Starting out at non-League club Elmstead,[1] Foster made his league debut for Leyton Orient in January 1982 whilst still an apprentice.
Never a regular player under Macari, he became so under new manager Billy Bonds in a team which won promotion from the second division in season 1990-91.
Foster's time at West Ham is most often associated with scoring a spectacular mid-air volley in an FA Cup Quarter-final versus Everton in March 1991.
Everton were in the upper reaches of the First Division (then the top tier) while West Ham were a second-tier side.
Three seasons broken by regular injury followed and after a projected £400,000 move back to Nottingham Forest fell through, when Foster could not agree terms, he remained at West Ham on a weekly contract.