Not counting our Europa Conference League win, do you remember our last piece of European silverware? – possibly the smallest trophy in world football
Yes, you are correct as on 24th August, 1999, West Ham completed a memorable 3-1 victory away to Metz to win the Intertoto Cup.
The Irons went to Metz with qualification for the UEFA Cup on the line. They’d finished fifth in the Premier League the season before and as such we had to win the short-lived preliminary tournament to make it in.
They’d beaten Finnish side FC Jokerit and Eredivisie club Heerenveen en route to the final. But they lost the first leg of the final 1-0 at Upton Park, with a young Louis Saha scoring the match-winner for the Ligue 1 outfit. So they had their work cut out to produce a memorable comeback victory in Metz.
A thumping strike from Trevor Sinclair, a trademark finish from Frank Lampard and Paulo Wanchope’s goal eleven minutes from time completed a memorable turnaround in front of a 19,599-strong crowd at the Stade Saint-Symphorien.
“Obviously the lads were a bit gutted because it meant cutting the break short, but once we got into it we went to some great places and beat Metz in France to qualify for the UEFA Cup,” reminisced Stevie Lomas, who featured in every game of the Intertoto Cup run.
“If you ask the fans who went, I think they’d say going there and winning was one of their most enjoyable occasions. We had a run in the UEFA Cup after that, which they also enjoyed.
“It might not have gone down too well at the start, but by the end of it the lads were also loving it.”
Lomas then told a story about when West Ham travelled to Romania to take on Steaua Bucharest in the second round. The then West Ham captain Steve Lomas revealed they stayed in a hotel with Playboy bunnies.
He joked: “When we got there Harry was taken aback by the place. Our hotel was bang in the centre of town and there was a Playboy Bunny convention going on. You couldn’t make it up.
“We were meant to be flying home after the game and there was Neil Ruddock making us all laugh, on his knees clowning around and pleading with Harry to let us stay another night. He even offered to pay the entire hotel bill if we did.
“The girls were on a separate floor to us and it was all just mucking about but I remember Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand were young, single lads at the time and their eyes were on stalks.”
I was at that game with my dad and my brother from another mother. I don’t think we will never forget it. That was a time when the ticket office was run a lot better that it is to day. To get an away day all you needed to do was get up a little earlier. I wish those days were still around….