IN FOCUS: WEST HAM

Boreham Wood v West Ham
Monday 10 July 2023, 19:00
Meadow Park, Pre-Season Friendly

The Wood host European Champions West Ham at Meadow Park for our second pre-season friendly. With the 2023/24 Vanarama National League opening fixture less than a month away, Luke Garrard’s players look to gain fitness against a strong West Ham outfit.

IN FOCUS: WEST HAM UTD

“Thames Ironworks” were established in 1895 before changing to West Ham United Football Club in 1900 after reformation at the cub. The club played at the Boleyn Ground from 1904 and remained there for over a century, before moving to the now London Stadium in 2016.
The club adopted their claret and sky blue colour scheme in the early 1900s, with the most common iteration of a claret shirt with blue sleeves first emerging in 1904. The badge has two crossed hammers which have been a sign of the club since the early 1900’s, to remind where the club came from (Thames Ironworks) was founded by shipyard workers. The hammers were used for closing rivet up in the building of ships. The team initially competed in the Southern League and Western League before joining the Football League in 1919. They gained promotion to the top flight four years later, while also reaching the FA Cup final in the same year at Wembley. The Hammers have won the FA Cup three times (1964, 1975 and 1980) and have been runners-up in 1923 and 2006. The club have won two major European trophies, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965, and winning the Europa Conference League in 2023. They are one of eight clubs to have never fallen below the second tier of English football, with 65 of 97 seasons in the top flight. The highest league position was third place in 1985/86.

Three West Ham players were member of the 1966 World Cup final-winning England team: Captain Bobby Moore, as well as goal scorers Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. All three players came through the youth team before making the senior side. All three went on to make over 1,200 appearances for the club, becoming icons of both West Ham and England.

2022-23 LEAGUE/CUP SEASON REVIEW

After a high-flying 7th pace finish at the end of the 2021/22 season, the Irons had qualified for Europa Conference League play-offs, after narrowly missing out on a possible Europa League place.

However, the 22/23 season had its highs of European glory, to finishing only 6 points above the relegation zone. The season had it all. They ended on 40 points in the League, in 14th place, the lowest any side has finished whilst winning a major UEFA competition in the same year.

Despite this, it can be considered the club’s best campaign for decades as they retained Premier League status after a hard-fought season with many poor performances. Scoring was an issue throughout the season in the league, despite spending over £100 million on attacking players in the summer. Fortunately, their Player of the Season was the ever-reliable Declan Rice, who most consider as a world-class midfielder, after his consistence presence helped keep the Hammers up.

West Ham reached the 5th round of the FA Cup, losing to Manchester United 3-1.

They were knocked out in the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup to Blackburn after a 2-2 draw AET, they lost 9-10 on penalties which sent Rovers to the next round.

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

West Ham’s search for European silverware ended as the Hammers won the Europa Conference League beating Italian side Fiorentina with a Jarrod Bowen winner in the 90th minute. Their first trophy in Europe since 1964/65, it was the first time an English side has won the competition since its existence in 2021.

Having won 13 of a possible 14 games (one draw), they scored 33 goals during the campaign, with top goal scorer Michail Antonio with six.

After a semi-final exit in the Europa League the season before, three months later their Conference League journey began in Denmark with a 3-2 against Silkeborg. They won all six group games and went into the round-of-16 as group winners and faced Cypriot side AEK Larnaca FC, which finished 6-0 on aggregate. Quarterfinals was a 5-2 win to Gent across two legs, and then a 3-1 win against Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar which sent them to Prague to face Fiorentina.

West Ham’s Benrahma gave them the lead 2ith a 60th minute penalty, which gave them the lead for only 7 minutes. Then in the dying seconds, Bowen latched onto Lucas Paqueta’s pass and fired home the winner to secure their first piece of major silverware in 43 years.

SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW

As of 8 July 2023:
It’s been a quiet start to the transfer window for the Hammers with no new signings. However Arthur Masuaku has left the London Stadium with a permenant move to Turkish side Besiktas, while Manuel Lanzini has been confirmed that he is also leaving due to the conclusion of his contract.

IN THE DUGOUT: DAVID MOYES

As a player David Moyes made over 540 professional league appearances as a centre back during a playing career that spanned from 1980 to 1998. Moyes retired at Preston North End, where he began his coaching career. Moyes led Preston to the Division Two title in 1999-2000, and then the Division One play-off final the year after. From there, he had a successful 11-year period at Everton, where he achieved a 4th place finish in 2004-05. After a successful period in the hotseat at Goodison Park, he then succeeded Sir Alex Fergurson as the manager of world footballing giants Manchester United, although his time at Old Trafford was short lived with less than one-year with the Red Devils despite signing a six-year contract. Spells as manager of Real Socieded and Sunderland preceded Moyes being appointed as manager of West Ham in 2017, but he left after his contract wasn’t renewed at the end of the 2017-18 season. However, Moyes was later re-appointed in 2019 and has since cemented himself as one of the most successful managers in the Hammer’s history after recently leading his team to European glory by winning the UEFA Conference League with a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina in June 2023.

ONE TO WATCH: DANNY INGS

Danny Ings arrived at the club in January 2023 after a £15 million transfer from Aston Villa. The English forward has scored two goals in 17 games for the Irons but is known for his endless work rate on and off the ball. Having started his senior career at AFC Bournemouth in 2009, he made his name known in a four season spell at Burnley, with his fast pace and eye for goal, helped him play 122 games for the Clarets scoring 38 and get his big transfer to Liverpool in 2015. Sadly, injuries limited his game time to only 14 times in 4 seasons. He later signed for Southampton where he regained his scoring form averaging 0.51 goals a game. He then moved to Aston Villa for £25 million and played every game in the League in his first season while netting seven goals.

Hoping to keep injury-free this season, Ings is an ever-present threat that reminds defenders to stay alert when he’s around. His intelligence is second-to-none, he only needs a sight of goal to cause a threat

HAVEN’T WE MET BEFORE?

Tuesday 12 July 2022, Meadow Park
Boreham Wood 1-1 West Ham Utd

A star studded line-up arrived at Meadow Park with a host of international talent featuring in the Hammers squad, namely Darren Randolph, Issa Diop, Angelo Ogbonna, Saïd Benrahma and Manuel Lanzini, whilst England star Declan Rice was also in the crowd casting his eye over his West Ham teammates.

Saïd Benrahma fired the Irons in front with a well-placed free-kick midway through the first half, but defender Will Evans drew Wood level shortly after the break with a headed effort.

The match ebbed and flowed in the second half with both sides having opportunities to find a winner but neither side could make the breakthrough and the game ended 1-1.