Iron Men Page #5

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he said to my dad,

"Mark, he's really good,

you should get him

into a little team,"

and my dad was like, "He's

a bit young, he's only six,"

and he said,

"No, just take him."

My dad said I went over

and absolutely took the mick

out of everyone

and the manager said, "Right,

he can deffo sign for us."

Look. Says it there.

"Thames Iron Works

played at Hermit

and joined to form West Ham

Football Club in 1900."

It's a nice bit of history,

really, isn't it?

Someone's obviously tried

to rob the sign, look.

And I moved to West Ham

and that's where

it really sort of kicked off.

Southend at home,

that was my debut.

I come out and I was so buzzing

to even be out on the pitch.

My dad said to me, he said,

Mark, he said,

"No one can ever take that

away from you now.

You've played at Upton Park.

You can make it the start

of something special,"

and it has been, obviously.

We used to play here and you

weren't allowed off the curb

and he wasn't allowed off

that curb,

and if you scored

and it bounced back to you

and you'd get another shot,

you know.

How are you doing?

Nice to see you.

- How are you?

- I am fine, thank you.

Well, I saw you from upstairs

and I though I recognize you

from somewhere.

You used to chase me,

that's why.

- [laughter]

- No, listen...

Here it comes.

That's the rum.

Two spoons of coffee,

one spoon of sugar.

[man] You thought about wearing

this tonight,

seeing it's the last game,

putting it over the top?

[Mabel] I'd like to do that,

actually.

It'd be nice and Louis van Gaal

might be confused

if you come on as a sub with

Mabel 100 on the back of it.

What do you reckon?

I brought that down.

Remember that one?

Oh, my goodness me.

[man] That was 1974 when you

appeared on Match Of The Day.

[Mable] Yeah, and I was shouting

at the referee.

Something special. It's the '64

semi-final against Man United.

You always rub that in because

that's the game I didn't go to.

You went to the zoo.

I had commitments as a sixer

in the cubs to go to London Zoo

- on a very wet day.

- I knew you were a sixer

but I didn't know that would

make you go to the zoo.

[man] So, how do you feel

about tonight?

I thought I was alright until

I had the dream two nights ago.

I was doing me nut over West Ham

and I woke up crying.

- We can't leave it behind.

- No, we can't.

No. We take the memories and

their spirits with us, don't we?

Oh, don't say that.

Yeah.

This is it, this is goodbye.

- Thanks for your custom.

- Alright.

Thank you very much.

- All the best, mate.

- See you later.

There's a lot of people here,

ain't there?

Three hours and 20 minutes.

No, I'm glad, I am glad.

No, I'm glad.

I thought Nathan's might be

doing a bit of business,

but not a queue like that.

You wouldn't think they

could cook it quick enough.

Ceremonial, Kerry.

It's a momentous day carrying

the steps out on the last day.

I know I've made a joke of it

but...

It's tough, it's tough.

I feel quite emotional,

actually, to be honest.

That's been

a ritual of mine for...

...not just, like, the 27 years

of doing my magazine...

...but all the years since 1980.

Every single home game,

not missed one.

Last-ever issue of OLAS.

A lot people early, ain't it?

Time's come now where maybe

a printed magazine

ain't a necessity

in people's eyes now.

Lovely. Ta, mate.

When I started

the magazine off,

people waited two weeks

or a month for it to come out,

but now they're on their phone,

they're tweeting, on Facebook.

During the game within

seconds, you can bet online

during the game.

So, my magazine is like...

the dinosaur news nowadays.

Two left now till we turn it in

after 27 years.

What am I going to do, take it

online like everyone else? No.

My glory is standing

on top of my ladder,

selling it to the people,

that's my glory.

That's what I enjoy the most,

that's why showman

coming out there.

Today's issue.

It's my show.

When I'm on top of my

stepladder outside Upton Park,

selling my magazine,

that's my show.

Alright.

- Give us a kiss.

- Take care, mate.

I've not fallen

out of love with West Ham.

I'll never fall out of love

with West Ham.

You can turn back many things,

but time ain't one of them.

We've sold out.

It's going to hit home now

because this, this is it.

A lot of memories and a lot of

history, it's going to be gone.

That's going to be tough.

112 years of history,

and it's going to be, you know,

we've got 90 more minutes.

You put that into context,

90 more minutes,

and that's it for Upton Park.

How do you think

we're gonna do tonight?

Against Manchester United?

[Mabel] Oh, lose. Man United.

Always a bug in my ear,

they are, get on my wick.

Do you think we're going to win?

[man] You know me,

I believe that we're going

to win every game.

I certainly don't...

Both do, don't we?

But doesn't work out like that.

That's the problem. We're too

wrapped up in the emotion of it.

Yeah, because we wanted them

to do so well.

That's what I'm thinking

about tonight.

We want them to do so well.

[shouting]

[David] It's very sad, but

equally, it's very exciting.

It'd be fantastic if we could

leave the Boleyn ground

by beating

the mighty Manchester United.

[indistinct]

Otherwise, we're blocking

the traffic as well.

No one can get in or out.

Good evening, fellas.

[commentator]

Welcome to Upton Park

and the famous Green Street.

The sights tonight

are unbelievable.

Over the last four

or five hours,

the streets have been filling

up with thousands of fans.

Many of them

don't have a ticket.

They just want to be part

of this historic evening.

They're singing, drinking,

lapping up

this incredible atmosphere.

They've not opened

the gates yet.

[Mabel] Well, I ain't

going through that lot.

[man] What on earth

are they doing?

[Slaven] Midweek game, night

kick-off, Manchester United,

we need a win

because it's the last game

ever to be played

at Upton Park.

Record 14, please.

Yeah, one, two, three, four,

five. Stand by.

Mark, just your

journey here by coach,

how much has it told you?

This is a very different night.

What was it like out there?

Yeah, I mean, crazy.

[Mark] It took us an hour,

probably, to get 200 yards.

We knew it was gonna be

like this

but you've got to concentrate

on the game.

[reporter]

Is it pressure, do you feel?

For sure, it will be

hard to put the emotion aside,

but we're going to try

and win a game, for sure.

- Mark, have a good night.

- Cheers, thank you.

- Mark, all the best.

- See you soon.

[commentator] There could

be a problem here.

The Manchester United

team coach has been delayed.

The team have been stranded

on Green Street.

It's complete chaos.

The roads are now almost

totally blocked with fans.

[chanting]

- Are Man U still on that bus?

- Yes.

[indistinct]

It's scary out there.

[whistling]

[chanting]

[shouting]

Sat here since 1968, ain't we?

You know, it's a long time.

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