“Eddie Bovington had broken his kneecap, so Martin [Peters] went back to a halfback where he normally played. So then it was Johnny Sissons, me, Geoff [Hurst], Ronnie Boyce and Alan Sealey up top.
“I scored early on in the first leg of the quarter final. And I got two back at home. And one of them, in the paper it said, Dear scores from an angle that will baffle a scientist. I hooked it from like the dead ball line!”
Dear went on to score ten times in ten league appearances including a record breaking five goals in 20 minutes against West Bromwich Albion. After scoring an 89th-minute winner against Lausanne at Upton Park, Dear and the Boleyn Boys hosted Real Zaragoza in the semi-finals.
“We then played the Spanish team. And I scored early on in that too! Johnny Byrne then made it 2-0. But they nicked an away goal in the second half. They were a tough side. They had a forward line called ‘Los Cinco Magnificos’. Every one of them was in the Spanish national side. And it was a horrible place to go to. It was right in the middle of Spain.”
After cruising into a 2-0 lead in the first leg, the Hammers were then trailing at half-time in Zaragoza in the second leg. By virtue of away goals, Bobby Moore’s Irons were on their way out at the second-to-last hurdle.
“We were really struggling. In the second half, I was in the middle of the field and someone played the ball to me, I knocked it forward to Sissons. He went flying through and scored to make it 2-2. So now we’re back in front and with an away goal and we went through to the final.”