On Tuesday night a buoyant Rovers team will face their toughest run of home games for more years than many fans can remember. West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United! What a line-up! The Mem should be rocking,

The first of those games sees Premiership West Ham come down the M4 for a League Cup tie, fresh from a 1-1 home draw with Wigan on Saturday. West Ham lost at home to Manchester City in their opening game, won away at Birmingham and then drew on Saturday for a steady start after a tumultuous finish to last season,

With the Hammers looking 'dead and buried' their purchase of Carlos Tevez in mysterious circumstances served to kick start an amazing run which eventually sent Sheffield United to the Championship and has brought the Hammers to the brink of a Court Case. West Ham chairman Eggert Magnusson has launched a stinging rebuke against the Blades after their latest outburst over the affair, threatening legal action against the Yorkshire club. Magnusson said: "I will take whatever action is appropriate to defend the reputation of West Ham United Football Club."

Meanwhile on the pitch Dean Ashton who broke an ankle whilst training for England just over a year ago and has not started a game for his club since, finally looks set to play a full 90 minutes "I'm ready now, I'm available to start," Ashton said after playing the final half hour of the 1-1 draw with Wigan.

"I want to get back on track towards England again because that has always been my dream and I'm determined to make it come true. But before that, getting back for West Ham comes first and I know the gaffer has been right to make me be patient. It was a bad injury and he has been easing me back in, but I want to be let loose now and get a start because it is difficult to come on from the bench like I have been and make an impact."

Looking at the background of West Ham United, the club had it roots in Thames Ironworks F.C. which on winding up was almost immediately relaunched on 5 July 1900 as West Ham United F.C.

In 1904 the team moved to its current home of Upton Park in the guise of the Boleyn Ground stadium. Their first game in their new home was against local rivals Millwall F.C. (themselves an Ironworks team, albeit for a rival company) drawing a crowd of 10,000 and with West Ham running out 3-0 winners.

In 1919, after competing in the Southern League, West Ham gained entrance to the Football League Second Division and were promoted to Division One in 1923, making the FA Cup final at the same time. This was the first FA Cup Final at the 'old' Wembley and was forever after known as the 'White Horse Final" after a crowd exceeding 200,000 tried to pack into the ground to see the Hammers go down 2-0 to Bolton. The massive crowd spilled over onto the pitch and were forced back by a P.C. George Scorey on his giant horse Billie.

The team enjoyed mixed success in Division 1 but retained their status for 10 years and reached an FA Cup semi final in 1927, 4 years later. In 1932 the club was relegated to Division Two and long term custodian Sydney King was sacked after serving the club in the role of Manager for 32 years, and as a player from 1899 to 1903. He was replaced with his assistant manager Charlie Paynter who himself had been with West Ham in a number of roles since 1897 and who went on to serve the team in this role until 1950 for a total of 480 games.

The club spent most of the next 30 years in this division, first under Paynter and then later under the leadership of former player Ted Fenton. Fenton succeeded in getting the club once again promoted to the top level of English football in 1958 and in helping develop both the initial batch of future West Ham stars and West Ham's approach to the game.

Ron Greenwood was appointed as Fenton's successor in 1961 and he soon led the club to two major trophies, winning the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965. During the 1966 World Cup, an important part of the England national football team was composed of West Ham players, including the captain, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters (who scored in the final), and Geoff Hurst, who scored the only ever hat-trick to-date in a World Cup final.

After a difficult start to the 1974-75 season, Greenwood moved "upstairs" to become General Manager and was replaced by his assistant John Lyall, who led them on to win the FA Cup in his first season. Lyall then guided West Ham to another European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1976, though the team lost the match 4-2 to Anderlecht. Greenwood's new role within the club lasted less than three years as he was appointed to manage England in the wake of Don Revie's resignation in 1977.

In 1978, the club were again relegated to Division Two but the board stuck by their manager and Lyall was able lead West Ham to another FA Cup win in 1980. No team since has won the trophy from outside the top division. They were promoted to Division One in 1981, having spent only 3 years in the lower league, although they were relegated after 8 seasons in 1989 This relegation resulted in John Lyall's sacking, in spite of the fact that this stay in Division One saw West Ham achieve their highest ever placing in the top division, finishing 3rd in 1986.

Very briefly, they were led by Lou Macari, though he resigned after less than a single season and former player Billy Bonds was the next West Ham manager in charge. In his first full season, 1990-91, West Ham again secured promotion to Division One. The following season, 1991-92, they were relegated, to the newly christened Division One (formerly Division 2), missing out on the inaugural Premier league season. West Ham again only spent one year in Division One, before finishing 2nd and gaining promotion to the Premier League in May 1993.

After a more stable season in the Premier League, Bonds acrimoniously and controversially quit, and was replaced by Harry Redknapp in August 1994. Redknapp was active in the transfer market, and gained a reputation as a "wheeler-dealer" especially with foreign players being more available following the Bosman ruling.

He led West Ham to 5th place in 1998-99 but they missed out on automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup (despite seasons prior to and since where 5th was good enough), but did indeed qualify for that competition as winners of the Intertoto Cup.

Despite consolidating their league placing for a handful of seasons, a disagreement with the board of directors during the close of the 2000-01 season, found Redknapp replaced with Glenn Roeder, promoted from Youth team coach.

In Roeder's first season the team finished 7th (an improvement on Redknapp's last finish of 15th.), but there were worrying signs as West Ham lost 7-1 to Blackburn and 5-0 and 5-1 to Everton and Chelsea respectively. The subsequent season started poorly and eventually resulted in relegation.

Following ill-health and poor results, Roeder was sacked in August 2003 after only 3 games in charge in Division 1. Trevor Brooking stepped in as interim manager before being replaced with Alan Pardew in October 2003, headhunted from promotion rivals Reading. Pardew led the team to a playoff final, though they were beaten by Crystal Palace. The club stayed in Division One for another season, when they again reached the playoff final, but this time won and gained re-entry to the Premiership.

On their return to the Premiership, West Ham finished in 9th place. The highlight of the 2005-06 season, however, was reaching the FA Cup final, and taking favourites Liverpool to a penalty shootout where they lost, but gained entry to the UEFA Cup as Liverpool had qualified for the Champions League through league position.

West Ham completed a major coup by the end of the 2006 transfer window, after completing the signings of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano. The club was eventually bought by an Icelandic consortium, led by Eggert Magnússon in November 2006. Manager Alan Pardew was eventually sacked after poor form during the season and was replaced by former Charlton manager Alan Curbishley.

The signings of Mascherano and Tévez were investigated by the Premier League, who were concerned that details regarding the transfers had been omitted from official records and the club was found guilty and in April 2007 fined 5.5 million pounds. However, the Club was lucky to avoid any points deduction which ended up being critical in their fight to avoid relegation at the end of the 2006-07 Season.

West Ham ultimately escaped relegation by winning seven of their last nine games, including a 1-0 win over Arsenal, and on the last day of the season defeating newly crowned League Champions Manchester United 1-0 with a goal by Carlos Tevez to finish outside the relegation zone in 15th. The contribution of Carlos Tevez ended up being critical to the survival of the club in the Premiership as he scored seven crucial goals in the last couple of months of the season to enable the team to stay up.

With Tevez' transfer to Manchester United and Sheffield United looking to establish themselves as promotion contenders from the Championship it is to be hoped that this merely piece of West Ham's history can be put behind them.

Looking at games between the Hammers and the Gas it is extremely one sided, with one victory to Rovers and eighteen to the Hammers and six draws. Two of those draws were the first meetings between the teams back in the 1953-54 season when there was a 2-2 score on 12 September 1953 at Eastville and a 1-1 result at Upton Park on 23 January.

The following season the Hammers thrashed Rovers twice, 5-2 at Upton Park in September and 4-2 at Eastville in January. The heaviest defeat suffered by Rovers at the Hammers hands was on 28 December 1957 as the East End team won 6-1.

From the perspective of Rovers fans and probably something with a close parallel to this game was a League Cup tie on Tuesday 21 September 1965 which ended with an amazing 3-3 score-line. In the replay the following week the Hammers squeezed past Rovers 3-2. At the time Rovers were in the Third Division and the Hammers in the First Division.

The last time the clubs clashed was over ten years ago in 1995-96 again in the League Cup with the Hammers winning 1-0 in the West Country and 3-0 in London, to take the tie comfortably?

In their latest game Lee Bowyer struck his first goal for West Ham to rescue a point and deny high-flying Wigan a third straight victory at Upton Park. Despite a wealth of possession for the Hammers it was Wigan who created the clearer chances, Jason Koumas hitting a post and Julius Aghahowa going close.

Mark Noble's penalty appeal was turned down at the other end, before Paul Scharner volleyed a fine Wigan opener. However, Bowyer secured a draw minutes later, clipping in from the angle.

After the game Alan Curbishly commented, "We're a little frustrated by a draw but I guess I have to be delighted we've got something from the game after falling behind so late.

"In the first half they put lots of men behind the ball and we struggled to break them down, whereas in the second it changed and they began to get a few chances on the break. A point was probably a fair result and I'm delighted that Lee's got a goal - it's all that's been missing from his play for me."

After securing their first win of the season and remaining undefeated since the Johnson's Paint Trophy Final Rovers will be brimming with confidence in their own ability to hold their own. With the possible return of Bobby Zamora to the club who gave him his first chance in League football it promises to be an exciting night at the Mem.

Written by Gerry Prewett