In the run up to the 1980 FA Cup final a piece for BBC News had described the match as 'more than a just a game for two teams from very different parts of London', despite the fact that pre-1980s Islington had (and even post-gentrification still does have) as many sink estates as Newham. On interviewing an elderly east end gentlemen, he had informed everyone with a sneer of inverted snobbery that on the day 'the cockney boys would have more than enough noise to overpower the 'cosmopolitan' crowd of the Arsenal'.

So there you have it, 'Wess Tam' - a local club for local people. However anyone who has boarded a Fenchurch Street bound C2C train on Saturday afternoons would testify that the term 'local' has been stretched to breaking point in recent years. Your average 21st Century Hammer is more at home in Shoeburyness than he is in Stratford. You see it’s 'Wess Tam's' USP of being 'Cockney' FC which is a title more cherished than any Premiership or First Division title that has forever eluded them. However the definition of the word 'Cockney' is something we need to re-familiarize ourselves with.

A true cockney is one that is born within the sound of Bow bells, however contrary to popular belief the Bow bells are not actually in Bow but are situated in St. Mary Le Bow Church in Bow Lane near St. Paul's. It's association with the east end refers more to the inner east of Bethnal Green, Stepney and Whitechapel rather than the outer east of Upton Park and West Ham. A study had been carried out in 2000 to record how far the bow bells can be heard. It had found that they were audible five miles to the north and six miles to the east. The Boleyn Ground lies just outside this area at 6.7 miles from Bow Lane. Ashburton Grove on the other hand at 3.6 miles is well within their radius.

Arsenal, as every schoolboy knows, did not originate in the north of the capital having relocated there from south of the river. However Dial Square FC had first kicked a ball in anger on 11th December 1886 against Eastern Wanderers on a muddy field just south of Tiller Road on the Isle of Dogs, in the heart of London's docklands. So long before Thames Ironworks or their predecessor club Old Castle Swifts FC, the Arsenal had played a home fixture in the east end of London.

Each and every 'Wess Tam' fan also, in compensation for a lack of trophies throughout their history, takes great pride in being the embodiment of authentic red blooded proletarian values in football. They are beer drinking men's men in stark contrast to Arsenal's Bourgeois Guardian reading wine bar dwelling Johnny Come Lately muesli eaters. However once again we need to examine the roots of each club. Both were formed as a side for humble industrial workers, however 'Wess Tam' were formed by Arnold Hills, who was the owner of Thames Ironworks Shipbuilders. He was ably assisted by his foreman Dave Taylor, therefore making 'Wess Tam' a top down formation by the firm's establishment. Hills was also educated at Harrow Public School and was a vegetarian and teetotaler with fully paid up membership of the Temperance Society.

The Arsenal in stark contrast, despite many blue blooded ex-public schoolboys on its board since the 1930s were originally formed directly by the workers themselves. They had clubbed together to buy their first football and Fred Beardsley had even wrote a begging letter to Nottingham Forest for a set of jerseys. Founder member Jack Humble, who remained on Arsenal's board until Henry Norris' arrival in 1910 had even walked 400 miles from his home village in the North East to seek work in London before taking employment at the Woolwich Arsenal. So while many a bubble may be blown down in Green Street, so too are many a myth 'Wess Tam' hold about themselves in comparison to the Arsenal.