1975 replica West Ham FA Cup final
programme actually signed by Billy Bonds, Billy Jennings and Alan Taylor
The score was West Ham United 2
Fulham 0
The FA Cup Final
Wembley Stadium
Saturday 3rd May
West Ham United won only 13 of their 42 League matches during the 1974-75 season, while Fulham averaged exactly a point a match in the Second Division. Yet, such is the fickleness of Cup fortune that, against all the odds, two moderate sides fought their way through to the 1975 FA Cup Final.
The Hammers had won the Cup once, 11 years earlier in a 3-2 thriller against Preston.
Fulham were appearing in their first Final and they had featured in an amazing 11 Cup matches en route to Wembley. They had needed three games to see off Hull City in the Third Round and four to get past Nottingham Forest in Round 4.
The 1975 Final was one abounding in personalities. Alec Stock and Ron Greenwood had already tasted Wembley success as managers - and Fulham could boast two former England captains in Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery.
Fulham looked to be the better side in an indifferent first half, with the ball rarely in either penalty area except when defenders passed nervously back to the goalkeepers.
Centre-half John Lacy went close with powerful headers from Jimmy Conway’s corner kick and Mullery’s free kick. At the other end Trevor Brooking’s volley from at least 30 yards soared high over the bar.
West Ham slowly but surely increased the pressure after the interval, making the breakthrough on the hour. Peter Mellor parried Bill Jennings’ awkwardly swerving shot and the rebound was gratefully slammed home from six yards by Alan Taylor, who had only joined “Hammers” six months earlier from Fourth Division Rochdale.
The Eastenders scored an almost identical goal just four minutes later. Mellor failed to make a clean catch from Graham Paddon’s hard shot and Taylor, the “Rochdale Whippet”, again put the ball in. In a very sporting Final, intelligently refereed by Pat Partridge, neither trainer had set foot on the pitch.
Team Details
West Ham United: Day, McDowell, Lampard, Bonds, Taylor T., Lock, Jennings, Paddon, Taylor A., Brooking, Holland
Goals: Taylor 60, 64
Fulham: Mellor, Cutbush, Fraser, Mullery, Lacy, Moore, Mitchell, Conway, Busby, Slough, Barrett |
