Escape to victory, West Ham style

Steve Maltz

Sunday 4th March, Upton Park, just before 6pm. A 3-2 lead became a 4-3 loss in the last six minutes of the game. West Ham were dead in the water. Just nine games to go, ten points from safety, with bookies offering 66-1 odds for relegation, as near a certainty as can be imagined.

Sunday 13th May, Old Trafford, just before 6pm. After being battered and overplayed by the League Champions, West Ham scored against the run of play and tabled their best results against Manchester United for 30 years! On current form West Ham were statistically the best side in the country, with seven wins out of their final nine games.

There's a good chance that this article is going to needle many of you who live north of Watford, west of the Aldgate pump and just about everywhere else, wherever back pages are read. Why would that be? Why would one highly respected football columnist declare that for the good of the game West Ham must be divorced from the Premiership, while another encouraged folk to cast an evil eye over the team! Such vitriol, such venom, over a team that had been traditionally cast as many fan's favourite "other" team.

The heart of this mystery is the controversy over two Argentinian players apparently acquired in an illegal manner by the previous administration of the club. An independent court declared that a record fine would have to be paid for this misdemeanour, a verdict accepted by the club, despite the new chairman and manager having nothing to do with this crime. One player had moved on but the other, Carlos Tevez, was still at the club and cleared to play for the rest of the season. This needled the other poorly performing clubs, as Tevez seemed to be instigating a mini-revival through his excellent performances. These clubs declared that, despite the legal ruling, West Ham ought to be deducted points, a situation that would have guaranteed relegation from the Premier League and subsequent safety for one of these lowly clubs. What was never mentioned were two important facts. Firstly, that in the first 21 games that Tevez played in, 15 were lost, arguably because his presence had disrupted a settled team and secondly, in the seven games that were won at the end of the season, only two goals were conceded, a sign of good planning by the manager and excellent performances by the whole team and not just a single player, however gifted. Perhaps there was more to all this than met the eye?

Let me now weave a scenario and pick up from where I left off in my previous article (God, the Devil and West Ham United). In the context of the extraordinary catalogue of misfortunes that had hit the club in the first two thirds of the season (of which the Argentinians' arrival was just a small part), I linked this with the decision to hold the Global Day of Prayer at the West Ham stadium and the subsequent unseen spiritual battles that would be fought as a consequence. One outcome of this was the total collapse of players' confidence for most of the season and the series of incidents that would normally be excused away as a 'run of bad luck'.

Well clearly, since the Tottenham game in early March, "their luck changed". As a Christian and having not an iota of a belief in luck, chance, fortune or fate, it is my belief that in early March people were getting down on their knees and praying to a God who listens and, as a result, curses changed to blessings. Now many of you would be up in arms about this. Many would say that I am demeaning the good work of the team, but go back over those final nine games and see how many times you see such words as 'luck' and 'good fortune' in the match reports. Yes, confidence and teamwork were a major factor and the manager should be commended for this, but the Blackburn game was won by a goal that clearly wasn't and Arsenal and Manchester United were beaten by a team under severe siege.

God is not just floating in the clouds listening to harp melodies or visiting churches to soak up the worship. If He is the creator and sustainer of the Universe then He is intimately concerned about every detail of our life, whoever we are, wherever we live. As the success or failure of a sports team has such an effect on a community, you would expect Him to be particularly interested. We are not controlled by luck, fate or vague destiny, but each of us, whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, are in the secure hands of the One who created us.

If my theory is correct and curses have truly become blessings then you would expect a backlash and from the vitriol poured out against West Ham United you would think the whole club, from the dinner ladies to the chairman were unrepentant cheats and villains. Look beyond the media frenzy and ask yourself whether this is reasonable behaviour.

The TV news showed West Ham fans in the aftermath of that final game. There they were, arms akimbo, ecstatically singing the club anthem in communal worship. "Fortune's always hiding", declares the second verse of the song. Well that may be so, but God hides from no man and, unlike your local football team, whether in the Premiership or the local park, He will never let you down.