West Ham v Aston Villa

The earliest generally accepted incarnation of West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) United was founded in 1895 as the Thames Ironworks works team by foreman and local league referee Dave Taylor and owner Arnold Hills and was announced in the Thames Ironworks Gazette of June 1895.

The team played on a strictly amateur basis for 1895 at least, with a team featuring a number of works employees including Thomas Freeman (ships fireman), Walter Parks (clerk), Johnny Stewart, Walter Tranter and James Lindsay (all boilermakers), William Chapman, George Sage, and William Chamberlain and apprentice riveter Charlie Dove.

The club, Thames Ironworks F.C. were the first ever winners of the West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) Charity Cup in 1895 contested by clubs in the locality, then won the London League in 1897. They turned professional in 1898 upon entering the Southern League Second Division, and were promoted to the First division at the first attempt. The following year they came second from bottom, but had established themselves as a fully fledged competitive team. They comfortably fended off the challenge of local rivals Fulham F.C. in a relegation play-off, 5-1 in late April 1900 and retained their First Division status.

The team initially played in full dark blue kits, as inspired by Mr. Hills, who had been a Oxford University "Blue", but changed the following season by adopting the sky blue shirts and white shorts combination worn through 1897 to 1899. In 1899 they acquired their now traditional home kit combination of claret shirts and sky blue sleeves in a wager involving Aston Villa F.C. players.

Following growing disputes over the running and financing of the club in June 1900 Thames Ironworks F.C. was wound up, then almost immediately relaunched on 5 July 1900 as West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) United F.C. with Syd King as their manager and future manager Charlie Paynter as his assistant. Because of the original "works team" roots and links (still represented upon the club badge), they are still known to this day as 'the Irons' or 'the Hammers' amongst fans and the media.

The reborn club continued to play their games at the Memorial Ground in Plaistow (funded by Arnold Hills) but moved to a pitch in the Upton Park area when the team officially severed ties with the company (losing their works provisioned offices in the process). After being made groundless in 1901 the team became transient, playing their home games on a number of local teams grounds. However, in 1904 the team moved to its current home of Upton Park in the guise of the Boleyn Ground stadium.

West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) Utd F.C. had joined the Western League for the 1901 season in addition to continuing playing in the Southern Division 1. In 1907 West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) were crowned the Western League Division 1B Champions, and then defeated 1A champions Fulham 1-0 to become the Western Leagues Overall Champions.

In 1919, still under King's leadership, West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) gained entrance to the Football League Second Division and were promoted to Division One in 1923, making the FA Cup final at the same time. The team enjoyed mixed success in Division 1 but retained their status for 10 years and reached an FA Cup semi final in 1927, 4 years later.

In 1932 the club was relegated to Division Two and long term custodian Sydney King was sacked after serving the club in the role of Manager for 32 years, and as a player from 1899 to 1903. He was replaced with his assistant manager Charlie Paynter who himself had been with West Ham in a number of roles since 1897 and who went on to serve the team in this role until 1950 for a total of 480 games.

The club spent most of the next 30 years in this division, first under Paynter and then later under the leadership of former player Ted Fenton. Fenton succeeded in getting the club once again promoted to the top level of English football in 1958 and in helping develop both the initial batch of future West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) stars and West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets)'s approach to the game.

Ron Greenwood was appointed as Fenton's successor in 1961 and he soon led the club to two major trophies, winning the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965. During the 1966 World Cup, an important part of the England national football team was composed of West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) players, including the captain, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters (who scored in the final), and Geoff Hurst, who scored the only ever hat-trick to-date in a World Cup final. After a difficult start to the 1974-75 season, Greenwood moved himself "upstairs" to become General Manager and without informing the board, appointed his assistant John Lyall to the role of Team manager. The result was instant success as the team went on an incredible goalscoring run hitting the net no fewer than 20 times in their first 4 games under the new Manager who then led them on to win the FA Cup in his first season.

Lyall then guided West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) to another European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1976, though the team lost the match 4-2 to Anderlecht. Greenwood's new role within the club lasted less than three years as he was appointed to manage England in the wake of Don Revie's resignation in 1977.

In 1978, the club were again relegated to Division Two but the board stuck by their manager and Lyall was able to lead West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) to another FA Cup win in 1980. No team since has won the trophy from outside the top division. They were promoted to Division One in 1981, having spent only 3 years in the lower league, although they were relegated after 8 seasons in 1989 This relegation resulted in John Lyall's sacking, in spite of the fact that this stay in Division One saw West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) achieve their highest ever placing in the top division, finishing 3rd in 1986.

Very briefly, they were led by Lou Macari, though he resigned after less than a single season in order to clear his name of allegations of illegal betting whilst manager of Swindon Town, and former player Billy Bonds was the next West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) manager in charge. In his first full season, 1990-91, West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) again secured promotion to Division One. The following season, 1991-92, they were relegated, to the newly christened Division One (formerly Division 2), missing out on the inaugural Premier league season. West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) again only spent one year in Division One, before finishing 2nd and gaining promotion to the Premier League in May 1993.

After a more stable season in the Premier League, Bonds acrimoniously and controversially quit, and was replaced by Harry Redknapp in August 1994. Redknapp was active in the transfer market, and gained a reputation as a "wheeler-dealer" especially with foreign players being more available following the Bosman ruling. He led West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) to 5th place in 1998/99 but they missed out on automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup (despite seasons prior to and since where 5th was good enough), but did indeed qualify for that competition as winners of the Intertoto Cup. Despite consolidating the league placings for a handful of seasons, a disagreement with the board of directors during the close of the 2000-01 season, found Redknapp replaced with Glenn Roeder, promoted from Youth team coach.

In Roeder's first season the team finished 7th (an improvement on Redknapp's last finish of 15th.), but there were worrying signs as West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) lost 7-1 to Blackburn and 5-0 and 5-1 to Everton and Chelsea respectively. The subsequent season started poorly and eventually resulted in relegation. Following ill-health and poor results, Roeder was sacked in August 2003 after only 3 games in charge in Division 1. Trevor Brooking (who served as manager during Glenn's ill health the previous season) stepped in as interim manager before being replaced with Alan Pardew in October 2003, headhunted from promotion rivals Reading. Pardew led the team to a playoff final, though they were beaten by Crystal Palace. The club stayed in Division One for another season, when they again reached the playoff final, but this time won and gained re-entry to the Premiership.

On their return to the Premiership, West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) finished in 9th place, restoring pride to many West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) supporters. The highlight of the 2005-06 season, however, was reaching the FA Cup final, and taking favourites Liverpool to a penalty shootout where they lost, but gained entry to the UEFA Cup as Liverpool had qualified for the Champions League through league position.

West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) completed a major coup by the end of the 2006 transfer window, after completing the signings of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano. The club was eventually bought by an Icelandic consortium, led by Eggert Magnússon in November 2006. Manager Alan Pardew was sacked after poor form during the season and was replaced by former Charlton manager Alan Curbishley.

The signings of Mascherano and Tévez were investigated by the Premier League, who were concerned that details regarding the transfers had been omitted from official records and the club was found guilty and in April 2007 fined 5.5 million pounds. However, the Club was lucky to avoid any points deduction which ended up being critical in their fight to avoid relegation at the end of the 2006/07 Season. Following on from this event, the Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan threatened legal action supported by other sides facing possible relegation, including Fulham and Sheffield Utd.

West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) ultimately escaped relegation by winning seven of their last nine games, including a 1-0 win over Arsenal, and on the last day of the season defeating newly crowned League Champions Manchester United 1-0 with a goal by Carlos Tevez to finish outside the relegation zone in 15th. The contribution of Carlos Tevez ended up being critical to the survival of the club in the Premiership as he scored seven goals, five of them crucial, in the last couple of months of the season to enable the team to stay up.

The signs after a dozen games of the 2007/08 season were that West Ham(Click here to buy West Ham tickets) would produce a more stable season in mid-table of the Premier League.

Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) Football Club were formed in March, 1874, by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Aston which is now part of Birmingham. The four founders of Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets)'s first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. As a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. Villa quickly became one of the best teams in the Midlands, winning their first honour, the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1880, under the captaincy of Scotsman George Ramsay.

The club won its first FA Cup in 1887 with captain Archie Hunter becoming one of the game's first household names. Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, with numerous League titles and FA Cup wins. In 1897, the year Villa won The Double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds. The name of Villa Park came about through fan usage and no official declaration was made that listed the name as Villa Park.

Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) won their sixth FA Cup in 1920, soon after though the club began a slow decline that led to Villa, at the time one of the most famous and successful clubs in world football, being relegated in 1936 for the first time to the Second Division. This was largely due to a dismal defensive record though as they conceded 110 goals, 7 of them coming from Arsenal's Ted Drake in an infamous 1–7 defeat at Villa Park. As with all English clubs, the Second World War brought about the loss of seven seasons, and several careers were brought to a premature end by the conflict. Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) went about rebuilding the team under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. Aston Villa's first trophy for 37 years came in the 1956–57 season which saw them go on an unexpected FA Cup run that would culminate in them defeating the 'Busby Babes' of Manchester United in the final. The team were relegated though two seasons later, in 1958–59, and a complacency had set in at Villa Park. This was soon vanquished though as Villa returned to the top flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions and the following season Villa won the inaugural League Cup.

The late 1960s saw a period of turmoil at the club with fan pressure leading to a takeover and managerial changes. This started with Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967. The following season the fans called for the board to resign as Villa finished 16th in the Second Division. With mounting debts and Villa lying at the bottom of Division Two, the board sacked Cummings (the manager brought in to replace Taylor), and within weeks the entire board resigned due to overwhelming pressure from fans. After much speculation, control of the club was bought by London financier Pat Matthews who also brought in Doug Ellis as chairman. New ownership though could not prevent Villa being relegated to the Third Division for the first time at the end of the 1969–70 season. In the 1971–72 season they returned to the Second Division as Champions with a record 70 points. In 1973 Ron Saunders was appointed manager and by 1977 he had taken them back into the First Division and Europe.

Villa were back amongst the elite and they continued to have much success under Saunders, winning the league in the 1980–81 season. To the surprise of commentators and fans, Saunders quit halfway through the 1981–82 season, after falling out with the chairman, with Villa in the quarter final of the European Cup. He was replaced by his softly-spoken assistant manager Tony Barton who guided them to 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. Villa remain to this day one of only four English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. This marked a pinnacle though and Villa declined for most of the 1980s culminating in relegation in 1987. This was followed by promotion the following year and second place in the football League in 1989.

Villa were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. For the rest of the nineties though Villa went through three different managers and their league positions were inconsistent, although they did win two League Cups. Villa reached the FA Cup final in 2000 (for the first time since 1957) but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. Once again Villa's league position began to fluctuate under several different managers and things came to a head in the summer of 2006 when David O'Leary left under acrimonious circumstances. Martin O'Neill soon arrived though to jubilant scenes. After 23 years as chairman and single biggest shareholder (approximately 38%), Doug Ellis finally decided to sell his stake in Aston Villa(Click here to buy Aston Villa tickets) to Randy Lerner, the owner of NFL franchise the Cleveland Browns.The arrival of a new owner and manager marked the start of a new period of optimism at Villa Park and sweeping changes occurred throughout the club including a new crest, a new kit sponsor and team changes in the summer of 2007.