Saturday, July 11

When Trevor Brooking walked on water…

Just added a chapter on the 1976 Cup Winners' Cup Final between West Ham and Anderlecht at the Heysel Stadium to the new print version of my 2012 e-book Flying So High: West Ham's Cup Finals. We actually scored a couple of very good goals with Patsy Holland latching on to a Billy Bonds header for the first and Trevor Brooking producing a great cross for Keith Robson to equalise with a superb diving header.

The game was also notable for probably the best shot of Tommy Taylor's career - a first time volley that the keeper just tipped away from the top corner. West Ham eventually lost 4-2, the likes of Keith Coleman, Tommy Taylor and John McDowell being undone by the brilliance of Rob Rensenbrink and Francois Van Der Elst (who was good, but never that good, when he signed for West Ham a number of years later).

Flying So High also covers the FA Cup Finals of 1923 (no, I wasn't there), 1964, 1975, 1980 and 2006, the League Cup Final of 1981, the Play-Off Final victories of 2005 and 2012 and the classic 1965 Cup Winners' Cup win at Wembley. Let's hope there might be another chapter to add after this season. Click on the link to read the Amazon reviews.

2 comments:

DC Iron said...

I remember that game. My mom wanted to watch coronation Street or some other rubbish so I had to go down the street And watch the game at a neighbors house. When Pat Holland scored I thought we were going to win it. I've never forgiven Anderlect since then

Pete May said...

Yes and at 2-2 looked like we might go on to win. Though we also failed to win in the final 16 league games of that season