West Ham 8 Newcastle 1 : Video special 38 years ago today | OneFootball

On 21 April 1986, exactly 38 years ago today, the scoreline read – West Ham 8 Newcastle 1.

Nobody who was at Upton Park for that 1986 clash, is likely to forget a very unusual match.

A top tier (Division One) match where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

Despite that West Ham 8 Newcastle 1 final scoreline, it was actually a (1985/86) season where NUFC didn’t do too bad, ending up 11th of 22 clubs.

On the Saturday (19 April), in their fifth last league game of the season, Newcastle had played at Stamford Bridge and picked up a very decent 1-1 draw in front of a crowd of 18,970, Chelsea going on to finish sixth in the table.

Myself and a couple of mates were at that Chelsea match and stayed down in London for the game at West Ham two days later on Monday 21 April.

A crowd of 24,735 at Upton Park (The Boleyn Ground), with the Hammers destined to finish third top.

Newcastle lined up as follows:

Martin Thomas, Chris Hedworth, John Anderson, Glenn Roeder, Neil McDonald, John Bailey, Paul Stephenson, David McCreery, Tony Cunningham, Peter Beardsley, Billy Whitehurst

Newcastle ended up using three different goalkeepers; Martin Thomas, then defender Chris Hedworth filled in when Thomas went off injured, before Hedworth himself got injured and Peter Beardsley went between the sticks.

The Hammers scored four goals in each half, Billy Whitehurst getting the Newcastle United consolation goal in the 74th minute with the home side already 5-0 up.

West Ham centre-back Alvin Martin famously scored a hat-trick that night – a goal against each of the three keepers!

Despite the horrendous scoreline, it is pure nostalgia and just look at the state of the pitch…didn’t seem to affect West ham too much though!

The now sadly departed Glenn Roeder scoring a comedy own goal, whilst possibly the worst display of NUFC goalkeeping ever seen, despite Hedworth and Beardsley doing their best in unaccustomed roles.

Final score: West Ham 8 Newcastle 1.

at St James Park the following Saturday.