We Are the Damned United

by Phil Rostron

  It had taken 240 minutes to bring United their first goal of the new season. It was a goal which, said manager Brian Clough afterwards, could only have been scored by Clarke.

  United were attacking when Joe Gallagher moved to tackle home ‘new boy’ John O’Hare. The ball spun away, struck Wrexham referee John Williams on the shin and bounced forward.

  Even then Birmingham should have cleared, but Clarke’s ability to pounce on opportunities like this got him the better of defender Dick Sbragia and before City knew what was happening the ball was in the net.

  ‘No one in England could have scored that goal better than Allan Clarke. It was a touch of class above all others,’ a happy Clough remarked.

  The way Clarke took his chance posed the question as to how much his lightning speed in and around the penalty area and his lethal finishing have been missed in United’s two opening matches, when plenty of chances were created without being turned into goals.

  Clarke told me before the game that he was keen to get back into action and it certainly showed in his play.

  He along with defender Norman Hunter were two in the United side not affected by the tension which grew in the first half.

  While Clarke was eager for the ball, Hunter marshalled United’s defence in great style and was helped by another sterling display from Paul Reaney, and one from Trevor Cherry who switched to full-back again.

  But there was another performance to take the eye – that of O’Hare. The former Derby striker remained calm and showed touches of his class in a debut which was almost crowned with a goal near the end, his 20-yard shot swerving away from the far post at the last second.

  Said Clough: ‘It took Clarke just a few minutes to read O’Hare. The crowd took to O’Hare but more important to me was the fact that the players accepted him.’

  United’s other newcomer from Derby, John McGovern, had a quiet game in midfield. He made plenty of space for himself but saw little of the ball. I have seen him much more involved in a game for Derby in the past.

  United still have some way to go before they are back to the peak form of last season. But they are on their way.

  This victory, narrow though it was, has lifted the gloom and set the stage for more accustomed results to follow.

  Leeds United: Harvey, Reaney, Cherry, McGovern, McQueen, Hunter, Lorimer, Clarke, O’Hare, Giles, Madeley (Jordan).

  Birmingham City: Latchford, Page, Styles, Kendall, Gallagher, Sbragia, Campbell, Francis, Burns, Hatton, Taylor.

  Referee: John Williams (Wrexham).

  Don Warters, Yorkshire Evening Post

  * * *

  Hugh McIlmoyle shares Peter Reid’s view on the quality of coaches who plied their trade around the time of Clough’s reign at Leeds. ‘Football was blessed with some very talented managers in the 1960s and ’70s,’ he says. ‘The game is the poorer for the passing of Clough and Bill Shankly, between whom I always make comparisons. I cannot bring to mind one without the other, because they were alike in many ways. Both were truly charismatic, though where one was very outspoken the other, while also able to amuse, was more measured and less aggressive in his profound pronouncements and proclamations. Both loved the game deeply. Both were winners. Both were loved by their players. Except, of course, Clough was not loved by the Leeds players, and that could only have been down to a clash of personalities.

  ‘The thing with players is that they can generally see through a manager. As a breed, they are notorious for mickey-taking, and if they spot a flaw in the boss, it will become the subject of much banter. They’ll pick holes in him. Clough and Shankly, masters of their craft, were generally above that, and in all my years in the game I never heard a bad word said about either of them. Players, like any group of people in all walks of life, have different temperaments and need handling in various ways. Some need a bollocking, perhaps every other game, and respond well to that; others need an arm round them and will be all the better for it. Football is an emotion-charged sport. Man-management is the key, and I think Clough was probably brilliant at that most of the time.

  ‘With him, you could expect the unexpected. His teams could have a stinker, and where the normal reaction to that would be the manager screaming on the top note about how rubbish they had just performed and a summons to an extra training session at 10 a.m. on the Sunday to be thrashed round the running track, Clough would say, “See you Thursday, lads.” My guess is that he instinctively knew how deeply the players would be hurting and deemed it pointless to rub more salt into their wounds.

  ‘He sometimes took it upon himself to take the players away for a change of scene, say to Blackpool for a couple of days, and before such excursions he would send each of the wives and girlfriends a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates. These gestures would endear him to the players, and from his perspective the reciprocal gift from the players would be that they would determine to play out of their skins on his behalf. Shanks’ strategy would be to go on television after some fine performance and declare his players the best XI in the world. For them, it was all about making their players feel good about themselves.’

  Further insight into what makes a successful player–manager relationship was given by the then Sunderland supremo Roy Keane in an interview with Rob Stewart for the Daily Telegraph ahead of his side’s Carling Cup clash with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in August 2008. Insisting that the man who managed him at Forest would still have what it takes to thrive in the Premier League, Keane described Clough as ‘the best manager I played under, without a shadow of doubt’. While recognising that Clough’s maverick methods might not go down too well with today’s multimillionaire footballers, in answer to the question ‘Would he survive today?’, Keane concluded:

  Most definitely. He’d stand up to the challenges, although he might have been reluctant to move with the times in terms of the scientific side of things. And I bet Sir Alex Ferguson would tell you the same.

  I’m pretty sure Cloughie wouldn’t like what’s going on in the game now, with fitness coaches taking over, ProZones, weights, dieticians, pasta and bananas. But he would be a success, because he was a football genius.

  Cloughie would have survived. He’d have adapted and made his mark at whatever club he was at, because he knew his football. The stuff he used to come up with at Forest was so simple, and I try to take that into what we do here.

  Stewart noted, however, that, despite his respect for Clough’s abilities, Keane seemed less than likely to take on board his more unusual methods. Keane, who today is in charge of Ipswich Town, recalled:

  Before I made my debut, I ended up at his house in Derby on the way to Anfield. He gave me a pint of milk. I said, ‘I don’t like milk.’ He said, ‘You’d better drink it because I’m putting the bottles out.’ Trust me, I drank it.

  The day after the game he asked me my name, gave me a pair of his shoes and told me to polish them. If I brought my shoes in for one of the players to polish, I’m sure they’d throw them back at me. But modern-day players would put up with him if he was still around. They’d love playing for him, because he was different.

  Once he made the whole Forest first team squash into a five-a-side goal, for no reason. But it was brilliant, just like a big game of Twister.

  If someone did that today, you’d be thinking, ‘How has this lad got his A or Pro Licence?’ You all say, ‘Why does he do that?’ and that’s the beauty of that. I don’t know.

  Once he made me go to a charity night with him and at the end he gave me a £50 note – I’d never seen one of those before. He was a kind gentleman and did loads of stuff for charity. He was a great man.

  * * *

  TUESDAY, 27 AUGUST 1974

  QPR 1, LEEDS UNITED 1

  Fears that Leeds United’s crown is slipping were dispelled by the champions in an exhilarating display against a first-class Queens Park Rangers side in London.

  Playing with zest and confidence, two qualities lacking in their previous games
under new management, United were full value for their 1–1 draw in an action-packed thriller which was a splendid advertisement for English soccer.

  Rangers, famed for their flying starts, set a scorching pace in the first quarter of an hour in the warm evening sunshine before a 24,965 crowd and threatened to annihilate United.

  But United’s defenders, notably Gordon McQueen, who scarcely put a foot wrong or misjudged a header in the 90 minutes, and the ever reliable Norman Hunter, stuck manfully to their tasks.

  The artistry of Stan Bowles, the ball-playing brilliance of Gerry Francis and the speed and directness of Don Givens made for compulsive viewing, but although bubbling with flair and urgency, the Rangers attack foundered time and again on a formidable defence, which looked like the Leeds of old.

  Francis, Rangers’ man-of-the-match in their 1–0 win at Elland Road a week ago, made one sinuous dribble past three lunging defenders only to see Hunter block his shot, but generally was impotent thanks to the effective shadowing of Terry Yorath, playing his first match of the season and the 100th of his United career.

  The tough Welshman, drafted into midfield in the absence of his suspended skipper Billy Bremner and the injured Paul Madeley, effectively carried out his orders not to leave Francis’s side.

  So the usually troublesome QPR striker spent a very unhappy evening trying to shake off his escorts, while Yorath, thriving on work, found himself with time to knock in the game’s first goal with a cool lob from just outside the penalty area in the 21st minute.

  All credit to Yorath for spotting keeper Parkes off his line, but new signing John O’Hare deserves praise for his brave challenge.

  The Scot hurled himself at the ball, which by rights belonged to the keeper, and his persistence threw Parkes and fellow defender Mancini into confusion and the ball rolled out to the lurking Yorath.

  United, their early season anxieties forgotten, were now in charge.

  With acting skipper Johnny Giles providing midfield inspiration with as energetic and skilful a performance as I have seen from him for some time and a revitalised Allan Clarke sharpened and unselfish, United looked dangerous for long spells, particularly when making full use of Peter Lorimer and the overlapping of that splendid attacking full-back Paul Reaney on the flanks.

  Rangers, too, effectively employed touchline raiders and their equaliser resulted from their switching the ball to the opposite wing.

  Givens, their most dangerous attacker, snapped up a long ball from Mancini and slipped past Reaney and McQueen before hitting a magnificent left-foot shot past Harvey from 20 yards.

  This goal in the 47th minute triggered off a hectic series of raids by the fast-moving Rangers forwards and two minutes later Givens struck the foot of the post with a fine header.

  But United, displaying their traditional coolness and security when lesser sides would have lost their nerve, weathered the storm and might have clinched victory when Clarke was denied the goal he deserved, Gillard clearing from the line after fine work by Yorath.

  To sum up: United recaptured much of the magic of that record-equalling start of last season, quick raids out of defence proving a constant threat to an exciting Rangers side, which tends to live dangerously at the back in their single-minded quest for goals.

  But this performance suggests that manager Brian Clough will soon face selection problems. Last night’s encouraging result was achieved without Bremner, Madeley and £250,000 striker Duncan McKenzie, and Scotland’s World Cup hero Joe Jordan was on the subs’ bench.

  Keeping a huge first-team squad happy could yet prove Clough’s biggest worry, as it was for his predecessor Don Revie. If he finds the answer, success must surely lie at the end of what promises to be an exciting and interesting winter.

  The only blot on a reassuring all-round United display was Yorath’s 18th-minute booking for a foul tackle on Francis, which was clumsy rather than malicious.

  QPR: Parkes, Clement (Busby, 74), Gillard, Venables, Mancini, Webb, Thomas, Francis, Beck, Bowles, Givens.

  Leeds United: Harvey, Reaney, Cherry, McGovern, McQueen, Hunter, Lorimer, Clarke, O’Hare, Giles, Yorath.

  Mike Casey, Yorkshire Evening Post

  * * *

  The greatness that Keane would later see in Clough had still to show itself at Leeds United as the end of August neared in 1974. On the back of a mediocre start to the season, some were beginning to question whether it ever would.

  Reid appreciated Clough’s wit and sense of humour, McIlmoyle his man-management and Keane his off-the-wall methods. All three men would no doubt consider their lives richer for having met Old Big ’Ead. David Harvey, United’s goalkeeper, has never felt that he missed out. ‘They say Cloughie was at Leeds for 44 days, but in reality it was more like 20,’ says Harvey, recalling the sporadic training routine that characterised Clough’s tenure. ‘He was there so rarely that no one really had the chance to get to know him, and, from what I saw of him throughout his career, I’m at least grateful for that small mercy.’

  9

  HARD TIMES

  It only takes a second to score a goal.

  Brian Clough

  Four games gone and the champions, in defence of their trophy, had picked up only three points. Much was going on in the background, and midfielder Terry Yorath relates: ‘It developed into a sort of love–hate relationship between Brian Clough and me, with more hatred on his side than love. We were four games into the season before he gave me a first start, an away fixture at Queens Park Rangers. I scored a lovely chipped goal that earned us a 1–1 draw and was expecting all the plaudits back in the dressing-room, but instead I got a huge bollocking. The way at Leeds was always to try to get the first goal and hang on to the lead, and consequently when at one stage I got the ball on the halfway line, seeing no other immediate options, I passed the ball back to the goalkeeper. Clough went mad at this. From being the goal-scoring hero, I was suddenly the villain of the piece – in his eyes, anyway.

  ‘It was Clough’s attitude to training that was a source of great concern to the lads. When Revie was in charge, he’d be there from about 8 a.m. or certainly 8.30 a.m., but Clough never turned up until 9.30 a.m. or 10 a.m., and this would be after a game of squash. He very rarely took a training session, and if he got involved at all, it would be in shooting practice. Don’t forget, he was dealing with a lot of seasoned professionals who had been used to and certainly expected better. He had deeply upset the players and the club before ever he arrived on the scene, and from the moment he walked in, I could not understand why he had taken the job.’

  * * *

  SATURDAY, 31 AUGUST 1974

  MANCHESTER CITY 2, LEEDS UNITED 1

  For much of the first half of Leeds United’s attractive clash with Manchester City at Maine Road the champions looked to be approaching the form which took them to the title last season.

  But the early penetration was blunted in the second half by a classic City side, who sent United to their third defeat in five games with a 2–1 win.

  United faltered because they allowed themselves to become bogged down in midfield by a City plan aimed at stifling Johnny Giles.

  Said City manager Tony Book afterwards: ‘Leeds were going a bit in the 20 minutes before half-time so we started putting more pressure on Giles.

  ‘He is the mastermind and we decided to push him back further into his own half. The plan worked.’

  Before the game Book studied reports on how the Eire international had played in United’s 1–1 draw at QPR and once City succeeded in reducing Giles’s contribution they got on top.

  Unfortunately for United, with Giles so closely marked, they had no Billy Bremner to fall back on. John McGovern tried hard but I have seen him have much more authoritative games for Derby.

  In addition United were without Paul Madeley, who had a calf-muscle injury.

  Even so United played a fair part in a game which was thoroughly entertaining and played in a sporting manner, the type designed to
win back missing fans.

  United began in lively fashion and played some encouraging football even before City took a shock lead in the seventh minute when Mike Summerbee, no longer skipper but still a great competitor, shot his side ahead with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area after he shuffled to the side of Norman Hunter.

  United, however, continued to play attractive football and deservedly equalised eight minutes before half-time with a great goal by Allan Clarke.

  City were moving into attack when McGovern hit a punted clearance which found Clarke handily placed just inside the home half.

  With defenders slow to turn and thinking he might be offside, Clarke raced on and when goalkeeper Keith MacRae challenged, he calmly took the ball round him and slotted it home.

  It was a typical Clarke goal – ‘a classic’ was how United boss Brian Clough described it – and it raised hopes of United’s ability to win.

  But City’s second-half plan to stamp out Giles put paid to United’s prospects of their first away win of the season.

  Yet despite City’s defensive solidarity, built very much around Alan Oates, United found a chance to equalise.

  It fell to Gordon McQueen when MacRae could not hold the ball, but the centre-half, some six yards out, lifted his shot over the bar.

  Clough said he could not complain about a centre-half missing a chance like that but the ‘miss’ served to highlight another of United’s problems.

  Clarke apart they are not lethal enough in their finishing, as three goals from five league matches clearly indicate. For a manager as attack-minded as Clough this will seem a meagre return.

  Colin Bell showed how it is done when he slammed home an unstoppable shot in the 57th minute to give City their fourth victory in five games.

  But former Sunderland winger Dennis Tueart who frequently troubled United defenders with his skill and tireless running, paved the way for the goal by slipping Hunter’s tackle and laying the ball into Bell’s path.