Swansea .v. West Ham - the history

All Time Head to Head

Home - W 18 - D 7 - L 1

Away - W 5 - D 5 - L 15

Total - W 23 - D 12 - L 16

Premiership only

No meetings in the Premiership to date

The first three meetings between these two sides were all held in the space of 9 days in January 1922. In the first two a scoreless draw in Wales for the FA Cup competition was followed by a 1-1 draw back in London. Whereas under the current system Swansea would have won on away goals back then the rules decreed another match to be played, again back in Swansea where they this time won 1-0.

It was to be more than 10 years before these sides would meet again in the old Division 2, where regular meetings throughout the 1930's were dominated by the Irons. Post-war and throughout the 1950's the two sides continued to battle in the Second Division, sharing the spoils fairly evenly, but after promotion for the Hammers in 1958 (and Swansea dropping down to the 4th tier) their only meeting for two decades was another FA Cup tie in 1963, West Ham this time taking the win.

With West Ham dropping back down to Division 2 in 1978 and Swansea being promoted out of Division 3 in 1979, the two clubs were back in line to face each other again - including a 2-0 win for West Ham on their way to lifting the FA Cup in 1980. Both teams secured promotion to the top flight in 1981 (Swansea achieving promotion from bottom tier to top tier in 4 seasons, a feat only matched by Wimbledon FC) and continued to fight it out for two seasons until Swansea were once again relegated.

After 1983 Swansea yo-yoed up and down the four divisions, flirting briefly with liquidation, and gaining notoriety in 1996 as the first club to have four managers in one season. The only meetings between the two clubs in the last 29 years have been in the 1985 Milk Cup and 1999 FA Cup competitions - where West Ham embarrassingly became the first Premier league team to be beaten by opponents from the bottom tier.

With Swansea only making their debut in the Premiership in 2011 (the first Welsh side to do so) and West Ham regaining their spot this year, this will be the first Premiership meeting between the two sides. Head to head, whilst West Ham have more wins to their name overall it should be noted that Swansea have won 60% of games in Wales, compared to the Hammers 20%. Couple that with their year to adjust to the top league and the whopping 5-0 win they produced last weekend, this match should in no way be viewed as a walk in the park....