Keep Fighting

by paul harrison

  ‘At the beginning of the 1970 season we were playing some of our best football and everyone looked comfortable on the ball.

  Once again there was a general feeling that in most areas (goalkeeper excepted) we were invincible and could go through a whole season without losing. It was never openly discussed amongst the players, but I know that privately, such a belief existed. Whenever I mentioned it to the boss he would say that we had to take one game at a time.’

  If the players were feeling unbeatable, then such arrogance was to disappear during one week in September. First they suffered an ignominious defeat in the League Cup competition, losing 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday. Then, four days later, the unbeaten league start was not so much stopped, but battered from them one afternoon in Stoke. At City's Victoria Ground, the Potters taught Leeds a valuable lesson that football can be a great leveller. Stoke showed concentration, determination and desire for the full ninety minutes, giving Leeds not a moment to dwell on the ball or the opportunity to get into their passing game. Once the home side scored, in a one-sided first half, the result and outcome of the game was never in doubt as Leeds suffered a humbling 3-0 defeat:

  ‘Stoke City were a funny sort of team; on their day they could hammer anyone, they had the players and the determination to cause damage to the most disciplined of sides. I can't say I have many fond memories of playing at Stoke; I never used to like playing against them as they were one of the few teams who seemed to know how to counter our game. Terry Conroy and Mike Pejic in particular were tremendous servants to the club and both were very good footballers. Some people said they were the “Bremner and Giles” of the Stoke team. I don't know about that, but what I do know is they were bloody tough opponents and real characters too. I was always surprised that Stoke did not compete for more trophies, albeit they had this inconsistent side to their game. They would stuff us one week then lose to a team struggling near the bottom of the table. It must have been hugely frustrating for the manager and the fans that that form could not be maintained.’

  Gradually, as the season progressed, the odd defensive weakness or lapse in concentration crept into games and cost the team dearly. In one game at Crystal Palace, and with Leeds leading, Gary Sprake chose to have one of his ‘moments’. As the game moved into its final minute Palace defender and captain John Sewell hoofed a clearance up field which went towards the Leeds goal and was never a threat. Cue Gary Sprake. The Welshman moved to catch the ball which sailed through his hands into the net. John Sewell recalled the goal:

  ‘I only scored about nine goals for Palace but that one was a freak. I just kicked the ball up field, there was no thought of shooting or scoring. I was knackered and was relieving the pressure. When it sailed right through the goalkeeper's hands I couldn't believe it. The whole ground was delighted, it was the first time I heard a crowd of 35,000 laughing in unison. After, Sprake wasn't at all remorseful; it was obvious that many of the Leeds players were unhappy with him but he didn't appear to care.’

  Unfortunately for Leeds it wasn't to be the only costly error Sprake made that season. Billy recalled the fluke goal at Crystal Palace:

  ‘I would like to say that I couldn't believe what Gary did that day, but that wouldn't be accurate or true. His cock-ups were never far away and were becoming more frequent. Only he can justify why it continually happened, but my belief is that he didn't keep his eye on the ball, and when he had time to think about making a save, he was prone to fluffing it. Anything that required concentration and he was liable to cock it up. No matter how much we tried to lift his concentration levels and spirits, he didn't seem to bother, he just kept doing the same thing over and over again.

  ‘I wasn't alone in feeling unhappy with him but it was the boss who picked the team and not us players, so we didn't really have a lot of say. It was obvious to everyone that Sprake was our Achilles heel.’

  Come the end of the season the point dropped at Selhurst Park was to prove crucial.

  In January 1971, the team suffered a shock second league defeat, when Tottenham snatched a 2-1 win in front of 43,907 Elland Road fans – a crowd that included an injured Billy Bremner:

  ‘Whenever I was out injured or through the odd suspension, I would watch the games sat in the West Stand with the supporters and cheer the team on alongside them. It was a real surprise to lose at home to Spurs but we never looked in control, or like winning the game, and seemed nervous on the ball. The fans around me were willing me to get back out there as soon as possible. I assured them that it was a one-off result and that the players would be well and truly pissed off in the dressing room. That helped keep things in perspective.’

  With Bremner absent through injury, Leeds temporarily stuttered and in early February lost another home game, this time 1-0 to Liverpool. Things were to get much worse before they improved:

  ‘We had got through to the FA Cup fifth round and were drawn away to a Fourth Division side, Colchester United. It wasn't the sort of game that should cause us any problems – we were generally professional enough to treat every opponent the same. The usual preparations were made for the game and the boss pointed out the obvious threat of their forward Ray Crawford, who was well known to most of us from his days and goalscoring exploits at Ipswich and for England. The boss seemed a little out of sorts before the game. I wasn't playing but we had a bloody strong team despite that.’

  Revie later recalled the game:

  ‘I've been in some intimidating stadiums in my time but Layer Road at Colchester was claustrophobic as well. There just wasn't any room and the fans were right on top of the players, touching them when they took a throw-in or a corner. It was a Cup upset waiting to happen and I sensed that the minute I walked into the ground.’

  Colchester sat seventy-four positions below Leeds in the football league placings and had four players aged thirty-five or older in their team. They had been meticulous in their assessment of the Leeds threat minus Bremner. Manager Dick Graham knew that Leeds like to get the ball wide and to counter this he had chairs and benches placed at a safe distance round the outside of the pitch to make it appear more cramped. In the week leading up to the tie he had his players practising crosses in the realisation that Gary Sprake was the weak link and could prove key to Leeds’ undoing.

  A partisan crowd of 16,000 crammed into the tiny stadium and there witnessed one of the greatest FA Cup shocks of all time. Leeds weren't able to compete in a first half that saw them fall behind to two Ray Crawford goals. The first was a thumping header and the second a shot that slid past the hesitant Sprake in the Leeds goal. In the second half, David Simmons ran through onto a looping ball and again Sprake hesitated, allowing Simmons to get his head onto it and past the flailing arms of the Leeds keeper to make the score an unbelievable 3-0.

  Leeds did pull two goals back in the second half, through Hunter and Giles, but it was too little, too late. ‘Grandad's Army’ as they were labelled, won the game:

  ‘It was an awful experience. No one knew what to say, we were dreadful and deserved to lose that day. I think the overall performance put things in perspective for us all, there is no getting away from it – we had let everyone down. Even Gary Sprake was disappointed in his game and gave some sort of apology to the boss but that didn't help erase the memory of our nightmare in Essex. There was a belief in the team that if the game had gone on another ten minutes then we would have won. I don't subscribe to that thought. We deserved to lose on the day, and once again Mr Sprake gave us an indecisive performance in goal.’

  With the league championship seeming like a two-horse race, between Leeds and Arsenal, and with the season drawing to a close, Leeds sat four points behind the Gunners but with three games in hand. The Gunners still had to come to Elland Road so it was Leeds who were firm favourites to take the league title.

  Then it happened, one of those moments that seem to crop up every so often in the Leeds United history of that era. It was Saturday, 17 April 1971, and Leeds faced West Bro
mwich Albion at Elland Road. On their day, Albion could pose a threat, yet on this day they were not expected to be strong enough to prevent a Leeds victory. With more than a hint of sadness and disappointment in his face, Billy remembered how that day developed:

  ‘It's difficult to put your finger on why some things happen. That game against West Bromwich Albion is a game that everyone associated with Leeds United has indelibly etched into the forefront of their minds. I know I certainly do, and I shall not ever forget or forgive what happened to us.

  ‘For whatever reason, there was an atmosphere inside Elland Road that day, a state of nervousness amongst the crowd that transmitted itself through to us, though it must be said that we didn't have the same confident air about us in the dressing room before the game. The banter and chat was missing. We knew that Albion could be spoilers, they had turned over enough decent teams in their time to be more than competent at stopping the opposition from playing. In the warm-up, Jeff Astle was having a bit of a go at us about the Colchester game and result, saying we were a laughing stock and shit, and he said he would do anything and everything to stop us winning the championship. Jeff was great, a real character, and we had more than our share of spats during our careers but we always laughed about them. He could head a ball with real venom – vicious and stunning power. When the game started, Albion were really coming at us and it was obvious that their manager, Alan Ashman, had told them to push us back. They scored in the first twenty minutes and that really put us on the back foot. Our passing went all over the place and Albion had got us making mistakes.

  ‘The atmosphere grew more and more intense. The referee, Ray Tinkler, wasn't giving us anything, a few heavy challenges on our players had gone unpunished, yet each time we went into a tackle, an Albion player would hit the floor and the referee would stop the game. I tried to speak to him about what was happening but he wouldn't listen and kept repeating the same bloody thing: “Go away – go away Bremner, play on – play on Albion.” I began to wonder if he supported West Brom, so biased in their favour were his decisions. Talk about getting me wound up. He certainly did and that was before his blatant and heinous error that still sticks in my throat whenever I talk about it.

  ‘With about twenty minutes to go we were really going for it and pushing forward in search of an equaliser. An attack broke down inside the Albion half when, unusually, Norman Hunter gave the ball away. Tony Brown latched onto the ball and galloped off up field. In front of him, in our half and clearly several yards offside, was Colin Suggett, and not too far away from him was Jeff Astle. It was a clear-cut decision for the referee to make. The linesman immediately flagged for the offside and we all, players from both teams, stopped in anticipation of the referee blowing for the infringement. Tony Brown still had the ball and he too stopped awaiting the referee's whistle for offside. It was like time stood still, the whistle never came, and instead came the inane bleating of the referee – “Play on Albion, play on.” Brown couldn't believe it, he was laughing as he raced on towards our goal. Everyone inside the ground knew that Suggett and Astle were offside. I looked towards the linesman who was waving his flag for the infringement, then he suddenly dropped his arm and stopped. My heart was in my mouth, I couldn't believe what was happening before my very eyes. The whole ground went silent as Tony Brown played a forward pass to a clearly offside Astle, who was still ahead of Brown and still offside, and he duly scored their second goal of the game. I don't believe anyone thought the goal would stand, it was such a blatant and obvious offside decision.’

  The Elland Road stadium eruputed into a frenzy of anger. Many Albion players were laughing at the decision, an act that didn't endear them too kindly to the Leeds support:

  ‘I saw the boss get up from the dugout – he rarely moved during a game so it must have been something exceptional. I ran over and spoke to the linesman, and at first he said he was flagging for offside then he denied it and said it was for an infringement on an Albion player and he put it down and gave advantage. I called him a lying, cheating bastard and he laughed and said, “It's a good goal.” I ran up to Ray Tinkler and explained that he had got it wrong, I know it wasn't my place to tell him that, he was supposed to be in charge, but his incompetence in that decision was clear. He told me that he couldn't see anything wrong with the goal, adding: “It wasn't offside at all, it was fair play, a good goal, and it will stand.” I was livid, who wouldn't be at such an injustice? I called him a f—— cheat, his response was to sneer back at me and threaten to end my game there and then.

  ‘Around us pandemonium had erupted as some fans got onto the pitch and tried to appeal to Mr Tinkler, telling him he had got it wrong.’ My uncle, the same family man I loved who had first introduced me to Leeds United, was one of those so outraged by the decision that he ran onto the pitch and was duly arrested by the police. It wasn't something he was ever proud of, he knew it was wrong, yet his emotions and passion at witnessing such a clear error and the realisation of what it meant to Leeds United and him as a supporter, had caused him to react and try to explain to the referee that he had made an error of judgement. He got nowhere near, and was felled by three burly coppers having hardly set foot on the playing surface. The shame this brought on him remained with him for the rest of his life, and to his last breath, he maintained that Ray Tinkler had got it all wrong. Football is an emotive game, and whilst I cannot condone what my uncle did, I can understand his passion and repulsion at what he saw as a clear football injustice.

  ‘In my opinion, Tinkler had always been regarded as a supercilious prat, full of his own self-importance, and believed himself to be more important than the games he officiated. There was no way he would listen to a fan's opinion, or those of players, or anyone else remotely connected with Leeds United. Jeff Astle sensed the injustice and the potential of supporter rioting as a result of the ridiculous decision. He approached Tinkler and asked him if he was certain that the goal would stand, and if he understood the consequences of the decision. Tinkler was his own man, and like a schoolyard bully he strutted off, ignoring everything being said to him. In his mind he was right and everyone else wrong. The West Bromwich manager was almost wetting himself with laughter, shaking his head at his side's good fortune.’

  In a strange twist of fate, Ashman was to tell the author some years later:

  ‘It was a joke of a decision, wasn't it? One of the worst I have ever seen in all my years. Ray Tinkler got it totally wrong, but what made me laugh was the linesman. He held up his flag and was frantically waving it about, then he took it down and changed his mind about the offside. I don't know how or why but it was pure farce. You could never have scripted that, incompetence of the highest degree, incompetence that provided me with some good fortune as a manager under pressure.’

  The game ended in a 1-2 defeat, and with it went Leeds’ title ambitions. Despite beating champions-elect Arsenal at Elland Road, the title was lost. The realistic truth of the matter was that too many points had been dropped throughout the whole season. In Europe Leeds had again achieved success, winning the Inter Cities Fair Cup by the away goals rule after they and Juventus had fought out draws (2-2 & 1-1) over the two-legged final:

  ‘It was good to win something that season as we had suffered. I was relieved to raise a trophy high into the Elland Road sky. We had been robbed of the league, it didn't help to look back on the Gary Sprake error at Crystal Palace or the misjudgement of Ray Tinkler!’

  An inquest into the incidents relating to the West Bromwich Albion game was held by the Football Association and resulted in Elland Road being closed for the first four home league games of the season and a £500 fine. Key to that punishment was the referee's report. Ray Tinkler's report was influential: everything he said was accepted as fact, and as accurate. There was never any suggestion that it could have been his poor judgement and decision-making that had incited the problems. Interestingly, Ray Tinkler later became Chairman of the Lincolnshire Football Association and sat on v
arious Football Association committees. Most recently, in April 2009, he spoke about the decision in a national newspaper and claimed that Brian Clough and Peter Taylor were at Elland Road, they had agreed with his decision and he stood by the fact that he was right to allow play to continue and the goal to stand. That says it all; if such unbiased persons as Brian Clough and Peter Taylor said it was a fair goal, scored within the rules of the game, then it must have been a good decision!

  It remains one of the most curious refereeing decisions ever to occur in the English professional game. The fact that Ray Tinkler is in the main remembered for this error of judgement is something he cannot take much pride in. It may well be that Clough and Taylor were at the game and did agree with his decision. As we know, Clough despised that Leeds team and would hardly be likely to help them out.

  As a side issue, Jeff Astle later admitted to being a ‘mile’ offside when he scored and that the goal should never have been allowed. He performed a satirical re-enactment of the incident on the Baddiel and Skinner television show many years later. Ray Tinkler has stood by his judgement from that day. You have to respect him for sticking to his opinions but he must know that he made a mistake.

  Unfortunately for Leeds and Billy Bremner, further success was to be blighted by bizarre refereeing behaviour. The punishment handed out by the Football Association for the West Bromwich affair was harsh, but one that the club had to accept.

  11

  UPS AND DOWNS

  The following season, 1971-72, was another rollercoaster ride for Bremner and his colleagues. After an average start to the league season with one win from four games, the team struggled to hit consistent form. Newcastle United were thrashed 5-1 at Elland Road but still the team couldn't get into their usual rhythm. Too many goals were being conceded and injuries to key players such as Eddie Gray and Mick Jones unsettled the side. There was a surprise early exit from European competition when the relative unknown SK Lierse, trailing 2-0 from the first leg, put four past Leeds without reply at Elland Road. Bremner recalled: