Winners of the 1980 FA Cup, West Ham a Second Division team, started another European campaign in the Cup Winners' Cup. Crowd violence broke out in the first-leg away in the Bernabéu Stadium to Castilla in which one West Ham fan was killed. West Ham were ordered to play the return leg at least from Upton Park. After an appeal, they were allowed to play at home resulting in the playing of "the Ghost Match" behind closed doors in the return leg at Upton Park with no fans in attendance, resulting in an official attendance of 262, the club's lowest ever figure for a competitive first team match, until the COVID-19 pandemic. 3–1 down from the first-leg, West Ham won the second-leg 5–1, still their record score in European football with David Cross scoring a hat-trick, West Ham's only ever hat-trick in European competition. In the second round, West Ham played Romanian side Poli Timișoara. The first-leg in London resulted in a 4–0 win for West Ham. Goals for Billy Bonds, Paul Goddard, a Ray Stewart penalty and another for David Cross gave them a strong lead ahead of the away leg. In Romania, Timișoara won 1–0 after Phil Parkes had let a Dan Păltinișanu shot bounce over his arm. West Ham lost in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Dynamo Tbilisi. In the first leg in London, West Ham lost 4–1. Tbilisi's performance was described as "one of the finest many fans had seen". They were 2–0 ahead by half-time after goals by Aleksandre Chivadze, Vladimir Gutsaev and although David Cross scored for West Ham, Ramaz Shengelia scored twice for the Soviets. In the away leg in Tbilisi, West Ham needed to score four goals which never looked likely. They won 1–0, in the Lenin Stadium, after an 88th-minute goal by Stuart Pearson, losing the tie 2–4 on aggregate.