In the early minutes the Hammers played their usual game of counterattacking football, thrusting out of defence to an inventive forward line . which comprised Geoff Hurst in the role of a roving striker, and might welt have taken the lead. Hurst should have been awarded a penalty. As Peter Brabrook put him through, he was stopped by Bill Stevenson, whose tackle took the man and not the ball, only for play to continue most fortunately for the home side. Chances were few but both goalkeepers did see action and the Hammers' attacks created a number of half-chances with their usual fluid movement and unhurried control.
With 28 minutes gone, the deadlock was broken when Bobby Moore quite untypically mis-hit the ball and it flew to Cordon Wallace, who had chased the original through-ball more in hope than confidence. His shot hit the far post, only to come tantalisingly back to hit the other and end in the net. Two minutes later he might have had a second, but was denied by Jim Standen.
It was Moore, making amends for his earlier lapse, who was the instigator of the Hammers equaliser, which was eminently worth waiting for, as it was a gem of precision and imagination. Four minutes from half-time, the Hammers skipper pivoted as if to hit a long ball to his right, changed his mind and slipped it short to Boyce. From Boyce it went to Hurst, to Eddie Bovington - whose lob through the middle was perfectly met by Byrne after he had cleverly lost his marker, big Ron Yeats - before his volley, hooked at almost shoulder height, gently slipped wide of the giant Liverpool keeper Tommy Lawrence.
Early in the second half, Standen made a splendid save from an equally splendid shot from opposition winger Ian Callaghan but could do nothing when he was beaten four minutes after the interval as his view was obstructed by several players and he was on the opposite side of the goal. It was the sort of goal every full-back wants to score, which had the stuff of fantasy about its high-swinging, swirling progress into the far top-corner. It was from all of thirty yards and Gerry Byrne only received the ball as Callaghan had been thwarted and in sheer frustration had pushed the ball back to his colleague, who was advancing in support.
As an aside to the incident Byrne, forever known amongst his team-mates as the club joker, afterwards broke off from his homecoming celebrations to tell the story of how Liverpool scored that second goal. "I was standing about three yards from Gerry Byrne when the ball came to him.
I just could not see him scoring if he tried to shoot so I'm shouting "shoot" to him. When I saw the ball go in I wanted to hide!"
A free-kick from a similar distance from Ronnie Moran was too strong for Standen to hold but he bravely blocked it before the danger was clear. For the next thirty minutes West Ham tottered on the brink of defeat - but refused to fall. Then they snapped back to equalise once more and then almost snatched victory.
With the end approaching, Byrne made a chance for Hurst, then when his strike colleague reciprocated, had a fierce shot which Lawrence dived to save. Thus rallied and recovered, West Ham tried again. This time it was Brabrook again who whipped the ball across. Lawrence could only palm it away and there was Hurst with an open goal as he smashed in the rebound.
For Hurst it somewhat avenged and settled an old score as some 18 months previously, almost to the exact minute -the 84th in which Hurst equalised - a Roger Hunt tally in an FA Cup sixth round tie in March 1963 had knocked the Hammers out of the competition on the same pitch by that solitary goal after Greenwood's side had silenced the Kop for most of the match.
As that noted football writer, journalist and author Brian Glanville said in his report of the latest clash between the two clubs -who would take the English challenge into Europe in the coming months: "justice was done." Both clubs therefore shared the Shield for six months each, with West Ham winning the toss for the right to hold the trophy first.