April 28 – Leeds Join the Elite
APRIL 28, 1969: this is the day Leeds United finally reached the top table of English football after years of being the coming team.
The occasion was a league match at Anfield but it was so much more than that. A point against Liverpool would be enough for Leeds to secure their first ever League title.
Skip to 5:30 for the story of the match
Phil Brown wrote in the Yorkshire Evening Post on the day of the game: “The side is buoyant with hope and the right sort of confidence as it rests this afternoon in its Liverpool hotel, and the manager is of the same mood too, I fancy, although all Don Revie will say in the last words style is, ‘We have a chance, and I hope we can take it.’
“But United are never more determined than when facing odds – the side’s tenacity of purpose is unbreakable, which is just as well. Liverpool at Anfield are hardly the side you would choose to have to play for all the League title means. The Anfield Kop is nearly worth a home goal to start with.”
With hundreds of fans locked outside the gates, those 53,750 fans lucky enough to be inside the ground were to see an understandably nervy Leeds side. Captain Billy Bremner later said: “The team was unusually nervous when it went out. I have never known them like they were tonight. It was worse than our FA Cup final. I was nervous. I couldn’t sleep the night before, and that isn’t me. I even got up out of bed at four o’clock in the morning and smoked a cigarette to try and stop thinking about the game. There was such a lot at stake, of course, and it nearly beat us.”
With United nervous and Liverpool anxious to get at their opponents, the match struggled to get going as heavy tackles flew in all over the pitch and it took nearly half an hour for the first real attempt on goal to come, whereupon Liverpool missed two good chances.
Derek Wallis, the Daily Mirror’s man at the game reported: “Liverpool needed that goal, because the pattern of the first half indicated they might not get many more chances. There was little sign of the attacking play that Leeds manager Don Revie had promised, but neither was there much hint that Liverpool might improve on first half methods that carried more power than imagination.”
As the game wore on in the second half the onslaught from Liverpool increased but the United defence held on firmly. Geoffrey Green of The Times described the action beautifully: “It was a night when the red waves of the Liverpool attack crashed in vain against the tall, white cliff of this defence. Here were two sides, hard as a diamond, but without the brilliant flame of that stone. No one would expect the refinements in such a battle.
“Instead, we saw modern techniques in opposition, with Leeds applying the straitjacket on their opponents inside the penalty area. Some may say all this was alienated from the frills of football. It was. It was an occasion for men, not boys.”
And the men held on. The final whistle went, 0-0, and the title was going to Elland Road. In their book The Unforgiven: The Story of Don Revie’s Leeds United, Rob Bagchi and Paul Rogerson take up the story: “What happened next has become part of Leeds United folklore. Beforehand, Revie had instructed Bremner, if they should get that decisive point, to lead the players after the game towards the Kop. Bremner took some persuading, but after they had celebrated before their own travelling support, Bremner duly marched his men forward. The ground fell silent, but instead of being lynched, the Leeds team were surprised to find themselves being loudly hailed as ‘champions’ by the 27,000 Koppites massed in front of them. The players stayed put for 20 minutes, soaking it all in, larking around, jumping on one another and paying their tributes to both sets of fans. They had been derided and despised for such a long time that one could not blame them for basking in the adulation. ‘Being cheered by a rival crowd – any rival crowd – was a new experience for us,’ Eddie Gray recalls. ‘This in itself was as much of a turning point for Leeds as the championship achievement.’
“Back in the dressing-room, where Shankly had provided a crate of champagne, Revie clearly felt flattered by the two extraordinary events of the evening: ‘The reception given us by the sporting Liverpool crowd was truly magnificent,’ he said, ‘and so, for that matter, was our defence tonight. It was superb in everything.’
“Shankly, an incurable romantic where football was concerned and not one to bandy around accolades where they were not deserved, gave Leeds his stamp of approval. ‘Leeds United are worthy champions,’ he proclaimed. ‘They are a great side.’ That was good enough for Revie and his team. The respect of their fellow professionals was all they craved and now they revelled in the novel experience of popularity. They were underdogs no more. A psychological weight had been lifted. ‘That wonderful night at Anfield saw our burning faith in ourselves justified,’ Billy Bremner reflected. ‘At last we were well and truly vindicated.’ The irksome oiks, Revie’s ‘Little West Riding Hoods’, had joined football’s aristocracy.”
No related posts.
Loading ...
May 6 - Leeds Lift the Cup | On This Football Day on May 7th, 2009
[...] The mastermind behind the Leeds operation was similarly enthused. Don Revie said: “I have waited and sweated a lot of years for today but it has been worth it. This is the second happiest day of my life: the first was when we beat Liverpool to win the championship.” [...]