By Louis Nixon

West Ham legend Winston Reid reflects on his time in East London, as we, the fans reminisce about a central defender with his quality and heart. 

Winston Reid, a player who’d appeared in 230 matches for West Ham, in which he’d scored 10 goals across his time, but one of his goals will forever remain within Hammers history, that being his famous winning goal against Manchester United to win 3-2 at the final game at the Boleyn n Ground.

Reid’s time at the club saw him experience it all. His debut for the club saw him play at right-back, in which we’d suffer a 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa, and that season would also be the one we’d get relegated in.

The former New Zealand International recently spoke out on a much anticipated episode of Iron Cast, West Ham’s official podcast.

He suggested that the Championship season allowed him to improve as a player the most and Big Sam would help him achieve that, whilst he also suggested that “the Play Off final was the most important game we played in.”

Upon promotion, he also missed the post-match celebrations due to a doping test he had to partake in, and his calm, collective demeanour saw him celebrate by going on holiday the day after promotion was achieved. Calm whilst winning, a storm when losing, that was Winston Reid.

James Collins, a co-host of Iron Cast also spoke about Winston and suggested that he was “one of, if not the best CB in the league at one point.” The talent he possessed was immense and is something that is greatly missed, but so was his character. He recognised how to take control of a backline and ensure that it was in the order it needed to be in.

The defenders alongside him weren’t just players; they were people who’d go to war for three points and truly understood what a result meant to the fans and the club as a whole.

His entire presence & personality is something that West Ham fans would adore to have at this moment of struggling time, it’s a shame to hear great stories and memories such as these and having to be reminded of the defence we have now compared to the defence we had then, once a defence full of meaning and now one full of preposterous egos.

Winston Reid might not have received the send off he deserved, nor have been a part of the recent successful spell that the Hammers experienced a few years ago with numerous European campaigns, but he certainly laid down the foundation for the success to have been achieved, and similarly to Jarrod Bowen, he gave the fans a night that will forever remain in West Ham history.