Author: neil

By Neil BackPage

When we were planning the Big Interview with Frank McAvennie, we settled on a strategy very early on (this is unusual for Graham, Martin BackPage and I): we wanted it all to be about West Ham’s 1985/86 season, the club’s best-ever top-flight finish and McAvennie’s first in England, 30 years on.

McAvennie talked as well as we hoped he would about that season. His transfer from St Mirren in the summer of 1985; the television blackout that made him virtually anonymous despite leading the league in goals – until he showed up with Denis Law on Terry Wogan’s chat show; his partnership with Tony Cottee; the forgotten craftmanship of Alan Devonshire; the fatherly guidance of John Lyall. But his description of the run-in that season had us re-reading the narrative. Listening to the tape for a second and third time, we were still piecing together the twists and turns and the anachronisms of the final days.

First of all, the protagonists. Liverpool, Everton and West Ham United. This in itself is peculiar, as it was another club, Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United, who had started in devastating style, winning 10 out of 10 league games at the start of the season. So complete was their collapse from that position, they were out of it by the end of February.

West Ham moved into contention at around that time – it was they who knocked United off their perch at the start of February, one of only two games they played that month due to the weather. That left them with a huge backlog of fixtures. They had five games in hand over Liverpool at one point. They would play eight games in March and nine in April.

Everton were the defending champions (with no European Cup campaign in the first year of the ban on English clubs) and had new signing Gary Lineker on his way to top scoring in the league and then the World Cup, for England. They entered the final days of the campaign at a disadvantage after a shock loss to Oxford United in an evening game on April 30.

Then there was Liverpool. In Kenny Dalglish’s first season as player-manager, their season was a mirror image of that of Manchester United. It ended with them taking 34 points from a possible 36 in their final 12 games.

Liverpool played their final game on Saturday, May 3, 1986. Everton and West Ham also played, with both teams scheduled to go head-to-head the following Monday to complete their schedules. At 3pm on the Saturday, all three had a shot at the title.

If Liverpool lost at Chelsea, who would finish sixth, then either Everton or West Ham would be champions with two wins in 48 hours. A draw at Stamford Bridge ended Everton’s hopes, but West Ham could still win the title. A win for Liverpool in London on the Saturday ended it there: Monday’s game became a shoot-out for second place.

McAvennie and Cottee both scored in a 3-2 win at West Brom. Everton destroyed Southampton 6-1. Fans of both teams were stuck to their radios for news from Stamford Bridge. And the news was not good. Dalglish scored the only goal of the game.

“We came off the pitch and we got told it was a draw at Stamford Bridge,” remembers McAvennie in the podcast. “Then we got told Kenny had scored. I’ve never seen so many grown men cry.

“I didn’t want to play on the Monday. All we needed was Chelsea to draw with Liverpool. We would have battered Everton on the Monday.”

It’s 30 years since West Ham United’s best-ever top-flight finish. That was Frank McAvennie’s first season in English football and it was packed full of the most incredible stories. They’re all here.

The television black-out that made the summer signing from St Mirren almost anonymous in London despite leading the scoring charts; the team meeting that forged Frank’s incredible partnership with Tony Cottee; the three-way fight for the title that would have gone down to the wire were it not for a certain Mr Dalglish; there are cameos from Terry Wogan and Denis Law; questions from Russell Brand; a special appreciation of a special man in John Lyall. And 30 years on, a sense of the impact those special seasons have on the footballers and fans who experience them.

What a player he was, and what stories Peter Beardsley has to tell us.

We spent two hours in his company in Newcastle, where he works as reserve team coach. He played for that club in two spells, once alongside Kevin Keegan and once under his charge. Two great teams, and Newcastle fans will love these stories. But there’s something here for fans of almost all the clubs he played for – and any lover of football who recalls, or has since seen, Peter at his defence-breaking best.

How a game against George Best led to that one-game Manchester United career; why Tino Asprilla was most certainly not the reason Newcastle blew the title in 1996; how he ended up cooking for Keegan in a flat above Harrod’s…. there’s much, much more in this extra-long interview.

I loved hearing Peter’s stories – let me know what you think.

And if you liked some of our listener’s questions and you’re not on the mailing list yet … what are you waiting for?

David Provan is the best co-commentator in football.

He’s been promoted within the Sky team time and again despite having no real name in England from his playing days – it’s all been done behind quick, insightful calls and a fierce commitment to this second career in media. Plenty here on life in the Premier League gantry – but also on his first career, as a talented and winning winger for Celtic and Scotland, and the illness that cut it short. All of you will recognise the voice, but only some will have known the player. It’s all here.

How does an elite middle distance runner become an elite footballer? How does a guy who can’t trap a ball become European Midfielder of the Year – twice? How does that player adapt his penalty technique to become – very nearly – perfect? Gaizka Mendieta says this: “My talent was learning. I wanted to learn.”
It’s the bedrock of his story but this also includes The Doors and Lou Reed, maybe the best under-21 tournament ever, maybe the best goal ever, maybe the best cup run ever – and loads more. I hope you like it.

I wanted to make sure you could watch this goal Gaizka scored in the Copa del Rey final of 1999. It is, I think, the best I have been present for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPoGnRObrNU

And in the podcast I link it to the name of Frank Worthington, who some of you may recall and some of you may not. This is the goal I was thinking about. You can make the call of which you like better on the podcast Twitter feed.