The battle of Upton Park 25/10/1975
Top of the table clash for the teams and for the fans, Man Utd had just been promoted back to the 1st Division after a season down in the 2nd. During their season in the 2nd Division the Manchester United fans had got a reputation for causing trouble, although hooliganism was becoming pretty common all round, the United fans were getting the most publicity.
By October 1975 both West Ham and Man Utd were having good seasons but both's fans had been making a name for themselves so it was inevitable something would kick off.
The game itself ended 2-1 to the Hammers sending them top, but the press had other things to report on.
The 1975/76 was an odd season for West Ham, they hit the top spot several times and remained top 6 until mid February, but I guess this was the season where the old joke about West Ham "coming down with the Christmas lights" came about.
But the league form post Christmas was abysmal with just one win against QPR in January and a record of W 1, D 6, L 15, with only the early season form keeping us up.
Here's some newspaper cuttings of the day.
