I shouldn’t support West Ham. I don’t have the generational and geographic pull many of our fans have. My family are from Limerick City in the west of Ireland, my mum and dad moved over to East London in the 1960’s, my army of cousins and uncles all supported Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal or Celtic but my Dad chose West Ham. Why? I have found myself asking that question a few times through the years, would it be easier supporting the other clubs? I honestly don’t know and I don’t care, it’s too late now, you can’t change it and despite it all, I wouldn’t want to.
14th March 1987 was a momentous day in my household, my first ever West Ham game, Liam Brady’s first game for the club. Brady is one of Ireland’s greatest ever players and my dad bought us two tickets to the main stand to see the Irishman’s debut. I can still remember walking down Green Street from the Bus stop and getting that swell of excitement in the pit of my stomach. There was only 21,000 there that day but to my 8-year-old eyes it seemed absolutely rammed, we walked up to our seats just as Steve Bruce opened the scoring for Norwich in the first minute. I should have run for the exit there and then but I was hooked and even though Norwich scored in the last minute of the game to complete a 2-0 win it didn’t matter, I was in.
From that day to this West Ham has been a massive part of my life, it has been a constant through births, marriages and deaths. I went and tied my scarf around the gates of Upton Park the day Bobby Moore died, I was stood on the terraces on 15th April 1989 when the news of the Hillsborough disaster filtered through, I listened to West Ham fans sing You’ll Never Walk Alone when the victims of the disaster finally got the justice they deserved over 25 years later. I have seen Bonds, Brady, Cole, Di Canio, Ferdinand, Ince, Payet, Tevez, Futre, equally I have seen Maiga, Zaza, Labant, McKnight. I have seen us get torn apart by Wigan in the Championship and I have seen us match Arsenal’s Invincibles, hammer the great Liverpool team of the 80’s, break Mourinho’s heart.
Saturday was a dark day no doubt, we are not united off the pitch and a shambles on it, but still we hope maybe next year, if we can just stay up, maybe maybe maybe. The club has changed beyond all recognition but the one constant is the fans and they are West Ham. We face eight huge games to survive in the Premier League and I want us to, but if we don’t I won’t love the club any less. We all have our reasons why we love West Ham and it’s at times like these we need to remember them.
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