West Ham and Me: My love affair with the East End’s finest

My name is Scott, and I am a lifelong West Ham fan. I have never seen us win a trophy of any consequence and have seen us relegated 3 times. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Like most people with the same addiction, I can’t really pinpoint the exact moment when it all started. Both my parents support West Ham, my dad coming from Canvey and my mum from near Romford. Both of them in the police, as uniformed officers they actually performed duties at the Boleyn. But my Granddad probably had the biggest impact on my love for football focusing on the boys in Claret and Blue.

My Granddad was actually a trainee at the club, before his national service. When he returned from Kenya, his friends and family convinced him that he should take a week or so off before going back. However when he went back to rejoin, they said his commitment to the club clearly wasn’t there and he should have come back immediately. Even years and years on, I have never seen such pain in such a simple story being told. But his love for the club remained, and he passed that on to his two sons, my mum and then me.

Whenever I used to stay over their house on the outskirts of East London, I would insist on watching the West Ham centenary video. This showed how the Thames Ironworks turned into the club we know today, and I loved it. My granddad would sit with me and tell me stories of the greats, how Moore could read the game, how Bonds would put his all into everything on the pitch and how Brooking just seemed to have the ball on a string. From then on I could never imagine supporting a different club.

First Game

My first live game was against Southampton, in April 1998. I was almost 7 years old and I remember thinking Upton Park was the biggest place I had ever been, I couldn’t imagine more people in a single space. I loved the atmosphere, the noise and the passion in general for the game.

As it happened we lost 4-2, but the experience is something that will stick with me. Fans kept going, the support was there even when down and I had an amazing time. Interacting with the other fans was amazing, with one particular fan standing out. After my dad guided us up to our seats, he was talking to the fans around us and one said he’d do his best to not swear too much in front of me. That didn’t last long at all, and it’s safe to say I learnt a lot of new words that day. But he did apologise to me every time he swore, so that’s something.

I loved every minute of it. Even though we never went ahead I don’t think I stopped grinning the whole day. Especially when I was up on my chair singing Bubbles, and “Stand up if you love West Ham”. I was hooked.

Low Point

There are two low points that really stick with me as a West Ham fan, one which is because it followed such a high and the other is more personal.

When we lost the 2006 FA Cup Final on penalties, I felt physically sick. The weeks of hype, the hope and the fact that glory was only minutes away meant I genuinely felt crushed. I still have no idea what your team winning a trophy really feels like (the Intertoto Cup does not count), and having come so close it felt further away than ever.

The personal one was when we lost big in the league, and I can’t remember who it was against but I think it was Everton. We lost 6-0 and I just couldn’t understand it. This was a team containing Di Canio, Sinclair, Lampard, Ferdinand and Berkovic. How could it happen. I was genuinely distraught, and I remember tearfully blaming my dad for making me support West Ham.

It seems stupid now, because that’s what being a real supporter is. If you haven’t come through real lows with your side you can’t appreciate the good for what they are. If your life as a Hammers fan has been easy, you’re either very young or you haven’t been paying attention.

High Points

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As I mentioned before, the best I felt as a Hammers fan was definitely in the build up, and for most of the 2006 FA Cup Final. It looked like we were about to break a 25 year drought and after being promoted to the Premier League the year before, it felt incredibly good. The season was optimistic, and even after the loss everyone was excited for the future. Then, like my dreams, it faded and died.

Two/three years ago we had a similar season. In the final year at Upton Park everything felt good. The atmosphere around the club was positive, forward looking. We had plans for the future and there was hope that we could build a squad and push onwards at the new stadium. But then that also faded and died as it came so close.

This summer also felt good and optimistic, but there’s a real tipping point now. It’s in danger of being lost and another summer passing by without any real change in outlook. I hope it doesn’t, and we can look back at this awful start as a blip at the start of the Pellegrini era.

Now, and the Future

Now it’s a lot harder for me to get to games, because I live in Melbourne, Australia. I still watch most games, at stupid o’clock in the morning, when it doesn’t interfere with family and work life, and there is a strong supporter presence out here. If there are fellow Melbourne Hammers reading this, get in contact with me and I will be heading along to official Melbourne Hammer meetups soon.

I can’t see me ever not loving West Ham, or having my weekend happiness not hinge upon their results. Once you have it, there’s no losing that connection with a club, and I will definitely be looking to come back and cheer my team on in person once again (once I have a set visa here in Aus).

I will always love the boys in Claret and Blue, wherever I am, whatever league they’re in and however they’re playing. Those who can, cheer them on, spur those players into action because we have amazing fans amongst us. Having met some foreign fans I can certainly say there are some in the ground who take it for granted that they have the game right there at their fingertips. Give it your all, and hopefully those on the pitch will learn to do so as well!