1923 Cup Final

West Ham United was elected to the Second Division of the Football League after the First World War. The club decided to increase the admission price to 1 shilling (5p). Over 20,000 turned up to Upton Park to see the first league game against Lincoln City on 30 August 1919. The game ended up in a 1-1 draw.

The club finished in 7th place in the Second Division in the 1919-1920 season. The following season the club finished in 5th place. George Kay, the captain of West Ham, had been purchased from Bolton Wanderers for a fee of £100. A small group of young local players such as Syd Puddefoot, Jack Tresadern, Edward Hufton, Sid Bishop and Jimmy Ruffell had also arrived in the first-team.

Syd King, the manager of West Ham United also made some shrewd signings for small fees. This included Vic Watson from Wellingborough Town (£25), Billy Brown from Hetton (£25) and Jack Young from South Shields (£300).

The star of the side was Syd Puddefoot who had scored 107 goals in 194 games for the club. The team relied heavily on Puddefoot's goals and it was great shock to the fans when Syd King sold him to Falkirk for the British record fee of £5,000 in February 1925.

As the authors of the The Essential History of West Ham United (2000) pointed out that his departure "nearly caused a riot among Hammers fans". However, the club blamed Puddefoot in a statement issued after his transfer: "The departure of Syd Puddefoot came as no surprise to those intimately connected with him. It is an old saying that everyone has one chance in life to improve themselves and Syd Puddefoot is doing the right thing for himself in studying his future. We understand that he will be branching out in commercial circles in Falkirk and when his football days are over he will be assured of a nice little competency."

The truth of the matter was that Syd Puddefoot was very reluctant to move to Scotland to play for Falkirk. However, at this time footballers had little control over these matters. At the time of his departure, it looked like West Ham United would win promotion to the First Division. However, without their top goalscorer, the club lost five of their last seven games and finished in 4th place at the end of the 1921-22 season.

However, Syd King used the money wisely and purchased three talented players: Billy Henderson from Aberdare Athletic (£650), Dick Richards from Wolves (£300) and Billy Moore from Sunderland (£300). He was also convinced that the young Vic Watson would be even better than the departed Syd Puddefoot.

According to Jimmy Ruffell, it was trainer Charlie Paynter who decided on the team's tactics: "Syd King was a good manager. But he left a lot of the day-to-day stuff to our trainer Charlie Paynter. It was Charlie that most of us talked to about anything. Syd King was more about doing deals to get players to play for West Ham."

 

The West Ham team that played in the 1923 FA Cup Final. Back row (left to right):
Syd King (manager), Billy Henderson, Sid Bishop, George Kay, Edward Hufton,
Jack Young, Jack Tresadern, Charlie Paynter (trainer). Front row:
Dick Richards, Billy Brown, Vic Watson, Billy Moore, Jimmy Ruffell.

 

The new line-up took a while to settle down at the start to the 1921-22 season, winning only three of their first fourteen games. This put them in 18th place and it looked like that the club had no chance of getting promotion that year.

The turning point came with a 1-0 victory over Clapton Orient on 18th November, 1921. West Ham won nine of their next eleven games. The forward line of Jimmy Ruffell, Billy Moore, Vic Watson, Billy Brown and Dick Richards began to click. As Ruffell pointed out: "West Ham were a good passing team. Most of the time you had an idea where men were or men would make themselves ready to get the ball from another player. I think we were one of the few clubs to really practice that. Then, with their good forward line, Vic Watson, Bill Moore and I was okay too, West Ham always had a chance at getting a goal."

West Ham United also beat Hull City 3-2 in the 1st Round of the FA Cup on 13th January, 1923. They faced Brighton & Hove Albion in the 2nd round. After a 1-1 draw they beat them 1-0 in the replay. This was followed by a 2-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle. However, they took three games before the eventually beat Southampton 1-0 on 19th March, to reach the semi-final for the first time in their history.

West Ham was also in good form in the league going on a 10 match unbeaten run since the start of the new year. This included a 6-0 victory on 15th February away from home against Leicester City, one of their main rivals for the championship. Notts County and Manchester United were also doing well that season so it appeared that four clubs were fighting for the two promotion places.

On 24th March, 1923, West Ham played Derby County in the semi-final of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge in front of a 50,000 crowd. Derby, who had not lost a goal so far in the competition was expected to win the game. George Kerr, a 17-year-old supporter who lived in Boleyn Road, was one of those who watched the game. "For the first few minutes the ball hardly left the Hammers' half. Then Hufton took a goal-kick straight down the middle. Watson trapped the ball then swung around hitting it out to the left about 10 yards ahead of Ruffell who took it in his stride and carried it about another 20 yards before he swung over a slightly lofted centre which Brown volleyed into the top left-hand corner of the net."

The goal by Billy Brown was followed by another one from Billy Moore. After ten minutes West Ham had a two goal lead. Further goals by Brown, Moore and Jimmy Ruffell gave the Hammers an easy 5-2 victory. The Stratford Express reported: "On Saturday we saw a team working together like a well-oiled machine, full of vitality in attack, confident in its methods, accurate in its execution and driving home its advantages to the full. The Derby defence was continually harassed by a forward line which would have tested the best defence in the country. There was method and precision in everything it did, and its deadly accuracy was confirmed by the fact on five occasions it beat a defence which in the previous four rounds had not given away a goal."

The Daily Mail argued that: "West Ham have never played finer football. It was intelligent, it was clever, and it was dashing. They were quick, they dribbled and swerved, and passed and ran as if the ball was to them a thing of life and obedient to their wishes. They were the master tacticians, and it was by their tactics that they gained... Every man always seemed to be in his place, and the manner in which the ball was flashed from player to player - often without the man who parted from it taking the trouble to look - but with the assistance that his colleague was where he ought to be - suggested the well-assembled parts of a machine, all of which were in perfect working order."

The prospect of playing their first FA Cup Final did not damage their league form. A week later West Ham United beat Crystal Palace 5-1 with Vic Watson scoring four of the goals. They followed this with a 5-2 win over Bury. There were also wins against Hull City (3-0) and Fulham (2-0). However, with the title in their grasp, pre-cup nerves set in and the club lost games against Barnsley and Notts County in the weeks preceding the final that was to be the first to be held at the Empire Stadium at Wembley.

The new stadium had just been built by Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1923. It was originally intended to be demolished at the end of the Exhibition. However, it was later decided to keep the building to host football matches. The first match was to be the 1923 Cup Final and it was only completed four days before the game was due to take place.

Bolton Wanderers was a First Division side and was strong favourites to win the game. The team included players such as Joe Smith, Billy Jennings, Jimmy Seddon, John Reid Smith, David Jack, Billy Butler, Walter Rowley, Ted Vizard, Harry Nuttall, Dick Pym, Alex Finney and Bob Haworth.

As Brian Belton pointed out in The Lads of 1923 (2006): "Syd King had become the focus of an unprecedented level of media exposure during the build up for the Cup final as journalists grew ever more preoccupied with the Hammers' bargain priced team. The eleven selected to contest the biggest match in the club's history had cost a mere £2,025. So by 1923, what would become West Ham's reputation for succeeding without spending was already well established. But even by the Hammers' standards, the line-up for the Cup final that year was something of a bargain eleven. Only six of the players on show had cost more than £50. The sale of Puddefoot for £5,000 the previous season puts this in perspective. In contrast, Bolton, whilst not an expensive side to put together, were a team with pedigree, worth at least as much as any side in the world."

 

Left to right: Jimmy Seddon, Dick Pym, Walter Rowley, Alex Finney, Billy Jennings,
David Jack, Ted Vizard, Harry Nuttall, John Reid Smith, Bob Haworth, Billy Butler & Joe Smith.

 

To Syd King, promotion to the First Division was the most important objective and he consistently played his strongest team in the league, giving no one a rest. As a result, West Ham also had injury problems and Jimmy Ruffell, Edward Hufton, Vic Watson and Jack Young all faced fitness tests on the morning of the final.

The Empire Stadium had a capacity of 125,000 and so the Football Association did not consider making it an all-ticket match. After all, both teams only had an average attendance of around 20,000 for league games. However, it was rare for a club from London to make the final of the FA Cup and supporters of other clubs in the city saw it as a North v South game.

Jimmy Ruffell commented that getting to the FA Cup Final was very important to the people living in the area: "It seemed like the most wonderful thing anyone had done as far as anything to do with West Ham was concerned... It was a hard time for most people around the East End. That was the best thing about it really; giving people, kids, something to smile about." It has to be remembered that in the 1920s an average of 150 Britons died every day as a consequence of malnutrition. A significant percentage of these people lived in the East End of London.

 

West Ham fans arriving at Wembley Stadium.

 

George Kerr, who provided such a vivid description of the semi-final victory over Derby County, was also determined to see the final. "I booked my seat on a London General Omnibus... It was scheduled to leave Barking at 11 a.m. but actually left at 11.30 a.m. But who cared? With a 3 p.m. kick-off there was no worry, or so we thought... When we were about two or three miles away from the stadium we suffered a shock. We were told by some coming away from the stadium that it was no good going on because the gates were closed, but we pressed on. The buses finally stopped about three-quarters of a mile away from the stadium which was about as close as they could get." Kerr refused to be beaten and decided to finish the journey by foot.

Jim Belton, who was a passionate West Ham fan, found the the sight of Wembley Stadium awe inspiring: "It was such a size! From the outside it was like a great big castle. For us it was one of the wonders of the world. People were standing still about a mile from Wembley and just staring at it. Some groups were lost for words."

William Godbold, the Mayor of West Ham, arrived early for the game but still had trouble getting to his seat: "The whole thing was a muddle. That was to be observed at the very outset, because there were not police outside the turnstiles. The police were inside and I have it officially that only 200 police had been employed to deal with the crowd."

The Bolton Evening News reported: "It is computed that fully 250,000 people made their way to the imposing and spacious ground form all parts of the Empire, all anxious to see the blue riband of the football world decided. About 60,000 people had passed inside the turnstiles when pandemonium broke loose. One of the main exits was broken down and thousands of people surged inside the enclosure, and from that moment the situation showed signs of getting out of hand. People scaled high walls and clambered into seats for which others had paid. Such was the pressure on the ringside fences that they gave way. The crowd rushed across the large cinder track which encircles the playing pitch, and in an incredibly short time the beautiful greensward was occupied by a black uncontrollable mass. The police, apparently taken by surprise, were for a time powerless to deal with the situation and even after more officers, mounted and on foot, had been rushed to the ground, the task of clearing the playing pitch was a tediously slow process."

At 1.45 pm instructions were given for all gates to be closed.