David Sullivan exclusive: From the first minute to last, the West Ham fans were exemplary

Hammers co-owner says Manchester City will not be looking forward to their trip to east London
GETTY
David Sullivan7 October 2013

It was a truly memorable afternoon for West Ham at White Hart Lane yesterday and I want to personally thank our fans for the important role they played in it.

While Sam Allardyce’s tactics and the players will rightly be praised for an absolutely outstanding 3-0 win at our local rivals, our fans made sure that today’s headlines were all about football rather than events in the stands.

Yesterday morning, I wrote an open letter to supporters attending the game to remind them they would be acting as ambassadors for our club. As expected, they did not let us down.

From the first minute to the last, the 3,000-strong Claret and Blue Army out-sang their hosts and made the match feel like a home game. The way they got behind the team was up there with the best I have seen in my 20 years in football.

Crucially, though, they also showed respect for the occasion and understanding of the magnifying glass that was on them in the build-up the game.

By the time the final whistle blew, a full-blown cockney knees-up was underway in the away end and they deserve it.

I would also like to save a few words of praise for my joint-chairman David Gold for the emotive and highly personal interview he did ahead of the game. Discrimination is an issue that is close to our hearts, which is why we were clear beforehand that it has no place at West Ham.

The result means we can now look forward with increased optimism as we prepare to welcome Manchester City to the Boleyn Ground following the international break. They will have seen how we opened up Tottenham’s defence time and time again and I’m sure they will not be looking forward to their trip to east London.

We have all felt some of our performances this season have not been reflected in our results so I am delighted we secured such an eye-catching away win at one of the division’s best sides. We must now use the display as a benchmark for the rest of the season.

Come on, you Irons!

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in