Sunday, 24 Nov 2024

Thousands of West Ham fans line streets of east London to cheer on cup winners

West Ham fans have packed out the streets of east London to welcome home their heroes following last night’s dramatic UEFA Europa Conference League win.

The Hammers clinched their first silverware in more than 40 years after a 90th-minute goal from Jarrod Bowen sealed a famous 2-1 victory over Fiorentina in Prague.

The 25,000 or so supporters who travelled to the Czech capital partied long into the night, with tens of thousands more set to set to celebrate with the players during an open top bus parade.

It will be a bittersweet moment for club captain Declan Rice – only the third to lift a major trophy after Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds – who will be allowed to leave this summer.

West Ham’s fans have been serenading the England midfielder with the song ‘one more year’ for the last few months – and will no doubt repeat the chant this evening.

But asked whether lifting the trophy was Rice’s last action as a West Ham player, club chairman David Sullivan told talkSPORT: ‘I think it has to be. We promised him he could go.

‘He set his heart on going and in due course he has to get on and we have to get a replacement.










‘It is not something we wanted to happen. We offered him £200,000-a-week 18 months ago and he turned it down. You can’t keep a player who doesn’t want to be there.

‘I think the offers will start to come today. Three or four clubs have shown interest but, out of respect to West Ham, while we’re still playing, you don’t make offers for players.’

The final was slightly marred by ugly scenes before, during and after the match.

Czech police said they detained more than a dozen Italian fans after masked ‘ultras’ attacked West Ham supporters outside a bar.

Footage posted to social media showed fireworks and chairs being hurled.

There was also controversy during the match as Cristiano Biraghi of Fiorentina was seen bleeding from the back of the head after he appeared to have been hit by an object thrown from the West Ham stand.




Fans then poured into the streets following the win, with many already in the city centre after thousands of supporters travelled from the UK without tickets.

But a scuffle broke out after police officers tried to confiscate a lit flare as fans gathered in the Old Town area of the city.

Riot police stormed a group after they lit a second, with fans responding by pelting the officers with bottles and missiles.

But one Prague bar owner said the Hammers fans were ‘a credit to their club’.

Paul Smith, 42, owner of The Dubliner pub in the old town where hundreds of supporters gathered, did not have a bad word to say about the cockney invasion.

‘I was a little bit worried, because the last team we had over was England a few years ago, and that didn’t end very well,’ said Smith, from Dublin.

‘There was a riot outside in the courtyard, there were about 3,000 England fans and a few started throwing bottles at the police and then there was tear gas and plastic bullets.

‘But I have to say the West Ham fans are a credit to their club. They were as good as the Scots were, the Irish and the Welsh when they came over.

‘All I can say is fair play to them. There was a huge number of fans in the city. I was worried when I heard numbers of 30,000 being mentioned.


‘I walked out on to the square yesterday and it was pretty full, flags everywhere, and they were just nice from start to finish.

‘It’s been a pretty profitable week. And the icing on the cake was West Ham winning. It’s just a shame so many of the fans didn’t have tickets.

‘But they didn’t look like they were too disappointed when they were celebrating. It was great.’

Bowen’s last-minute goal secured the trophy for West Ham, their first since winning the FA Cup in 1980.

But the club’s first silverware in a generation came at a cost; Hammers fan James, 25, from Coventry, will have a bit of grovelling to do ahead of his forthcoming nuptials.

He said: ‘I’ve told my missus that when I get back, that when I get married, that this is the best day of my life, and my second best day will be my wedding.’

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