We're on the march with Lyall's army...

Hard to believe that it was 40 years ago on Sunday that West Ham won the FA Cup — an actual trophy. Here's how I described it in my book Hammers in the Heart...

John Lyall hugs his men, Paul Allen collapses on to the turf, head in hands. Trevor Brooking jogs around the pitch like he’s mowing his lawn in Shenfield. Geoff Pike is wearing one of those eighties Hammers scarves, white with claret and blue stripes, and several players have donned claret and white caps.

And now Billy Bonds, this time clean-shaven, is making his way up the famous steps to the royal box, being patted and hugged by fans as he goes. He receives the gleaming old trophy from the Duchess of Kent and lifts it up to a huge roar. He’s followed by Frank Lampard, Ray Stewart, Geoff Pike, Alvin Martin and a blubbering Paul Allen. West Ham chairman Len Cearns casts a concerned paternal look at the boy, perhaps wondering if he should have told Paul’s mum that he wouldn’t be home until gone seven o’clock.

Then it’s the lap of honour, and the team photo with Alan Devonshire holding a claret and blue teddy bear. One last look at Wembley and then I leave to meet Steve Day and Steve Flory in a pre-arranged spot by a hot dog stall outside. We celebrate by heading for Trafalgar Square, where groups of Hammers fans are singing around the fountains. Then we really go wild by going to the new McDonald’s in Haymarket, followed by a tube ride to Upton Park and a homage to the Upton Park gates and then pints in the Boleyn pub. Every motorist on Green Street is sounding their horn; inside the pub someone has the idea — perhaps not approved by the Fire Brigade — of burning an Arsenal scarf in the centre of the lounge.

University finals be buggered. I got a ‘gentleman’s’ 2:2 anyway. That night, walking the two and a half miles back to my parents’ house in Great Warley, the only revision was the song going on in my head: “We’re on the march with Lyall’s army! We’ve all been to Wembley! And we really shook ’em up when we won the FA Cup! ’Cos West Ham is the greatest football team!”

West Ham Legends at Brentwood Live

Best part of the weekend was going to see 'West Ham Legends' Trevor Brooking, Julian Dicks, Frank McAvennie and Tony Gale at Brentwood Live on Friday night — a birthday present from Her Indoors. Brentwood Live is a strange venue, basically a sports hall with seats and not actually in Brentwood but Doddinghurst. But a £6 taxi trip from the station soon delivered Fraser and myself to the venue, where we found a thousand or so geezers in replica shirts and Camden Pale on draft.

Tony Gale was a fine compere for the evening, full of wit, delivering a surprisingly accurate impression of Sir Trevor Brooking and revealing that Trev once said a four-letter word on the golf course. Sir Trev stalked us through his FA Cup winning goal and said that although Ron Greenwood was a great coach John Lyall was a better man manager. Predictably he rather sat on the fence on possible replacements for Pellegrini, but did say that he thought Ajeti wasn't good enough. Dicksy added that the current side just doesn't work hard enough. Mention of Roberto inspired memories of Allen McKnight from Frank McAvennie.

There were lots of tales from the 1980s and 1990s. Frank McAvennie had a story of the players breaking a curfew in Amsterdam and John Lyall asking for £50 to be given to charity from every player who had sneaked out of the fire escape. Lyall was very surprised to find £1200 left on the table when he returned. There was also the story of Mitchell Thomas faking injury so that McAvennie could come on to score a hat-trick in his final West Ham game.

We had plenty of examples of footballers' banter. Tony Gale recalled the time Trevor Morley was in the treatment room after being stabbed by his wife and Julian Dicks had placed a series of knives in the anatomical skeleton on display. 

Dicksy remembered himself and Frank hitching a lift on a milk float during a cross country run under Billy Bonds; and also the time Billy Bonds wanted to fight him at half-time during a game at Coventry. Despite their differences though, Julian considered Bonds to be the best player he played alongside.

Everyone had massive respect for Bonzo and when asked by an audience member "Did Harry Redknapp stab Billy Bonds in the back?" Tony Gale replied that all he could say was that Billy was as honest as they come.

Tony Gale also revealed that the epic 1985-1986 season charge to third place was inspired by a pre-season defeat at Orient when a fan who looked like a member of the ICF broke into the dressing room and lambasted each player in turn. If that fan is still around then perhaps he could break into the dressing room again and deliver a few more ripostes to our underachieving side.

Overall a fine night of nostalgia from four players who still seem to enjoy each other's company. And what wouldn't we give to see these four back in the side today?

West Ham Legends hit Essex

Off to see West Ham Legends Trevor Brooking, Julian Dicks, Tony Gale and Frank McAvennie at Brentwood Live tonight and it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about the club's current plight. I'm sure Frank will put it all down to not visiting enough nightclubs and Trevor will (possibly) say something massively controversial. A full report will be forthcoming.

Bonds and Brooking get shirty

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Bonds and Brooking salute West Ham's new star signing from the blogosphere

Went along to the London Stadium Store today to see Sir Trevor Brooking and Billy Bonds at their signing to coincide with the new kit launch. In the queue was Tom from Erith, who recognised me as the author of the book Hammers in the Heart and said hello. We were all given numbered tickets in the queue. One punter asked what we would win, so a steward quipped, "This is West Ham, no one ever wins anything!"

After a long wait we were eventually ushered through to the top table. Trevor was sporting a pair of shades because of an eye infection, but both Bonzo and Brooking looked like they could still do a decent job for the Irons. Bonzo hadn't heard that Manuel Pellegrini had been mugged at gunpoint when I mentioned it, so me and Trev put him straight and Broking quipped that it would be good preparation for managing West Ham. Both men were very affable with the 400 or so fans and posed for myriad photos — including this one with me.

Trevor Brooking: My Life in Football

You don’t buy a Trevor Brooking autobiography for controversy. Brooking is such a decent man he doesn’t really want to offend anyone in the game. There are hints that he found his early career under Ron Greenwood frustrating (“Ron didn’t like to upset his big name players”), although Brooking also emphasises what a fantastic coach he thought Greenwood was.

Very little is mentioned about the boozy antics of the 1960s and 1970s players, with even Jimmy Greaves’ alcoholism described as “personal problems”. Though the normally tee-total Brooking was forced to have a whisky with Scottish centre back John Cushley to wet his baby’s head, and got so carried away he had a sip of champagne to celebrate getting to the 1976 Cup Winners’ Cup Final.

Similarly the chapters on his time as a director at West Ham don’t reveal very much new about the fall out between Billy Bonds and Harry Redknapp or why Redknapp was sacked. Though it's interesting that he is very clear that he had a major say in appointing Roy Hodgson as England boss instead of Redknapp and that he still believes Hodgson was the right choice.

The most interesting chapters are on Trevor’s spells managing West Ham. Here there’s a hint that a much steelier character lurks beneath his affable persona. He clearly finds Paolo Di Canio a bit of a prima donna, but realises his talent might keep West Ham up and so makes the trip to Chigwell to win him over. When Edouard Cisse throws his boots across the changing room after being substituted, “I laughed. I wasn’t too bothered about who I upset. I had nothing to lose. We needed to win and I had to do what I thought was right.”

When Sebastien Schemmel objects to being included in the squad for the final game when he’s already booked a ferry to France, Brooking says, “Non!” You feel Brooking might have made a good manager. As he writes: “I can be forthright and decisive when I need to be and years later as chairman of Sport England I think I surprised some important people by demonstrating that side of my nature on several occasions.”

My Life in Football often just repeats match facts without any deeper analysis, but it certainly brings back some great memories. Brooking’s goal for England in Hungary that lodged in the stanchion, a magnificent performance in Europe against Eintracht Frankfurt, that headed FA Cup Final winner against Arsenal and many a body shuffle and cross.

Brooking has some good points to make about the modern game; too few payers are comfortable receiving the ball sideways on and not enough players are two footed. Trevor’s policeman father made him practice for hours with both feet and that made him twice the player he might have been.

The book also reveals that he watched West Ham as a fan when he was a child and turned down interest from Liverpool to remain with the club after relegation. Such loyalty would be inconceivable today and rightly means that Sir Trevor remains a West Ham legend.

My Life in Football by Trevor Brooking is published by Simon and Schuster, price £20.