favourite or best season youve seen us have

[SiamHammer]

Great thread, 10/10 for feel good factor!!

85/86 season for me. Was only 8 but went to every home game and a couple of aways that season, wicked kit and **** me had some of my favourite ever West Ham players:- Mark Ward, Billy Bonds, Tony Cottee, Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, the awesome Alan Devonshire, Alvin Martin, Frankie Mac, etc.

The Alvin Martin Hat-trick past 3 different keepers v Newcastle was the best/most exciting game I ever saw, especially loved the 3rd goal past Beardsley, 8-1 nice!

I used to love Mark Ward as a kid as I was playing right-wing for my under 9s side at that time, the funny thing is one of my pals that I play football with now in Thailand, John "Rhino" Ryan (who played for Newcastle & Sheffield Wednesday in the same era), was banged up with Ward in Oldham nick a few years back!

I've been West Ham mad ever since my first visit to Upton Park but that season was amazing!

[Chelmo Hammer]

Our home form in 01/02 was right up there as the best in Europe as I recall. Wasn't it something like 14 goals conceded at home - 5 of which in one game against Manchester United. Another season that I will remember fondly, but another that had a squad that promised so much yet ultimately fell apart.

[snail]

I have to go with 90/91.
Promotion, Ian Bishop playing the best football of his career, Ludo between the sticks, Mrs Morley stabbing Trev, and who could ever forget "Billy Bonds's Claret n Blue Army" reverberating around villa park.

[Hockley Hammer]

80-81 no question - both the best team I've seen and also favourite season.

Won the second division title with a record number of points - playing magnificent football.

Lyall, Bonds, Brooking, Devonshire etc.


Those truly were the Good Old Days.

Have to agree with that.

85-86 may have been special, but I was playing and having got married and had a daughter missed most of the season so only saw most of it on tv.

2005/06 was fantastic as well as it was unexpected.

Overall 1980-1981 for me. Loved the way we played football with Brooking and Devonshire - sheer brilliance.

[leyton Hammer]

Got to agree with everyone who chose 1980. I think we lost our 1st home game against Luton, then went 20+ games undefeated and played some superb football, Brooking, Bonds, Dev, Parkes et al, still my favorite line up, although twitch did have us playing some great stuff with Di canio, Cole, Sinclair, Kanoute etc

[Jumby]

I'm 29 so unfortunately 86 was too much of a blur for me! My fave season is a toss up between 93/94 and 97/98, purely because both were totally unexpected. I thought both seasons were going to be struggles and they weren't. Both seasons saw us play with really old fashioned centre forwards in Morley and Hartson and I remember sitting in the Centenary lower when Harston did Colin Hendry twice to put us 2 up against Blackburn and put us up into 6th, that day big John was on fire, a physical presence that arguably the toughest centre half in the league at that time, Colin Hendry, just couldn't handle, great to watch! Also that year Rio really caught they eye and even Manny got on the scoresheet (2 at Palace in a bizarre 3-3 draw!)

The 05/06 season was amazing too as it felt like our cup run was gripping the nation and that we, as a club, had made the FA Cup romantic again with the way we got there, Ashtons goal at Man City was just incredible, better than anything Bergkamp ever did, beautiful twinkle toed passing and then a finish that would scare the living **** out of any keeper. The heartbreak of that final will never leave me though, I hope one day I can see us win a major trophy!

[arlhe]

80/81 for me as well. Brooking and Devonshire in their pomp. Of course I had to go to both games v Luton Town. Mind you the 79/80 team was pretty much identical ( Goddard for Pearson?); I'm sure the FA cup run was reason we didn't go up a year earlier. In 80/81 we had it sewn up after winning at Swansea in January and didn't get knocked out of our stride by the league cup run.

I remember not being able to get a ticket for the S/F first leg at Coventry, going out for the evening, avoiding hearing the score, settling down to watch the highlights on telly, going mad when we went 2-0 up; only for the Mrs (who knew the score) to say 'I wouldn't get too excited...'. Mind you she was doing my ironing (and we're still married).

[Vince]

80-81 no question - both the best team I've seen and also favourite season.

Won the second division title with a record number of points - playing magnificent football.

Lyall, Bonds, Brooking, Devonshire etc.

Took mighty Liverpool to a League Cup Final replay, beating Spurs on the way in one of the great nights at Upton Park.

European Campaign and the drama of playing Castilla behind closed doors, and the best team ever seen at the Boleyn - Dinamo Tiblisi.

Those truly were the Good Old Days.

Tblisi was the 75-76 season mate.
For me that was the best season,travelling around Europe watching the team that year was an absolute blast.

[WCpete]

Tiblisi was '81

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Pii96CEk4

[arlhe]

I think it was Ararat Eravan in 75/6 and Tibilisi in 80/81. Best display I've ever seen from a visiting team at Upton Park and the first time I'd ever known the opposition get a standing ovation at the end of a game.


Tblisi was the 75-76 season mate.
For me that was the best season,travelling around Europe watching the team that year was an absolute blast.[/quote]

[WCpete]

75-76 for me. Just loved that team. Bonzo & Brooking, can't beat them. Loved the league. Loved the football. Was just at that age where your club becomes life or death. That FA Cup win was the first championship any team I had supported in my ten years had won, and it was one of the great thrills of my youth. Likewise the loss v Anderlecht left me utterly distraught beyond my comprehension at the time. It was all so bloody important.

[hawkins_hammer]

Pardew's first year in the Prem, culminating with the cup final was unbelievable...particularly when you bear in mind we had just spent two years watching dross in the Championship.

Harewood and Zamora were fantastic. Benayoun was magic. Gabbidon inspired and Etherington was comfortable in the Prem.
We did some ridiculous things that I had never seen before. 4 points off Arsenal, 4 points off Spurs, winning at Everton ffs!

Our confidence and our swagger was unreal. Reo-Coker, Anton, Hayden, Zamora etc. had zero fear and you could feel it. We bought Ashton, who decided he fancied a cup final and I needed pinching for much of that second half of the season. We were taught a couple of lessons by Man Utd, Chelsea, and Owen's Newcastle but you just knew we were onto bigger and better things, then Gerrard banged in that screamer


Other than that when we finished seventh under Roeder with unbelievable players and the young talent of Cole and Carrick starting to shine with Di Canio still being the football equivalent of sex.


And I know he divides opinion, but that first season under football under Zola was a joy to watch, with Parker in his element and the emergence of Cole, Collison and Noble as proper players - ruined by sellling Bellamy and Behrami's injury. Who could forget Tristan away at Stoke!!?!

[Vince]

Arlhe, you're right mate.....75/76 we got beat in the ECWC Final. I went so I should have known that !

[arlhe]

Arlhe, you're right mate.....75/76 we got beat in the ECWC Final. I went so I should have known that !

One of my life long regrets that I decided I didn't bunk off work for a couple of days to go to the final .

Bubbles choked off when Lampard slipped and let Van der Elst in...

I know Brooking was fantastic against Eintract Frankfurt but his performance against Eravan might even have been better.

75/76 against Man U is still my personal favourite league game. A winner Big Sam would have been proud of.

[sarge]

76/77 the away win at Highbury, and the final home game against Man U, somehow coming back from the dead, missing the penalty etc, still 2 of the best Hammers moments for me

[DaveWHU1964]

Two obvious ones and a not so obvious one.

86-86- I thought we were the best team in the league that year. Unlucky not to win it, but Liverpool were on a bloody mission! I'll never forget the games at home to the Mancs and Everton- amazing heart stopping, pride inducing stuff.

81-82- Best collection of players we're ever likely to have. Such entertainment to go with the dominance. And we always seemed to go a goal down before kick starting into action. There were good teams and players in that league too- I remember an Orient midfield of Stan Bowles, Peter Taylor and John Chiedozie pinging the ball around as if it was an exhibition match for the first five minutes in our game at at UP- we never got so much as a touch.

Finally, anyone for 92-93? We'd just been relegated and were typically skint. Bonzo bought in Mark Robson for nothing and Peter Butler for £175K from Southend reserves and the team unexpectedly gelled. Happy memories of Robson and Keen (in his best season) playing as a pair of out and out wingers and interchanging effortlessly. Add to that the drama of going up on the last day after two weeks earlier it had looked like Pompey were going to do it until they unexpectedly lost at Sunderland and we produced a great win at Hoddle's Swindon. There was just something about that side and season.

[richneal]

76/77 the away win at Highbury, and the final home game against Man U, somehow coming back from the dead, missing the penalty etc, still 2 of the best Hammers moments for me

The run-in that season was superb - good shout mate. Remember Sparrow's diving header from Geno's cross at the North Bank end of Highbury - we nicked a 3-2 win - an absolutely rip-roaring goalscoring match that is still one of the best West Ham performances I've ever seen. And as for Man Yoo for our last home game of the season, that's the night I found out what the sign that said 'Non-drying paint' meant - it was a bit snug in the ground that night, wasn't it?

Now, was 76/77 the season when Bob Latchford scored that 50-yard goal against Merv?

[Iron George]

I think you've got the right season but the wrong goalscorer

Pretty sure it was a geezer called Ronnie Goodlass rather than Bob Latchford ?

[Denbighammer]

As i am too young to remember either 80/81 or 85/86 I'll go for 95/96. A proper West Ham season, bottom of the league by Christmas, Dowie and Steve Jones upfront, calls for the managers head, eliminated from the FA Cup at home by a 4th division side - total despair. Then, a miracle. Terry Brown found about £7m down the back of his sofa, we signed Hartson, Kitson and the often forgotten Steve Lomas and everything just clicked. Fabulous victories against Chelsea (3-2) and Spuds (4-3) at Upton Park in the 2nd part of the the season and IIRC a thumping 5-1 over Sheff Wed on the last day to put a bit of icing on our cake.

95/96 was everything about being a West Ham supporter condensed into one season. Hope, despair, euphoria, same great games, being upset by lowly opponents and upsetting some bigger names ourselves. Great times. Set us up for a couple of good seasons under Redknapp afterwards too.

[ManInTheIronsMask.]

I've got good memories of 73/74 my first season. Bonzo took over as captain after the king left and inspired a great recovery from what looked like certain relegation. Great wins over Man U, Everton,Chelsea and champions Leeds ( one of only four defeats for them). The following season was pretty good as well. We won the cup and Chelsea went down. People choosing 75/76 must be remembering Europe. The league performances after Christmas that season were some of the worst I've seen. The 6-1 defeat at Arsenal was the one that stands out.