51 years ago today...

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 29th August 2018

...Trevor Brooking made his first team debut for West Ham United in a 3-3 draw at Burnley's Turf Moor.

The club legend, who was recently voted by fans as West Ham's third favourite player of all time behind Bobby More and Billy Bonds, featured in a team alongside World Cup winners Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters as the two sides played out an entertaining six-goal thriller.

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Recalling the day itself, Brooking told KUMB.com: "It's a bit of a haze! But you always remember your debut. "I was really chuffed that we drew 3-3, and it was weird that they [Moore, Peters and Hurst] scored.

"Boycie played well; I think that I did okay, and certainly enjoyed it - it was a decent performance. It was a good result because Burnley at that particular time were probably, after the likes of Man Utd and Spurs, one of the big clubs of that era.

"It was a fairly tough place to get a result, so 3-3 was excellent. Although that tended to be the West Ham philosophy at the time which is something that has stuck all throughout my playing days; that we were quite capable of beating anyone on our day, but sometimes we lost to those that we shouldn't!"

Brooking, a wide-eyed 18-year-old teenage prospect at the time went on to make 643 appearances for the Hammers and score 102 goals before retiring as a pro in 1984, some 17 years later.

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A one-club man, bar the briefest of spells with non-league Newcastle Blue Star and Cork City, Brooking never looked like leaving West Ham bar one brief moment in 1972 when Brian Clough attempted to make an audacious double signing involving team mate Bobby Moore.

However it was a deal that Brooking confessed to knowing little about! "It never got to me; I know Bobby's agent, who did some work for me, and I was part of the deal," he said.

"Bobby and I were going to go - they just assumed I would go as a younger person. But as it happens, it was agreed at Board level and then got referred to Ron [Greenwood] - and Ron said no, because by then I was getting more confident and established.

"When you've got nine people that can play midfield it is not easy to play in your best position. As it happens Geoff Hurst started to get some back trouble at the time and most of my openings in the first few seasons were as a centre-forward."

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