JIMMY Neighbour, whose goal took West Ham to the 1981 League Cup final, died yesterday (April 11) following a routine operation.

The former left-winger was in the private Holly House hospital at Buckhurst Hill, Essex recuperating from a hip replacement op' when he reportedly suffered a heart attack and died. He was 58.

It was sadly ironic that Jimmy passed away on the same day Hammers visited Tottenham - the two teams he represented most prominently, along with Norwich City and Seattle Sounders in the USA.

John Lyall signed Jim from Norwich for £150,000 in September 1979 and he went on to make 102 league and cup appearances in the claret and blue.

He scored a total of six goals, the most important coming at Upton Park on the night of February 10, 1981. Irons had lost the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, 3-2, at Coventry City but Paul Goddard levelled the aggegate scores before Jimmy jinked into the penalty area and prodded home the crucial second goal at the North Bank end.

A couple of months later, he also supplied the cross from which Goddard opened the scoring in the League Cup final replay against Liverpool at Villa Park, which Hammers lost 2-1, although they ended that season as runaway second division champions.

Jimmy began his career with Tottenham in 1966 and was a member of their League Cup-winning side in 1971. He left White Hart Lane for Norwich in 1976 (where he was reunited with former Spurs team-mate and ex-Hammer Martin Peters) but returned to Tottenham in 2000 for a five-year spell as a youth coach,

It was his talent for working with youngsters that had seen him welcomed back to Upton Park in 1989. He became Youth Development Officer and did a good job for the club until 1994, when he was sacked by new manager Harry Redknapp.

Jimmy also had experience as manager of Doncaster Rovers and at non-league for Enfield Town and St Albans City.

EX sends sincere condolences to Jimmy's family and friends.