Four-goals-Michail in the Footsteps of the Eighties

July 11, 2020 at 3:30 pm Leave a comment

“Scoring four goals is an amazing feeling” (Michail Antonio, 11 July 2020)

Three hundred and eighty five games into his senior career, Michail Antonio has achieved plenty.

But on the 386th he took a step he had never taken before to give West Ham United a huge three points at Norwich City on Saturday.

Antonio netted his first senior hat-trick to help the Hammers to a 4-0 victory, and even better than that, he notched all four goals on a remarkable afternoon for the visitors.

In doing so, he became the first Hammer since David Cross to score four in a game – and that came back in September 1981 – so it was without surprise that the No30 wore the broadest of smiles after the final whistle.

Read more:
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/11-july/michail-antonio-scoring-hat-trick-amazing-feeling

Forward David Cross played for West Ham from 1977-1982. He won the FA Cup with West Ham in 1980 (1-0 against Arsenal, goal: Trevor Brooking) and was the Division 2 Golden Boot winner of the 1980/81 season. He scored four goals in a game on two occasions, against Grimsby Town on 11 April 1981, and against Tottenham Hotspur on 2 September 1981.

On 1 October 1980, Cross scored West Ham United’s first, and to date only, hat-trick in European competition in a 5–1 win against Castilla.

Within the current season, fifty years after West Ham’s last win of silverware, one of the Club’s goalkeepers is David Martin, son of Alvin Martin who was a member of the FA cup winning team of 1980. And now Michail Antonio follows in the footsteps of David Cross, an other hero of that generation!