The Big Match - Week 3

As Brian might say...

This week's Big Match comes from week 3 of the 1976/77 season and features the League Division Two match between Millwall and Chelsea.

Look out for two great goals, a howler from the Chelsea goalkeeper and the magnificent A-frames at The Den.

West Ham Utd

The hardware at the Boleyn Ground wasn't always synonymous with poor ball retention.

In the 1930's, a pair of Sunderland-style square-o's stood at either end of the field.


You get a better, albeit brief, glimpse of them here, in 1935.


By the 1960's, the Hammers had installed a classic set of A-frames.



The skinny curved stanchions of yore were installed in the 1967/68 season.


And so commenced the glory years of spectacular rebounds out of the Boleyn goal nets, till the appearance of box nets in the aftermath of the Spain 1982 World Cup.

Millwall FC

The Lions moved to what was known as the New Den in 1993, where modern box nets inevitably followed a fairly standard set of Continental D's.



But dig into Millwall's history of goal nets at the (old) Den and a rich seam of diversity is revealed.

The early 90's groove was a highly distinctive set of Continental D's.



While just a couple of years earlier black A-frames (similar to Hibernian's?) stood at either end of Cold Blow Lane.



The same stanchions can be seen up close about a minute into this beautiful clip from 1979.



But in the fine tradition of saving the best for last, back in the fierce Mid-70's the architecture were white A-list A-frames, separated at birth from the A-frames at Leeds Utd.