the bottom of the 22-team table.
There was little to no sign that the Hammers’ fortunes would soon take a turn for the better, but they dramatically did.
A 4-2 First Division defeat at a Manchester United side managed by former West Ham player Frank O’Farrell in mid-September aside, the Irons would not lose any of their next 17 games in league and cup, keeping nine clean sheets.
The last of those 17 games saw Greenwood take his team across through the Blackwall Tunnel to south-east London, where they faced struggling Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday 30 October 1971.
Three days earlier, Geoff Hurst and Pop Robson had scored as West Ham came from a goal down to defeat Liverpool in the League Cup fourth round, with over 40,000 supporters filling the Boleyn Ground.
Confidence was high, therefore, but tempered somewhat by the absence of Hurst from the squad.
With his FA Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and FIFA World Cup winner unavailable, Greenwood took two of the Club’s promising young forwards as part of the travelling squad – 22-year-old Welshman David Llewellyn and 17-year-old Nigerian Ade Coker.
It was the younger, less-experienced Coker who was given the start, with Llewellyn named as the sole substitute. At the other end of the pitch, Peter Grotier kept goal with regular No1 Bobby Ferguson taken ill.
Showing no sign of nerves in the No9 shirt, teenager Coker repaid his manager’s faith within eight minutes, lashing West Ham into the lead when Harry Redknapp’s corner dropped to him off Palace’s Mel Blyth and silencing the vast majority of the 41,540 supporters inside Selhurst Park.
Billy Bonds made it two with a super header before setting up Clyde Best to make the final score 3-0. In between, Coker teased his marker John McCormick with quick feet and elusive dribbling skills that impressed newspaper reporters, television commentator Brian Moore and the great Hurst alike.
“He was told [he was starting] at about two o’clock when the team was announced, with Trevor and I not being certain,” Hurst told Moore on ITV’s The Big Match. “It was like he had seen a ghost, actually! He just sat there in disbelief for about ten minutes with his eyes wide open. He was aghast and it was rather funny!
“What a tremendous start to his league career after about three or four minutes, wasn’t it? He’s very quick and he took his goal quickly as well. It just bounced once and he took it very quickly in a crowded area. He’s got tremendous skill and is very, very sharp.”
The Daily Mirror’s Ken Jones agreed with Hurst’s assessment, writing: “There is no way in which we can ignore the talent and the confidence which makes this 17-year-old Nigerian an exciting prospect.
“He has already shown that he learns quickly. The talent is there – it is only strength that he needs now. A convincing left-foot volley taken in a crowded goalmouth was the highlight of his performance. But there was more to it than that. Coker moves intelligently. He’s sharp and, for a boy who is short in height, he has a lot to say for himself in the air.”
Jones also quoted assistant manager John Lyall as saying: “There was no pre-arranged plan. We had the two of them there (Llewellyn and Coker) and Ron decided to give Ade a game. It turned out to be the right decision.
“Ade plays easily in the system. He does things quickly and we had no fear of him being caught out. It’s a lot easier to take decisions like that when the team is playing well.”
Sadly for Greenwood, Lyall, Hurst, Coker and company, they would not play as well for the remainder of the 1971/72 season.
Victory at Crystal Palace took West Ham to ninth in the First Division table, but that was as good as it got, as they lost the next four top-flight matches to drop into the bottom half.
The inconsistent results continued over the second half of the season, with teenager Coker involved twice more in November before returning to the Academy of Football.
On 1 April 1972, still aged 17, Coker replaced Hurst again for another London derby, this time at home to Tottenham Hotspur. He hit the net again, scoring in a 2-0 First Division victory at the Boleyn Ground.
The game was historic for being the first British top-flight fixture in which three Black players started for the same team, as Coker was joined in Greenwood’s team by full-back John Charles and centre-forward Best.
Coker would make seven more first-team appearances, scoring in a home win over Leicester City in August 1972, before departing to play in the United States in 1975. He remained there for the remainder of his career and was capped five times by the US national team in 1984. Scoring a winner against Colombia.
Now aged 71, the Coker still lives in America, but keeps tabs on the Club he once starred for from afar.
