|
|
Ernest (Ernie) Gregory was born in Stratford on 10th November 1921. Charlie Paynter, the manager of West Ham United, first saw Gregory playing as the goalkeeper for West Ham Boys against Preston Boys at the final of the English Boys Trophy at Upton Park.
Gregory signed for West Ham United in 1936. However, he continued to play for Leytonstone in the Isthmian League and helped his club win the league title in 1938 and 1939. During the Second World War Gregory served in the Royal Air Force. However, he still found time to play in 60 games for his club during the war.
He made his debut for West Ham United against Plymouth Argyle at Upton Park on 28th December 1946. The 17,000 crowd saw West Ham win the game 4-1. That season he played in nine games. At the time the West Ham squad included Charlie Bicknell, Norman Corbett, Ted Fenton, George Foreman, Archie Macaulay, Sam Small, and Dick Walker.
In the 1947-48 season Gregory played in all 42 league games. He got injured the following season but was ever present in the 1949-50 season. Charles Korr points out in his book, West Ham United: The Making of a Football Club (1986): "He gave the impression of solid imperturbability, although anyone standing close enough to the West Ham goal might have heard some rather colurful language."
In August 1950 Ted Fenton took over from Charlie Paynter as manager of West Ham United. Gregory claimed Fenton was responsible for several innovations: "We were the first team to eat steak before meals... We were told to put a ball between two players and you take two players out. John Bond and Noel Cantwell were the first of the overlapping full-backs... We used to train at Forest Gate skating rink - it was narrow, so you could practise working in tight situations."
At the time West Ham was in the Second Division and in his first season at the club he finished in 13th place. He did however, make two very good buys in Frank O'Farrell from Cork United and Malcolm Allison from Charlton Athletic. They joined a team that included Gregory, Dick Walker, Ken Tucker, Derek Parker and Harry Hooper.
Ernie Gregory was injured at Queen's Park Rangers in the first game of the 1951-52 season. He then missed the next 14 games. After his return to the first-team his form was so good that in 1952 he won an England "B" cap against France.
West Ham United continued to struggle in the Second Division and despite bringing in players like Jimmy Andrews and Dave Sexton the club finished 12th (1951-52), 14th (1952-53) and 13th (1953-54). It was the goalscoring of John Dick that helped West Ham finish in 8th place in the 1954-55 season. Dick scored 26 goals in 39 appearances that season. Other young players such as Malcolm Musgrove, John Bond, Ken Brown, Noel Cantwell and Andy Malcolm had also been promoted into the first-team.
Jim O'Halloran tells an interesting story about Gregory and Ted Hufton: "When I was a kid in the fifties Ernie Gregory was my hero. I waited outside the stadium after a match to get Ernie's signature . He had an old man with him and he said "You don't want my autograph son, you want his." Who is he?" I asked. "Ted Hufton the greatest goalie ever" said Ernie. It meant nothing to me and I persisted after Ernie's signature but he refused. Having never seen Hufton, in my books Ernie was the bees knees."
Ernie Gregory in action
West Ham United got off to poor start to the 1957-58 season. Ted Fenton decided he needed a new centre-forward. Vic Keeble was playing in the reserves at Newcastle United. Fenton, who had managed him at Colchester United, telephoned Keeble and said: "I'm coming up Saturday, I fancy you Vic, I could well put in a bid for you. I'll take a look at you, see how you do." Keeble scored two goals in the first 45 minutes and at half-time Fenton knocked on the window of the dressing-room and said: "Vic, don't play too well in the second-half, they won't let you go." After the game Fenton bought Keeble for £10,000.
Vic Keeble formed a great partnership with inside-left, John Dick. West Ham's full-back, John Bond, later pointed out: "We got something like nine points in 11 games in 1957-58, and then Ted Fenton bought Vic Keeble from Newcastle because he thought he could be good in the air, which he was. But what he didn't recognise was what a good target man Vic was. We could play balls from defence into Vic Keeble and he would hold them in to himself or knock them off. He brought Jackie Dick into the play a lot more... and made more use of the wingers in terms of crosses. And from there we lost three of the next 31 games."
As Vic Keeble himself explained: "I partnered John Dick and we clicked instantly, scoring 40 goals between us. I was really enjoying my football and grabbed a hat-trick in a 5-0 win against West Ham, two in 6-1 wins over Lincoln and Bristol Rovers, and further braces in a 6-2 victory over Swansea and 8-0 thumping of Rotherham United." John Cartwright commented: "Keeble and Dick were telepathic."
By the end of the season Vic Keeble had scored 23 goals in 32 league and cup games. Keeble's brilliant play was one of the main factors in West Ham United winning the Second Division title that year. They had been promoted to the First Division after a period of 26 years in the second tier. Malcolm Pyke, a West Ham teammate, commented: "Jack Dick was a great goalscorer, but when Vic Keeble came he turned us around - it was his goals that got us up." The defence had also played well and Gregory appeared in 37 league games.
West Ham United finished in 6th place in their first season back in the top division. Gregory was dropped after a 3-0 defeat against Birmingham City on 28th February, 1959. Now aged 38 he was coming up to retirement. The last of his 406 games was against Leeds United on 5th September 1959.
Gregory remained on the staff as the reserve team coach. He later was appointed as first-team coach with special responsibility for goalkeeping. He left West Ham United in May 1987 after spending over 50 years with the club.
Ernie Gregory : Statistics
Encyclopedia of Football
Early History of Football
Forum Debates
History of Football Project
History of Football: Course Outline
Women and Football
Black History and Football
(1) Michael Morton, interviewed by Iain Dale (28th April, 2008)
I am now 71 and my dad started taking me to watch the Hammers in about 1947/48. I lived in Forest Gate and from 48 onwards was a pupil at Plaistow Grammar School.
It was at about that time, during the summer holidays, that I looked out of my bedroom window and saw a group of 5 or 6 men in the garden next door. They were digging out a second world war air raid shelter, dug deep below the surface. When I took a closer look I suddenly began to recognise some of the men as regular first team players from WHU. I rushed down into the garden, jumped up on a box and had a close up view. The group included Dickie Walker, the then captain, Ernie Gregory, our long serving goalie and Ernie Devlin, who played as a full back. I can no longer remember who the others were, but they were all very friendly and enjoyed chatting with this very young supporter. This was an era when players wages were very low and almost non existent during the summer months, so they had to take on labouring work to keep the wolf from the door. How times have changed!
Educational Websites
Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, Active History, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20, Sintermeerten, ICT4LT |
News and Search
Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About
|
|
|
|
