This is a page where every month, Gary Edwards post’s a new memory about Leeds United.

June 2010-We’re All In This Together

After all the euphoria and the dramatic promotion back to the Championship I, like a lot of Leeds fans, finally afforded myself the luxury of enjoying our fantastic FA Cup win at Old Trafford back in January. This historic victory, of course, signalled a few jitters in the United camp over the following months and I wouldn’t allow myself to celebrate properly until we were safely back in the Championship. Although we got the better of our rivals from the Salford area of Lancashire, during the 1990’s at Elland Road, and earning many well deserved draws away, the last time we recorded a victory at Old Trafford was on February 28th 1981, when Brian Flynn scored Leeds’ winner and sent thousands of travelling Leeds fans delirious.

Now, 28 hours, 10 months, 6 days and 3 hours later, 9,000 Leeds fans were at Old Trafford to witness Jermaine Beckfords winner and send 3rd Division Leeds United into the fourth round of the FA Cup. Much has been said about the manner of the victory, and the heroics from the Leeds team, which was absolutely magnificent. Casper Ankergren was outstanding that afternoon. He came to the club when we were in serious trouble, and the fans should acknowledge his contribution and best wishes go to him for the future. He will surely remember that afternoon for the rest of his life.

With the Leeds fans chanting ‘Fergie Time’ as the game entered the 23rd minute of injury time, the final whistle was greeted by unbelievable scenes. What stood out for me at the end was, despite the fact that we had knocked them out of the FA Cup, Leeds fans were chanting, ‘Leeds are going up!’ – which implied to the home fans trudging out of the ground that we were weren’t that bothered about the Cup, but we’ll take it – thanks very much.

During an after match interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, I was asked who I fancied in the next round? I said, “They can bring anyone on now, even a big team.”

Simon Grayson dedicated the triumph to the Leeds fans, who he said had ‘stuck with the club during its fall from the Premiership to League One, the third tier of English football’.

He added, “Our fans deserve this result and not just because we’ve taken 9,000 fans to Old Trafford. We take 4,000 to Bristol Rovers on a wet Tuesday night and sell out every single allocation we are given. We regularly get 25,000 at Elland Road and our fans have backed us when sometimes they didn’t have to. They could quite easily have downed tools and decided that football is an expensive business and followed the club from home. But they have followed us the length and breadth of the country and this result is for them more than anyone else.’

This praise from the manager, for me, is mutual.

He started to get some stick from some fans during the rocky period of February, March and into April, but he always stuck to his guns that we would go up. Some obvious in fighting between certain players didn’t help the cause, and it was good to see them finally pulling together at the end to finally come through and banish this division, hopefully for ever.

Graysons decision to keep Beckford at the club until the end of the season was the right one – and his awarding of the captain’s armband to him for the final game of the season was pure genius.

Good luck Beckford, you felt you had to move on – so do Leeds United.

Come on Leeds.

May 2010-LEEDS ARE GOING UP!

Phew! I don’t mind admitting it – I’m glad that season’s over. I’ve never wanted a season to finish as quick in my life. I can’t remember ever wishing away a Leeds’ season before, because that’s what we Leeds fans do – support our team, through thick and thin. And normally the end of the season is like end of school term (a distant memory for yours truly of course!) and you don’t see your mates until the following season, but I’m truly looking forward to enjoying this summer and recharging the batteries for the pre-season tour.

Its been a nerve racking second half of the season, and our performances up to Christmas certainly got us promoted in the end.

I loved the scenes after our final victory over Bristol Rovers at Elland Road. “Please keep off the pitch,” said the scoreboard and the announcer, but that was never going to happen was it? Tension, nerves and anxiety all came to a dramatic climax just after a quarter to five on Saturday May 8th, when thousand of jubilant Leeds fans swarmed onto the pitch to greet their heroes, and then headed into the city centre to party.

I was particularly pleased for the vast army of younger Leeds fans who must have been beginning to wonder if they would ever see our team win anything. Lets hope that this is just the beginning of our rise back to the top.

The club will now, I’m sure – or at least I hope – build a squad capable of at least holding their own in the Championship, which in our world is still the Second Division. There will be incomings and outgoings throughout the summer, but the fans’ base will definitely get even stronger. Some of us can even look forward to the odd lie next season too. Instead of the 9,500 miles we covered last season we will be visiting the likes of those mighty Tykes from Barnsley, those battered blades at Brammal Lane and even those yo yo’s across at Hull.

Although I have to admit that I actually prefer the long hauls myself. It’s going to be quite difficult to finish my bottle of Shiraz before arriving back in Leeds from a mere 60 mile round trip, but don’t worry dear reader, I’m sure I’ll cope.

So, onwards and upwards with the mighty whites – it is imperative that we hit the ground running.

Come on Leeds!

April 2010-21 Years On

Towards the end of the 1988/89 season I was just finishing my pint of Tetley Bitter in the old Supporters Club on Elland Road, before going into the ground to watch the Leeds v Brighton game. It was April 15th around 2.45pm

Before I left the Club, news began filtering through amongst supporters of something going on at the FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough. Mobile phones were relatively rare in those days, but sketchy news reports began appearing on the TV screens. There had obviously been something serious that had occurred, but no one could have expected the news that was to filter through during the next half-hour.

30 miles down the M1 from us at Eland Road, thousands of Liverpool fans had arrived late (due to roadworks on the M62) at the turnstiles of the Lepping Lane end causing mayhem and crushing at the front of the lower tier. They obviously weren’t to know the havoc they were causing, but by the time the game was abandoned after only 7 minutes, several hundred people had spilt onto the pitch and many had ripped out advertising boards and were using them as makeshift stretchers to carry the injured to safety – but for many it was too late.

Afterwards, the Police were blamed, the Liverpool fans were blamed and the Sheffield Wednesday club was blamed, but the fact remains that – 96 innocent football fans died. 766 were injured and 300 were taken to hospital.

The discussions and legal battles of who was to blame still goes on today 21 years later.

Sadly, Liverpool Football Club had been involved in another tragedy fours years previously when fans rioted inside the Heysel Stadium before the 1989 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. 32 Juventus fans died along with 4 Belgians, 2 French and one man from Northern Ireland – a total of 39.

Incidentally, Leeds fans had also been crammed into the Leppings Lane End in 1987 for the FA Cup Semi Final with Coventry. Luckily on this occasion, severe bruising was the only injury to a few Leeds fans.

Of course Leeds and Liverpool have always had strong links especially between the legendary managers Don Revie and Bill Shankly.

When Shanks died in 1981 many Leeds fans paid tribute to the great man when Leeds next visited Anfield, donating thousands of pounds to a Memorial fund. Liverpool fans showed the same respect when Don Revie died 8 years later.

This month also marks an anniversary of another tragic event closer to home. April 5th marked the 10th Anniversary of the brutal murders of two Leeds fans, Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight, in Istanbul, the evening before Leeds’ UEFA Cup Semi Final against Galatassaray.

No one has ever really been brought to justice for the killings and both families and friends of ‘Lofty’ and ‘Spag’ have been campaigning for justice now for 10 years. Lets hope they can soon receive some welcome news that will ease their pain.

March 2010-The Chief

On Sunday afternoon May 2nd 2005, 38,000 Leeds United fans paid tribute to quite possibly the nicest man ever to have worn the famous Leeds jersey – Lucas Valeriu Radebe. It was a testimonial game given to him in recognition for tremendous service given to the club between 1994 and 2005.

His arrival at Leeds had been quite dramatic. He arrived with another South African, forward Philemon Masinga, but the reasons for him moving to England weren’t made clear at the time. Lucas, nicknamed ‘The Chief’ by the adoring Leeds fans was born in Diepkloof, Soweto near Johannesburg only two weeks before Leeds United won their first ever League Championship in April 1969. But to keep him away from the violence of Soweto, his parents moved him to Bophuthatswana when he was 15. But it was in this very neighbourhood that Lucas was shot in 1991. He was walking with his brother when they heard a gunshot and Lucas quickly realised that he had been shot in the back and the bullet had passed out through his thigh. He was rushed to hospital, but although he lost a considerable amount of blood, he was told the injury was not life threatening and he would be able to continue to play football after a short rest. At the time, he was playing for Kaiser Chiefs and although nobody was ever arrested and charged with the shooting, Lucas was convinced that someone had been hired to shoot him to prevent him from moving to another club. There had been talk at the time of him leaving the Chiefs and such ‘punishment’ was not uncommon in the present climate of the country. 3 years later Leeds’ manager Howard Wilkinson enquired about signing Radebe and he took no persuading to leave the country and join Leeds United. The Chief went on to become one of the most popular and greatest of Leeds defenders.

The weekend of the testimonial match, I was all over the place.

I miss out on quite a few family events because of Leeds United, some, I have to admit, are a blessing in disguise. But on this particular weekend, we’d booked a villa at Center Parcs, Nottingham with six other family members, Lesley’s Mam, sister and husband and so on… Lesley and I had just announced that, after being together since 1978, we were to get married at Elland Road the following June. So on the Friday night we had a little celebration at one of the restaurants on the complex. Early next morning, I climbed into my Jeep and drove to Leicester for the match returning to Center Parcs that evening. The following day was spent drinking and splashing about in the many swimming pools. Then, early next morning, I headed back up to Leeds for The Chiefs big game at Elland Road on the Bank Holiday Monday.

Countless Leeds fans could be seen all the way up the A1 and one particular young lad, about 15 years old, was hanging out of the back window of the car, stripped down to the waist doing the ‘Leeds Salute’ at every car they passed.

It was a gloriously sunny day as thousands descended on Elland Road to watch the game – A Leeds X1 against a World X1.

The Leeds X1 consisted of stars such as Vinnie Jones, Gordon Strachan and Gary Speed. The Chief played for both sides, scoring twice for the World X1. Leeds got the opening goal, scored by Aaron Lennon, beating Bruce Grobelaar in goal. The World X1 equalised and then went in front before the Chief stepped up to make it 3-1 to the World X1. Leeds Ladies star, Lucy Ward pulled one back for Leeds but the World X1 went 6-2 up with goals from Ally McCoist and Gunnar Halle. Kilgallon pulled one back for Leeds before The Chief brought down the curtain 2 minutes from the end to make it 7-3 to the World X1.

The World X1 managed by Sam Allardyce included Nigerian captain Jay Jay Okocha, Radebes South African national team mate Doctor Khumalo and Peru’s Nolberto Solano.

Other stars who turned out on the day included, Phil Masinga, David Batty, Gary McAllister, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Gary Kelly, Oliveir Dacourt, Nigel Martyn, Paul Robinson, Neil Sullivan, Clyde Wijnhard, David Wetherall, Chris Kamara, Eirik Bakke and Tony Yeboah.

Howard Wilkinson took charge of the Leeds X1 and said afterwards,

“Lucas is a model professional on the pitch, on the training pitch and off the pitch. He has been generous with his time both outside and inside of football. It was always done with a good heart and never seemed to be a burden to him. That is the mark of the man he is.”

All the takings from the game went to various charities that Radebe supports.

It is worth noting also that during his time at Leeds he turned down several moves away from Leeds, including manchester united and AC Milan, claiming he had too much of ‘an emotional bond with Leeds and the fans’ to leave.

He played 70 times for his country and is said to be a very good friend of Nelson Mandela’s. On a visit to Leeds, Mandela once said of Radebe, who was stood next to him, “This is my hero”.

One memory I have of The Chief off of the pitch was in Dublin airport coming back from a pre-season tour. I wondered into a shop and came across the Chief looking at some CD’s. His smile was huge and so infectious and we got chatting and then I got him to sign my match ticket from Shelbourne, I then shook his hand and left. Seconds later he was besieged by dozens of youngsters wanting his autograph. I looked back through the shop window and his smile never waned – not for a second.

My favourite memory of him on the pitch was of him scoring a vital goal against Partizan Belgrade at Heerenveen in the UEFA Cup. He scored it while he was on his arse. He also scored a last minute decider against Spartak Moscow in the same competition.

Lucas has a beer named after him – Radabeer – and I’d like you to join me in a toast to The Chief.

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February 2010-Oh Ah Yeboah!

Monaco 1995.

As you probably know, I’m not particularly fond of the French, but I did enjoy my trip to Monaco in the South of France in September 1995. In the first round of the UEFA Cup Leeds had been paired with Monaco, the first leg to be played away at the impressive, but tiny Stade Louis11.

We arrived at ‘The playground for the rich’ a few days before the game and began to immerse ourselves into the local culture, gambling and drinking. Most of us weren’t very good at the first of these, but were experts in the latter. Over the next two days, thousands of Leeds fans descended on the glamorous resort and the beer prices shown on blackboards outside the bars were being constantly ‘upgraded’ to a higher rate of currency. Luckily our lads have become quite experienced in negotiating beer prices.

After many trips to expensive Scandinavia, we have adopted a ploy of seeking out the quiet looking bars and explaining that if the bar owner was prepared to lower his prices a tad, then in return, 50 or so of us would remain in that particular bar for a good few hours. The customer count increases significantly once word gets round amongst fellow Leeds followers.

We have received very few refusals, in fact those that have, soon agree to our ‘terms’ once they see how much these other bars are taking. It’s not uncommon to see blackboards appear outside proclaiming, “Leeds fans welcome here”. On one particular trip to the seaside resort of Stavanger in Norway, Birmingham fans were seen masquerading as Leeds fans to get in on the act.

Meanwhile in the South of France, the kick off was looming and the bars temporarily emptied for a couple of hours. The French Champions, star- studded Monaco were favourites to overturn Leeds. Their team boasted many internationals including Thuram, Boli, Dumas and also the inclusion a young 18-year-old substitute by the name of Thierry Henry. But the French outfit didn’t reckon on the small matter of an awesome player called Tony Yeboah. Howard Wilkinson had snapped Yeboah up from Eintracht Frankfurt the previous January and it was the phenomenal goal rate from the Ghanaian that powered Leeds into Europe after a late run-in. And only weeks before this game in Monaco, Yeboah had made a name for himself on the domestic front scoring two absolute corkers at luckless Wimbledon and firing home a stunning, winning goal at Elland Road against Liverpool. A goal that subsequently was voted ‘Goal of the Season’. After only 3 minutes in Monaco, he had done it again. It was 1-0 at half time and then in the second half, helped by the hard working Brian Deane Yeboah destroyed Monaco with a blistering hatrick. After the final whistle, happy Leeds fans returned to the sea front bars with a huge thirst and huge smiles.

There were also huge smiles on the Leeds plane going home. As the champagne flowed, Howard Wilkinson said, ‘Frankly, I have not come across anybody quite like him. He will tell you that if he gets the ball in or around the box he will score – and he does.’ A modest Yeboah responded with, ‘I had noticed before that their goalkeeper tended to come off his line so I thought why not give it a try. I did and they went in.’

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January 2010-Cloughy & Leeds-Part Two-The Damned United

In the much publicised film Damned United Brian Clough is shown vehemently defending Bremner at the tribunal. And he tries in vain to overturn the punishment for being sent off at Wembley. But I find this part of the film hard to accept. A couple of people I have talked to within the game at the time, describe the incident quite differently. In fact on the whole Damned United is hard to accept. I was invited to a private media screening at 10am one day in Leeds and I have to say that I thought the acting was brilliant. The main four characters Brian Clough (Michael Sheen), Don Revie (Colm Meaney), Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall) and Sam Longson (Jim Broadbent) were portrayed to perfection. But that said, the film was probably about two-thirds fiction and a third, fact. And anyone watching the film with no prior knowledge of the subject is completely mislead.

The film has its funny, albeit inaccurate moments too, like showing the main Leeds United badge on the back of the West Stand being situated on the North West Corner, when in fact it was on the back of the middle of the West Stand. Johnny Giles is the same size as Jack Charlton. And in one scene with Clough ranting at his players supposedly in the tunnel, the massive East Stand looms in the background, despite the film being set in 1974.

I feel the film also viciously attacks Don Revie’s reputation and there are quite a few slurs on his name, particularly near the end when they mention Don Revie and his England days.

I feel that Brian Clough had a deep obsession with Don Revie.

This developed into hatred after an incident in a 1967 FA Cup tie between Derby County, then in the Third Division, and Leeds United, sitting on top of the First Division. The film shows Clough hard at work prior to the arrival of the Leeds team He is single handedly scrubbing the bath and showers clean, polishing the plaque on the visitors dressing room door and placing out all the towels, oranges and ashtrays onto the benches. He then goes outside with the rest of the backroom staff to await the arrival of their First Division opponents. A Wallace Arnold coach slowly drives up to the Baseball Ground (actually Chesterfield’s ground in real life) and it pulls up 100 yards from the gate, where the Leeds players and Don Revie disembark and walk towards the gate.

Clough (Sheen) says, ‘What are they doing?’ to which Taylor (Spall) replies, ‘Its that superstitious twat Revie, he makes them walk the last 100yards before cup-ties.’

What happens next is that during the entire visit, Don Revie appears to ignore Clough, to which he becomes increasingly agitated. Revie speaks regularly to Taylor but not, it seems, to Clough. This was to be the very beginning of Clough’s hate campaign against a man, who was born yards away from him in the back streets of Middlesborough. My theory, and others I know from the game, is that Don Revie clearly thought Taylor was the manager and simply didn’t even notice Clough, who was virtually unknown back then.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Brian Clough arrives at Elland Road in 1974, with his assistant, Jimmy Gordon, to take up his new position in a yellow Mercedes and is met by a smiling Leeds chairman, Manny Cussins.

Only a handful of fans are there to greet Clough, mainly young school children.

His first league game of the season resulted in a 3-0 defeat at Stoke, followed closely by a home defeat by QPR. The following week, Leeds triumphed over Birmingham at Elland Road 1-0, but this was to be the only victory in Clough’s short reign.

Three new players were then brought in by Brian Clough: Duncan McKenzie came from Nottingham Forest for £250,000 while a combined fee of £125 brought in John McGovern and John O’Hare from Derby County.

Leeds then gained a point at QPR, which was followed by another defeat, 2-1 at Man City. The next game was the one that sealed Clough’s fate. A home game against Luton Town saw Leeds fans venting their anger, in particular towards O’Hare and McGovern, and after a disappointing 1-1 draw, Clough was sacked after only 44 days in charge.

Rumours were rife that ‘player power’ had drove Clough out of Elland Road, but the players issued a statement denying this and Manny Cussins told a press conference that the decision had been taken ‘for the good of the club.’

My personal opinion has always been that Leeds United should never have hired Clough, but once they did, they should never have fired him.

Clough went on to have a successful career at Nottingham Forest, but an ex Leeds player and a good friend of the Kippax Whites, John Sheridan, was signed by Nottingham Forest while Clough was away on holiday. Clough returned and was angry a decision had been made in his absence and Sheridan went the entire season without kicking a ball – in fact, Sheridan told me many years ago, ‘All the time I was there at Forest, Clough never spoke a single word to me.’

The most popular chant on the Gelderd End at in September 1974 was, “ Hey Rock and Roll, Cloughie’s on the dole!”

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Cloughy & Leeds-Part One-The Actual Story

I shook hands with Brian Clough just before his first game in charge of Leeds United in August 1974. It was a friendly at Huddersfield Town and I have mentioned before – it was probably the weakest handshake I have ever had, it was almost feminine.

A week later I was in the crowd of 67,000 at Wembley for the Charity Shield game between Champions, Leeds United and Liverpool, the FA Cup Winners. I vividly remember the teams coming out of the tunnel, side by side led by their mangers – Bill Shankly for Liverpool and, quite unbelievably, Brian Clough for Leeds.

This was Shankly’s final game and both the Liverpool and Leeds fans gave him a tremendous reception. The Leeds fans were less friendly towards Brian Clough.  Make no mistake about it, after all the bad mouthing that Clough had given Leeds and Don Revie in particular, over the previous years, it was no surprise that he was despised by the Leeds fans, and his arrival at Leeds had sparked off angry scenes by these fans. Clough had famously slagged off Peter Lorimer at a Sportsman’s dinner in the Queens Hotel in Leeds and had told Eddie Gray that if he had been a racehorse he would have been shot. And of course, in a swipe at Don Revie, he told the Leeds players on his arrival to ‘Throw all your medals away, because you won them by cheating’.

And here he was, leading out these very same players out onto the famous Wembley turf.

The game itself was no great spectacle really and both sides struggled to get a serious hold on the game, even after Phil Boersma had put Liverpool in front after about twenty minutes.

Trevor Cherry equalised in the 70^th minute and the game stuttered into extra time and then onto penalties. The penalties were quite exciting and it ended up being 5-5. Unusually Leeds keeper David Harvey stepped up to take the next penalty. I was about half way up in the end behind the goal and a bloke, ten yards to my left, caught Harvey’s speculative attempt.

Ian Callaghan converted the next penalty to give the Shield to Liverpool.

The highlight of the game had been a fight between Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner.

Both threw off their shirts as they were ordered off. They were each charged with bringing the game into disrepute, fined £500 and banned for 11 games.

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We Hate manchester united!

This month, we let Gary go wild with his blog, so here he goes with another fantastic blog, and this month it’s about Leeds beating manchester united.

Memories of beating manchester united – ah, where do you start?

I’ve not spoken their name for over 40 years and I don’t intend to ever do so. I hated them the first time I ever saw them, which was at Elland Road early in the 1966/67 season. We won 3-1. Paul Reaney, Peter Lorimer and Paul Madeley grabbing the honours.

I hadn’t been allowed to travel to the away game with manchester united a few months before this, but I’ve noticed since, that full-back Paul Reaney scored in that game too, a 1-1 draw, he must have hated them as much as me. I also noticed too that the attendance for that 1-1 draw was just over 35,000 and in the game at Elland Road it was just over 45,000.

The following season I travelled to Old Trafford for the first time.

I’d gone with my Dad and my Uncle John.. It was pre-M62 days and we went over the Pennines in my Uncle Johns lime green Ford Anglia. It seemed to take absolutely ages and as we descended into enemy territory I remember my Dad turning round to me in the back seat and saying, “You’d better pull that in now son,” I’d been proudly flying my woollen Leeds scarf out of the window all the way there.

Once in the ground, my eyes wondered around the crowd noticing huge pockets of Leeds fans dotted all around. Fights broke out at the end of the game as we lost 1-0.

But we got revenge two months later, beating them 1-0 at Elland Road.

These days a lot of people look to my hatred of manchester united as jealousy. I can understand that, but nothing could be further from the truth. We used to beat them on a regular basis and my hatred towards them grew with every game, they were always so arrogant. We knocked them out of the FA Cup semi-final at the City Ground, Nottingham in 1965, when the legendary Billy Bremner got the winner, and I was there to watch them beat them in the FA Cup semi-final in 1970, again Billy Bremner got the winner. This particular tussle however, was a long one. Bremner’s winner came in the second replay at Bolton, after 0-0 draws at Hillsborough and Villa Park respectively. I was at every one of these games with my Dad and can honestly remember just about every kick. For the game at Bolton I was riddled with flu I was weak but ecstatic. I wouldn’t have missed that game for the world. For the last five minutes or so, the stands echoed constantly with the chant, “We shall not be moved,” It was awesome!

In September 1969 manchester visited Elland Road and there was a really bizzarre occurrence. Only the season before, Leeds fans had moved from the ‘home end’ of the famous Scratching Shed and moved to the new Spion Kop on the Gelderd Road end of the ground and away fans would than go in the Shed. In those days, fans would get to the ground early and the many bars beneath the Kop would be bristling. You could even take your pint upstairs onto the terraces, albeit in a plastic glass. On this particular afternoon, I was sat on the terracing reading my programme when I heard someone shout, “They’re coming over the pitch!” Those cheeky fans from across the Pennines apparently fancied their chances of ‘taking the Gelderd’ and hundreds of them had left the Shed and were coming across the pitch at us in the Kop.

They actually got into the Kop and scuffles broke out at the front.

Then, as word spread in the bars beneath, Leeds fans appeared from everywhere, and for the want of a better phrase – waded into the enemy. Frankly it didn’t take long and the ‘invaders’ that were still standing were soon being escorted either out of the ground or back into the Shed. The gamevwas slightly disappointing. George Best always said that Paul Reaney was the most difficult defender he ever faced, and with Leeds winning 1-0, Best was safely in ‘Reaney’s Pocket’. Then, unusually, Reaney got injured and had to go off. Within 10 minutes, Best had scored two goals to put them in front. Their fans, some wearing bandages from their experience in the Kop, were delirious. Thankfully, that old hero Billy Bremner was on hand to score an overhead kick to salvage a point.

My dislike for them hasn’t wavered over the years, in fact, if anything it’s got stronger.

When the Queen inadvertently knighted Alex Ferguson I was so incensed, that I took down her picture, which hangs in my lounge, and placed her in the cupboard beneath the stairs. I then wrote to her at Buckingham Palace to register my disgust. She actually replied blaming Tony Blair for the decision and that my letter had been passed onto him at Downing Street. Blair’s reply wasn’t that encouraging, claiming that he ‘thought it was the right decision at the time’. After two weeks I hung the Queen back on my wall, and what did she do next? She only went and gave David Beckham the OBE. Enough’s enough I said to her as she was whisked back into the cupboard. It was almost 6 months before she was returned to my lounge wall.

I love David Wetherall and he will remain in Leeds folklore forever after notching a couple of tasty winners against them in the 90’s. We once beat them 3-1 at Elland Road on Christmas Eve. I had taped the game and went home, took out the tape, wrapped it up in Xmas paper and put it under the tree addressed to myself for the following morning.

What a Christmas that was!

Finally in closing, a couple of years ago, I compiled my favourite 100 goals scored by Leeds United.

Every single one was against manchester united.

So as a special treat for all you Whitby lads and lasses, here they are.

100 Greatest Leeds United Goals (All against manchester united)

1 Mick Jones August 1970 (a) 2 Billy Bremner Semi Final FA Cup April 1970. 3Brian Flynn Feb 1981 (a). 4 Allan Clarke March 1978 (a) 5 Alan Smith Feb 2004 a) 6 Billy Bremner FA Cup Semi Final 1965. 7 Mel Sterland Dec 1990 (a) 8 David Wetherall Sept 1994 (h) 9 Lee Chapman August 1991 (a) 10 John Charles March 1957 (h). 11 Gary McAllister Dec 1995 (h) 12 Peter Lorimer August 1966 (h) 13 Mike O’Grady January 1969 (h) 14 Frank McKenna November 1958 (a) 15 Derek Parlane May 1980 (h) 16 Terry Connor December 1979 (h) 17 Mick Jones (2nd) Feb 1972 18 Rod Belfitt October 1970 (h) 19 Mick Jones (1st) February 1972 20 Paul Reaney (header!) August 1966 (a) 21 Tony Yeboah December 1995 (h) 22 Mick Jones (3rd) February 1972 (h) 23 Allan Clarke February 1972 (h) 24 Bobby Collins December 1964 (a) 25 Harry Duggan November 1931 (a) 26 Peter Lorimer February 1972 (h) 27 Allan Clarke October 1975 (h) 28 George Ainsley November 1945 (a) 29 Allan Clarke December 1972 (a) 30 Paul Reaney May 1966 (h) 31 Tom Jennings January 1927 (h) 32 Kevin Hird (great pen) May 1980 (h) 33 Paul Madeley August 1966 (h) 34 Mark Viduka October 2001 (h) 35 Wilbur Cush September 1959 (h) 36 Mel Sterland December 1991 (h) 37 Jimmy Greenhoff November 1967 (h) 38 David Wetherall September 1997 (h) 39 Chris Crowe September 1959 (h) 40 John Charles ( great pen) November 1956 (a) 41 Gordon Hodgson April 1939 (h) 42 Percy Whipp (wot a name!)(a) December 923 (h) 43 Tom Jennings February 1926 (a) 44 Russell Wainstcoat December 1950 (h) 45 Ray Hankin September 1977 (h) 46 Joe Jordan February 1974 (h) 47 Bobby Turnbull (2nd) 1930 (h) 48 Billy Bremner September 1969 (h) 49 Alan Shackelton November 1958 (h) 50 Brian Deane December 1995 (h) 51 Mark Viduka March 2003 (a) 52 Lee Bowyer March 2001 (h) 53 Jim Storrie January 1966 (h) 54 Mick Jones January 1970 (a) 55 Willie Bennet March 1932 (h) 56 John Thompson November 1936 (h) 57 Billy Bremner January 1970 (a) 58 Billy Furness November 1931 (a) 59 Bobby Turnbull (3rd) December 1930 (h) 60 Joe Firth April 1930 (h) 61 Brian Deane September 1994 (h) 62 John Armand September 1928 (h) 63 Russell Wainscoat October 1925 (h) 64 Billy Bremner March 1976 (a) 65 Eric Stephenson November 1936 (h) 66 Major Frank Buckley April 1939 (h) 67 Bobby Turnbull (1st) December 1930 (h) 68 Tom Jennings September October 1927 (h) 69 Russell Wainscoat (pen) September 1926 (h) 70 Eric Longden December 1929 (a) 71 Tom Jennings (pen) January 1927 (h) 72 Tony Yeboah February 1995 FA Cup (a) 73 Charlie Keetley September 1928 (h) 74 Joe Firth (1st) November 1931 (a) 75 Tom Jennings 1926 (a) 76 Russell Wainscoat 1928 (h) 77 David Cochrane April 1947 (a) 78 Mark Viduka March 2002 (h) 79 William Short November 1945 (h) 80 Hugh Baird January 1958 (h) 81 Jimmy Hasselbaink April 1999 (h) 82 Charlie Keetley December 1930 (h) 83 Ernie Hart January 1929 (a) 84 Mick Jones January 1969 (h) 85 Trevor Cherry March 1976 (a) 86 Joe Firth (2nd) 1931 (a) 87 George Ainsley April 1934 (h) 88 Joseph Henry November 1945 (h) 89 Ian Harte March 2002 (h) 90 Ray Hankin March 1979 (a) 91 Billy Furness 1930 (h) 92 Charlie Keetley April 1930 (h) 93 Charlie Keetley January 1929 (a) 94 Chris Whyte League Cup Semi final Feb 1991 (a) 95 Jack Charlton October 1970 (h) 96 Peter Lorimer October 1971 (a) 97 Allan Clarke April 1977 FA Cup semi-final 98 Paul Hart August 1978 (h) 99 Mick Jones February 1974 (h) 100 Frank Gray August 1978 (h).

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We went and won 4-3!

This month, Gary Edwards talks about a match that will stick in the mind of all Leeds fans for a long time. A match in which Kevin Blackwell’s team showed a lot of fighting spirit, and came back from 3-0 down to win 4-3… In the last 20 minutes!

For the visit to St Mary’s four years ago a few of us decided to travel in style. Four of us each paid £37 for a one way flight to Southampton.

In the airport I was feeling nervous – not because of flying, which I happen to love – but because the flight was scheduled to leave at 12.45 pm. Two hours from which, United would be kicking off 250 miles away.

As we quaffed a few pints in the bar we constantly watched the Information Board. I had a mate standing by with his super-charged Subaru, should the message “Southampton 54D 12.45 delayed” appear on the screen.

I needn’t have worried and couple of whiskies and 25 minutes later we touched down at Southampton airport and a taxi took us to our mates in the pub near the ground. They had set off at 6.30am from Leeds that morning so we had some drinking to do to catch them up. We would be returning on their coach to Leeds the next morning after a night in a hotel.

The game itself got off to a bad start, which gradually got worse. By half time Leeds were 3-0 down to a Saints side which contained a certain horrible little Dennis Wise in their midfield.

Some Leeds fans made their way to the exits and left to go to the nearest pub. The majority converged on the bars downstairs to drown their sorrows A couple of pints later and the chant of “We’re gonna win 4-3” rang out.

However, 25 minutes into the second half the score was still 3-0. Spirits were lifted slightly when Paul Butler pulled one back for Leeds with 19 minutes remaining. The Leeds faithful managed a slightly muted “We’re gonna win 4-3” which got louder when Leeds got another goal 6 minutes later thanks to Robbie Blake. Leeds fans went wild in the 84th minute when David Healy blasted home a penalty to make it 3-3.

Quite unbelievably Leeds grabbed a winner minutes later – I’ll let my old mate Andy Starmore who wrote the following in his brilliant new book, “We are Leeds” tell the story of those closing minutes:

“The Leeds support that day was immense. I am convinced we just sucked the ball into the net for the winner that day. The statistics will tell you that Liam Miller found the back of the net for the winner following a low cross from Rob Hulse. What the statistics won’t tell you is

that it was cause for the Leeds fans to erupt into sheer euphoria. The whole end was like one massive group hug jumping on a giant trampoline. The final whistle blew and the Leeds players hugged. Then they came over to our end. The mutual appreciation society had gone into overdrive. The Saints fans disappeared quicker than Doctor Who’s Tardis. We had just witnessed a quite astonishing 90 minutes of football.”

A deafening rendition of “ 4-3, We’ve gone and won 4-3!” echoed all around the ground as Southampton fans scurried for the exits.

We went back to the pub where the Leeds fans that had left, were drinking. They couldn’t believe the final score. Nor could I!

Back in our hotel bar there were a few Southampton fans that were quite simply in a daze at what they had just seen. They were visibly shell-shocked and they couldn’t believe it either!

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We beat the Catalans!

April 1975, near the end of the season, and an eventful one at that Brian Clough was manager for 44 days at the beginning, after he was sacked, Jimmy Armfield took over, and turned it around, and now, Gary talks about one of the greatest night in the history of Leeds United.

Back in April 1975, I had served my apprenticeship and had been a qualified painter and decorator for over two years. I was working for a firm called JF Meehan in Leeds and was with a gang of four decorators decorating new houses on a building site in Garforth 3 miles from my home in Kippax.

Without getting technical, before new wood such as skirting boards and architrave’s was fixed it had to primed with white paint on both sides. This was a laborious job and was often delegated to the apprentice. As there wasn’t an apprentice on this particular job, I volunteered to do it. The priming was done in a shed in the middle of a field with no contact with anyone except the odd joiner coming to grab some skirting or doors to fix.

The other decorators thought I was mad to volunteer for this task, but it was all part of my plan to watch Leeds United.

The boss of Meehans was a bloke called Dick Coates and he was quite a nasty man on the face of it. He too was a Leeds fan and he soon learned of my love of the club. He thought it was great that I supported Leeds, as long as I did it in my own time.

To do this of course would mean missing the midweek away games not to mention the European away trips.

This is why I opted for the priming job, as no one would miss me should I slip away to a game.

One such game was the European Cup semi-final against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in April 1975.

A travel firm at the time called Camkin Sports used to organise tickets and travel to United’s European games, some of the trips were one day only, and I booked myself on this one. The flight was leaving at 11.30am from Leeds airport and a mate of mine arrived to pick me up near the back of the field at about half past nine. I quickly got changed, got my flag and wrapped my silk Leeds scarf around my neck and we were off.

I had left some freshly painted doors and stuff waiting outside of the shed in case a joiner happened to call.

We had a few hours in Barcelona before heading to the stadium and it seemed that everything was painted in the blue and red stripes of Barcelona. Cars, buses even scooters and mopeds. Flags were everywhere and it was hard to spot any Leeds fans anywhere. This was because Barcelona had only allocated Leeds 1,500 tickets out of 90,000 and even then they split us up in different corners of the ground, so we could make hardly any impact at all.

Barcelona fans were very confident of overturning a 2-1 defeat they suffered in the first leg at Elland Road after goals from Allan Clarke and Billy Bremner. Before the game many of them were allowed to parade around the pitch carrying huge banners. One of these banners which was about 40ft square had a cartoon of Johan Cruyff driving a tank over some Leeds players and in the background was the Eiffel Tower, Paris being the venue for the eventual final.

Another flag simply said, ‘Advanca Barca!’

Leeds stunned Barcelona when a blistering shot from Peter Lorimer made it 3-1 on aggregate.

Bizarrely, at half time Barcelona fans started throwing cabbages at us, but we didn’t care.

The second half was nerve racking to say the least, as the home side put Leeds under immense pressure so much so that I could hardly watch and spent much of the time with my head buried in my Leeds flag. Then to make matters worse, Gordon McQueen was sent off for retaliating. Shortly after Barcelona equalised to make it 1-1 on the night. Leeds were still penned into their own half and Leeds ‘keeper, Dave Stewart was absolutely superb that night, pulling off some breathtaking saves. The Spanish fans were beginning to get impatient and hundreds of cushions were thrown onto the pitch from the main stand in frustration. The minutes dragged by for us and when the final whistle went, I thought I was going to burst. Leeds had won 3-2 on aggregate to reach the European Cup Final for the first and, to date, only time. There was so much emotion inside me that I just kept punching the air and shouting. The 90,000 home fans disappeared, leaving pockets of Leeds fans dancing all around the stadium. Outside there was hardly a Barcelona fan to be seen – just Leeds fans celebrating with large bottles of Sangria.

We touched down in Leeds at about 3am and five hours later I was back at work.

At around 10 ’0 Clock Dick Coates arrived on the site.

“Morning Gary, did you watch the match last night? Great eh?” He said.

Live games were very rarely on TV those days. There would be just a ‘Match of the Day’ type programme on late in the evening.

“Yes, I saw it, great”, I said.

We talked about the game a while and then Dick left.

As he left the field I took my programme from Barcelona out of my bag and smiled.

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Are You Watching Manchester?

17 years ago, Sgt. Wilko lead Leeds United to the Division 1 title, and now, Gary Edwards relives that glorious season.

As the start of the 1991/92 season was about to begin, Gordon Strachan said, “There’s only one United’s name on this seasons League Championship, and its not Leeds”.

Not even our diminutive, flame haired midfielder Strachan, dubbed the ‘Red Dwarf’ by some because of his loyalties to those at the wrong side of the border, could have predicted what would unfold during the next nine months.

‘Sergeant Wilko’ had taken over the reigns at Elland Road in October 1988 and in just two seasons had guided Leeds back into the First Division. Vinnie Jones and keeper Mervyn Day had been vital to Leeds promotion season in 1989/90, but both these players were sacrificed when Leeds climbed into the top flight. I personally felt much sympathy for both these players as John Lukic replaced Day and Gary McAllister replaced Vinnie. One of the main factors behind United’s surge upward had been Vinnie Jones, what a character. The first thing he did when United won promotion at Bournemouth in May 1990 was to have a Leeds United tattoo on his leg. To this day Vinnie has retained a special relationship with Leeds United fans.

I also felt slight resentment to Lukic’s appointment, as he deserted Leeds when they were relegated back in 1982.

That said, there was no doubting Howard Wilkinsons potential as a manager as Leeds opened their 1990/91 campaign at Goodison Park. United took Everton by surprise and were quickly 3-0 up. I remember the delight of the travelling hordes of Leeds fans as Everton Keeper Neville Southall came out for the second half long before his team-mates, and sat sulking at the foot of one of his posts. He was apparently disgusted at the lack of cover from his defence in the first half. Everton did rally in the second half, but United held on to win 3-2.

Leeds first home game of this campaign quite fittingly was against that lot from over the Pennines. Leeds absolutely pounded them throughout, but the visitors escaped with a point from a 0-0 draw.

Leeds, however, more than consolidated their First Division status finishing in the top four.

Wilko continued spending during the close season and added Tony Dorigo, Rod Wallace and Steve Hodge to his squad. He then swooped on his old club Sheffield Wednesday and signed defensive partnership Jon Newsome and the excellent David Wetherall. The first game saw Leeds beat Liverpool for the first time since 1974 with a Steve Hodge goal and 10 games into the season Leeds were neck and neck with that lot over the border. ‘They’ had been installed as favourites and were 6 points ahead of us at the top with a game in hand. Leeds kept plugging away and a couple of months later a brilliant 4-1 win at Villa Park saw Leeds go to the top of the league for the first time since 1974.

Leeds then released several players. Chris Kamara went to Luton. Mervyn Day and Imre Viradi went to the same club on loan. Glynn Snodin went north of the border to Hearts. Andy Williams moved to Notts County and Mike Whitlow and Simon Grayson both moved to Leicester City.

On New Years Day Leeds won 3-1 at West Ham whilst Nottingham Forest won at Old Trafford 4-1. Leeds travelled to Hillsborough later and took part in the then highest ever win recorded on live television by thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 6-1. Despite these terrific wins, the Lancastrians were still top and were still favourites.

Then Howard Wilkinson signed an unknown Frenchman by the name of Eric Cantina (or something like that). Two successive home wins against Luton (2-0) and Wimbledon (5-1) respectively saw Leeds move top by two points but we had played three games more.

Then we only managed draws against West Ham and Arsenal and then lost 4-0 at Man City. It was at about this time that a red fan had ‘Champions’ tattooed on his leg, he was so confident that the title was theirs.

A couple of days later, that Mr Cantina scored quite a good goal as Leeds beat Chelsea 3-0 at Elland Road.

As Leeds kept snapping at the heels of their rivals, ‘they’ were dropping the odd point here and there. Leeds were now two points behind and ‘they’ had only one game in hand.

At this stage of the season we had 3 games left. Coventry at home, Sheffield United away and Norwich at home. They had Forest at home, West Ham away, Liverpool away and Spurs at home.

Leeds beat Coventry at Elland Road and then news filtered through that Forest had won 2-1 at Old Trafford. Then they lost their ‘game in hand’ at West Ham.

It was game on.

We then had to travel to Sheffield United on the same day that they travelled to Anfield.

Ironically should we both slip up, Sheffield Wednesday could have actually won the league. But as you know, we won 3-2 at Brammall Lane, two hours later they lost 2-0 at Anfield and it was party time.

I’ll never forget that day as long as I live.

When I awoke late on the Monday I can still remember the television reports saying ‘They had lost the league’ – and not that we had won it.

Just for the record, we won our final game against Norwich at Elland Road with a Rod Wallace goal, and won the League by 4 clear points.

We won it – believe me – we won it.

Unfortunately Howard Wilkinson turned into a Martian the following season and despite what happened the following years, this still meant that we had won the title 3 times since ‘they’ had last won it. (1967)

That’ll do me.

See you next time, Gary.

We are Leeds.

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Mingling With Giants

Well, every time Leeds United are on Sky Sports, you hear about this, but now, Gary is going to talk about it, but I can gaurantee that he won’t be as boring as them Sky Sports commentators!

It seems an age away when we were stomping around Europe in the Champions League mixing it with Europe’s top dogs.

8 years is a long time ago but memories of our travels around the continent during that special era are still very fresh in my mind.

First we arrived in the ‘beer capital’ of the world, Munich for the qualifier with Munich 1860. Leeds had won the first leg 2-1 at Elland Road despite some very bizarre refereeing decisions from referee, Costas Kapitanis from Cyprus. Leeds manager at the time, David O’Leary said it was ‘The worst display of refereeing I have ever seen in my life’ And even the EUFA observer at the game said, ‘He (Kapitanis) just wasn’t good enough’.

Munich’s coach/manager Werner Lorant was very optimistic about beating Leeds in Germany. And he made a big thing about saying so too. Anyway somebody called Alan Smith scored the only goal of the game at the Olympic Stadium and from then we partied.

Leeds fans of course were everywhere and take it from me there is no such thing as a bad German lager. Even their glasses are bigger than ours back home, but you soon acclimatise.

The thing that stood out for me during this little adventure, (Pinocchio Ridsdale called it a dream, but I don’t see it like that) was how all the teams that came up against us, thought we were a pushover.

Having swept aside Munich 1860, we were only the third seeds when the draw was made for the first stages of the Champions League. Which of course meant that in our group there would be at least two giants. And there they were – AC Milan and Barcelona.

The suggestion that we may be pushovers was reinforced with the opening game against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Although Leeds were seriously hit by injuries, Barcelona romped home 4-0. Us fans nursed our wounds with a few light ales into the small hours in Barcelona and by the end of our session we had convinced ourselves that we would enjoy the rest of the group games ‘no matter what’.

Well, Leeds were made of sterner stuff and picked themselves up to begin battle.

Just months after the tragic deaths of two Leeds fans in Istanbul, UEFA in their wisdom paired us up against another Turkish outfit – Besiktas. So another trip to Istanbul was taken and only 138 Leeds fans were allowed to travel.

It was an absolute farce. We were met at the airport by hundreds of riot police, and Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale. We were then put on coaches and driven to within yards of the stadium. Then we were all put on a boat and sailed up and down the Bosphorus river for four hours to keep us away from home fans. It was supposed to be a ‘dry boat’ to prevent rouble, but we’d heard beforehand of this nasty scheme, so we were prepared. Sat at the front of the boat Whitby John and I happily quaffed a few bottles of secretly stashed bottles of wine, merrily waving at the hundreds of onlookers watching this boat just sailing round in circles. I had also made and taken a flag with me for the occasion, as it hung over the side it proclaimed, “ LUFsea”

As it turned out, the Besiktas fans were ok with us and stood with Leeds fans that night were large groups of Fenerbache fans, Galatassaray’s arch rivals. Coupled with the tragic events a few months before and the small matter of the two clubs colours being the same, Fenerbache fans pledged to support Leeds “all the way”.

Its not something new for these fans to support Leeds- I found a picture in a football magazine of the Fenerbache fans in full cry at a game – and right in the middle if them is a fan wearing a Leeds shirt.

A 0-0 draw in Turkey followed by a 6-0 thrashing of them in the return at Elland Road, saw Leeds progress continue. A superb victory over AC Milan at Elland Road saw Leeds need just a draw in Milan to go through to the second group stage. Italy is a great country – for a holiday- not football – the police there are so over-zealous and over-bearing that it has to be seen to be believed. They close all the bars in the centre, despite protests from bar owners. We usually hop on a tram and travel a couple of stops and drink without any problems from potty policemen. A Dom Matteo goal was enough to secure a draw and send Leeds through.

Once again Leeds were being labelled as pushovers, but they had a few surprises up their all white sleeves.

Leeds then swept aside the mighty Lazio. Next up was the Belgian outfit, Anderlecht. A tough game at Elland Road saw Leeds edge it 2-1, but the Belgian coach Aime Anthuenis called Leeds a ‘pub team’ and that there was ‘no way they would get anything in Belgium’.

A couple of Stellas later, thousands of Leeds fans packed into the, less than impressive, Grand Place and witnessed what will go down as one of Leeds United greatest performances in Europe. They absolutely played Anderlecht off the park, running out easy winners 4-1. It was all the more satisfying when you consider that Anderlecht are almost invincible (usually) at home.

Later we visited the Bernabeu (for me not a patch on the Nou Camp) and went down, very controversially, 3-2 to Real Madrid but Leeds had done enough previously to go into the all important knock out stages.

Next up were another team who saw Leeds as an easy touch.

Deportivo La Coruna, who labelled Leeds as ‘the weakest team left in the competition’ and arrived at Elland Road supremely confident. A couple of hours later they were flying back to Spain having been thrashed 3-0.

La Coruna was a nice little coastal town with lots of small bars dotted around as we prepared for the second leg. We knew it wasn’t over despite leading 3-0. Deportivo were a very good side and in the previous game they had overturned a 3-0 deficit against Paris St Germain to go through to this round. Indeed it was a very nail-biting ordeal with United just hanging on and going through 3-2 on aggregate.

Unfortunately, having being paired with Valencia in the semi final, Leeds seemed to finally run out of steam and a disappointing 0-0 draw at Elland Road meant there was a massive hurdle to overcome in Spain. Valencia ran out convincing winners 3-0 to end Leeds very impressive European adventure. And give the fans’ bank balance a well-earned rest.

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Shankly & Revie-Best of pals

This month, Gary talks about the Leeds-Liverpool bond in the 60′s and 70′s.

Don Revie was the greatest manager Leeds United ever had and his accomplishments in the 60′s and 70′s are there for all to see. It also has to be said that Liverpool’s Bill Shankly was also a great manager. Revie and Shankly forged a special friendship and every Sunday morning would telephone each other and discuss how their respective teams had got on the previous day.

They even spoke the day after their teams had played each other, I’ll bet they were great conversations. You can just imagine Dons dear wife Elsie, what a lovely woman she was, bringing Don his Sunday breakfast in bed and Don covering the phone receiver with his hand and saying ‘Shssh love, its Bill,’

Leeds enjoyed quite a lot of success at Anfield and with that in mind I’ll share some of the highlights with you from that particular era.

When ever I needed time off from school to go to midweek away games including abroad, I would ask my Ma and Dad and provided I kept up with my homework they would allow me to be ‘Absent without Leave’. For European games

But the 28^th April 1969 was different. Leeds were playing Liverpool at Anfield and needed just one point to win their first ever League Championship. The trouble was that it seemed that every boy in the school was going that night.

I decided to take a note from my Ma saying that I was a big Leeds fan and would like to leave early to go to the match. Miss Yates wasn’t a bad old stick really and she said I could go, but if anyone said anything to me I was to say, ‘I had a dentists appointment’.

I remember being really nervous before the game as I stood near the front with my Dad and my mate Andy Robinson. Predictably it was a very close match and a 0-0 draw gave Leeds the point they needed. After the game, as 10,000 Leeds fans celebrated, me and Andy, did our usual party-piece and ran onto the pitch. We didn’t get far because of the police and as we ran off, I bent down and picked up some turf.

I still have it today in a small plastic bag, although it looks more like an illegal substance than a piece of turf.

That night, the Liverpool Kop chanted the name of ‘Leeds United’ and ‘Champions’ as a tribute to the new title holders.

I have many fond memories of games against Liverpool at Anfield, like in 1971 when Leeds won the Fairs Cup Semi Final 1^st leg 1-0 thanks to a Billy Bremner header. A 0-0 draw in the 2^nd leg saw United in the final and a victory gave Leeds the Fairs Cup (UEFA Cup) for the second time in four years. Another was New Years Day 1972 when Leeds won 2-0. That same year we went on to beat them 2-0 in an FA Cup replay at Elland Road, after a 0-0 draw at Anfield.

That replay at Elland Road was an eventful day at school. It was during a miners strike and consequent power cuts, which meant that midweek games had to be played in the afternoon due to not being able to use the floodlights.

We, the pupils, had been told by the headmaster Mr Scott at morning assembly that no-one would be allowed to leave school to go to the game that afternoon. Dozens and dozens of pupils with match tickets gathered in the massive lawns in front of the school at dinnertime. Bizarrely, the teachers had stood at the far end of the lawn, with arms linked to block our passage to escape to the nearby train station, I kid you not.

Just then, an amazing decoy appeared, someone who even today must remain anonymous had set fire to the school library. Most of the teachers ran inside to assist.

Some teachers however remained on the lawn and linked arms. It was like something you see on the telly with these riots and stuff. Anyway one of the lads (another anonymous) punched the science teacher Mr Jones knocking him to the ground. The other teachers went to help him and around 30 school children were soon making their way up Garforth Main Street and onto a train to Leeds.

As the train pulled up, dozens of school children clambered aboard. On the train was a handful of Liverpool fans from Hull. The sight of us all still in our school uniforms white shirts and dark ties etc, we must have looked like a cross between Reservoir Dogs and the Blues Brothers, kept those East Yorkshire scousers quiet all the way into Leeds.

Of course Leeds won the game, most of the library books were saved and we went on to win the FA Cup against Arsenal.

It was my last year at school and I’d only stayed on that year to get my Art, History and English O Level, but the corridors outside the halls of power were full the next morning as extensive detention orders were dished out.

But it was worth it.

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May-Who Put The Ball In The Arsenal Net? Clarkey! Clarkey!

This month, Gary talks about the only time Leeds have lifted the F.A cup in 1972.

The 6th of May 1972 was one of the best days i’ve ever spent in my entire life. At that time my dad & me were season ticket holders in the West Stand standing paddock, which was to the left of the tunnel as you look at it from the pitch. Which meant that we were guaranteed to get a cup final ticket against Arsenal.

I used to love queing overnight for tickets, so when the went on sale at Elland Road I went with some mates and queued overnight, although I had already got my ticket. Next down the pecking after the season ticket holders were the tokens & away programmes.

Basically, what you had to do was cut out the token that was printed on the front of the programme and stick it to your token sheet (I have one in my collection somewhere, I’ll show it to you at a later date). If my memory serves me right you needed 15 or 16 tokens to be eligible, also you needed 6 or 7 away programmes from that season. I took these along to get a ticket for someone else.

Hundreds of fans would converge on Elland Road the night before tickets went on sale. Sleeping bags, chairs, beer, flasks and many footballs were the order of the day. Very few people slept as a massive game of football took place-near on 100 on each side-then people would begin to settle down in their sleeping bags or chairs & blankets and swap stories about following Leeds United Football Club. Their was a lad there that night that used to play the flute. He still goes to matches now. He would play Leeds songs on his flute and everyone would join in. Also there would be lads with tambourines & guitars. I had just left school a few weeks before and felt part of something  very special.

The night before the match, me and my dad set off for Wembley in his trusty old Ford Transit van. We arrived in the Edgeware Road part of London at about 10pm and parked up in a car park. In the back of the van there were 2 old bus seats which my dad had made into makeshift beds and with loads of blankets and fluffy pillows we fell asleep. The next morning I was awoken by the beatiful smell of bacon. My dad had set up a little stove in the back of the van and was preparing the breakfast. As we washed the plates up afterwards I recall it starting to rain and my dad said, “it’s going to be a good day today son.’

This was the centenary cup final, and as the teams walked out of the tunnel, the flags of all the teams that had won the cup in the first 100 years flanked them. Tommy Steele, dressed in all white, led the communal singing out on the pitch as the sun broke through the clouds.

The atmosphere was electric and the Leeds fans were the loudest I’d ever heard them.

They got their reward early in the second half when a superb diving header by Allan Clarke found the back of the net to put Leeds in front and send the Leeds fans into raptures.

In the dying moments Mick Jones crossed the ball but fell awkwardly and dislocated his shoulder. He was still lying flat out when the final whistle went and Leeds had won the cup. Jones was obviously in agony, as the club doctor, Doc Adams strapped up his shoulder and arranged for him to be taken to hospital. With this been the Centenary Year the Queen was present to give out the medals and there was no way Mick Jones was going to miss out on going up the stairs to meet her and get his medal. Norman Hunter helped him up the stairs, but when he got to the Queen she told Jones that she had nothing for him. Apparently Mick Bates had taken the medal to give to him later. Leeds fans were at the tunnel end as Mick was helped away, and the chant of MI…MIC…MICK – MICK JONES! was absolutely deafening.

What a fantastic day.

And yet it was tarnished with events during the next 48 hours.

The Football Association has never been on Leeds United’s Christmas card list, but on the Monday night after the Wembley final, the FA ordered Leeds to play Wolves away in the final league game of the season. Their reasons were simple to them. England had a game later that week and several Leeds players were required. They could play Wolves on Wednesday if they so wished, but they would have to do so without key players, who were needed by England.

The thing is – this was no ordinary league game.

Leeds needed just one point to secure the league title and achieve the coveted League and Cup double.

Reluctantly, Don Revie opted for the Monday night option.

Mick Jones of course was injured and Allan Clarke who had taken several knocks at Wembley had to play with the aid of painkillers. But even then he had to be replaced at an early stage by Terry Yorath.

Well over 20,000 Leeds fans turned up at Molineux and each and every one witnessed one of the most corrupt displays of refereeing ever recorded. Mr W J Gow from Swansea was the man responsible. And don’t misunderstand this as a shameless plug for my next book, but events that night were so bizarre and so ‘bent’ that I’ve dedicated a whole chapter to the whole sordid affair.

Suffice to say that Leeds lost 2-1, and Derby County who were on holiday in Majorca, won the league.

However, the following week Leeds added a second trophy to the cabinet by beating Halifax Town in the final of the West Riding Cup.

The notes on the inside of the programme from that evening express the disappointment from the club, but they still manage to thank the fans.

Talking about the disappointment for the fans, I can’t leave without briefly mentioning the play-offs.

There – that’s it. Gone.

See you next season, I’m convinced in my own heart that we have the right manager and that he’ll already be on the case.

Have a good holiday, charge those batteries and converge on Elland Road in August like never before.

We are Leeds. Always.

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April-Czech Mate

This month, Gary talks about Leeds Vs. Standard Liege match when he was only 12.

There was somethng special about european games at Elland road in the 1960′s. As Leeds rose to prominence throughout Europe they rubbed shoulders with all the top sides. Real Zaragoza, Dynamo Zagreb, Upjest Dozsa and many others. One game that particularly stands out for me was against the Belgian side Standard Liege in September, 1968. It was the first round of the Inter cities Fairs Cup (Now UEFA Cup) and having held Standard to a 0-0 draw in Belgium, Leeds were fancied for the 2nd leg.

I was 12 in those days ans I used to stand on the Lowfields Road terracing directly opposite the players tunnel. My dad and me would be there, along with thousands of others, even before the floodlights came on. I used to love the moment (still do) when those white shirts emerged from the tunnel, so when these white shirts came out onto the pitch we all cheered and began waving our scarves. But there was something unusual about these white shirts. Where was the ginger haired Billy Bremner? Where was Big Jack? Then it dawned on us. These white shirts we were cheering belonged to Standard Liege.

The Belgians had arrived in Leeds without a change of kit, and simply just ran out in their own kit. So when Leeds appeared, there were 20 white shirts out on the pitch and a lot of talk was going on between the teams and officials. After about ten minutes of confusion, Leeds disappeared back down the tunnel. Another ten minutes later they re-appeared dressed in unfamiliar blue shirts and shorts and socks. It was revealed some time later that has Leeds not agreed to switching colours, they could have been awarded the game without playing it.

After a quarter of an hour into the 2nd half, I imagine they would have been wishing they refused to wear blue. Standard were 2-0 up and Leeds looked in trouble. Then with about 20 minutes left, Big Jack Charlton headed one back for Leeds. I can still vividly recall the sight of Paul Madeley surging forward with the ball on numerous occasions as Leeds pinned down the Belgian defence. After a free -kick was awarded to Leeds on the edge of the box, Peter Lorimer fired home to bring the sides level but at 2-2 the Belgians still held the advantage. The noise from the crowd was absolutely deafening as Leeds mounted attack after attack towards the Gelderd End. Then with seconds left, Billy Bremner bundled the ball over the line from a corner and the whole stadium went berserk. In those days the Elland Road pitch used to be covered in straw before a game to protect it. The straw was then stacked up against the wall, and all the kids would climb over the wall and sit on it. When the whistle went me and my mate Andy Robinson jumped up from the piles of straw and ran onto the pitch. I ran to Bremner and I think Andy ran to Norman Hunter. We then started bouncing up and down like to demented idiots.