The chronicle foretold of heartbreak for Leeds United as they suffered another set piece defeat in a promotion play off final, this time to Southampton who won with a predictable but no less defensively galling first half strike by Adam Armstrong - his 24th goal of the season. What a reward for accumulating ninety points over the Championship season and for equalling a club record winning run going back to 1931 between 1 January and 1 April 2024.
To be fair Southampton, after a 28-match unbeaten run from the end September 2023, amassed eighty-seven points and finished one place behind us in the final table. That statistic makes them as worthy of promotion as us. At least we were spared the indignity of having our would-be Premier League place taken by the club who finished sixth, seventeen points behind us in third place. This was Norwich City who we soundly spanked 4-0 in the semi-final second leg at Elland Road on a night when we were at our devastating best.
But come the appointed hour …. Since our sole FA Cup victory in 1972 over Arsenal (the iconic “Clarke One-Nil” moment for a Leeds fans of two generations ago), I have witnessed (excluding Charity Shield finals) seven subsequent domestic, European and promotion play off finals, three as a paying spectator, and seen precisely seven defeats and no goals. Had Dan James (now he is a genuine match winner apart from the penalty spot as Wales found to their distress in another wretched play-off/penalty shootout occasion for this year’s Euros) found the net from that Exocet outside the box in the 85th minute instead of the underside of the crossbar, then I might be writing about Marching on Together (our inspirational club anthem) towards the Promised Land. But sadly not. The ghosts of near things from finals past such as the Jim Montgomery wonder double save which ensured Sunderland’s memorable 1973 FA Cup Final win and the disgraceful ruling out by an easily persuadable French referee of Peter Lorimer’s perfect volley (where was VAR when we needed it?) in the 1975 European Cup Final versus Bayern Munich, came back to haunt us. Such moments validate then familiar sinking feeling for football fans of “It’s Not Our Day.”
This latest incidence of fin de season grief for Leeds United provides ammunition for those who lurk amongst genuine football folk who mock our seeming tendency to choke at the final hurdle; the latest manifestation being the “Leeds are falling apart” meme pushed with particular gusto by players and supporters of Leicester City who won the Championship title only after we wiped out their 17 point lead. Bully for them. They have just lost their manager to the Chelsea mincing machine and will start their latest sojourn in the Premier League with a so far indeterminate points deduction for persistent violations of Profit and Sustainability regulations. But let them jog on. Let us examine the evidence that Leeds United are football’s perpetual bridesmaids, always destined for the Devon Loch experience.
Yes, there is the Mayo SFC type litany of play-off and other final defeats that I enumerated earlier. Add to that sorry statistic, the two-legged play-off defeat to Charlton in 1987 and semifinal defeats to Millwall in 2009 (in our League One days) and to Derby in 2019 means that Leeds United have the worst play-off record of all EFL teams. We have failed to progress from all six play off competitions that we have entered. Going back to the Don Revie era, we were Division One runners up on five occasions, losing FA Cup finalists three times and losing finalists in each three UEFA competition. Set against that we were League Champions in 1968-69 (setting a then record for an unbeaten run of 34 games in calendar year of 1969) and in 1973-74 (with a then record unbeaten start of 29 games), FA Cup winners in 1968, League Cup winners in 1968 and Inter Cities Fairs Cup Winners in 1968 and 1971. From 1964-65 to 1974-75, we were never out of the top four and it was fatigue caused by the sort of end of season fixture pile ups that would not be tolerated in elite football today that was a major factor in us not winning more trophies (the collapse of our Treble attempt in 1970 being the most harrowing example).
Since those halcyon days, only one major trophy has come our way in 1992 when the Class of 92 (including the midfield quartet of Strachan, MacAlister, Batty and Speed – RIP) became the Last Champions under Howard Wilkinson. The era of Peter Ridsdale and David O’Leary at the turn of the millennium promised perpetual paradise before the implosion caused by reckless financial management led to the living hell of two relegations, administration and swinging points deductions. All told we spent sixteen seasons in Siberian exile from the top flight until the legendary Marcelo Bielsa got us promoted amid the pandemic in 2020 and we became for one season everybody’s second team. But as happened before hope turned to dust as incompetent administrators failed to build on the foundations laid by the mercurial Argentinian and we found ourselves banished to the EFL again in 2023.
But we won promotion second time around under Sergeant Wilko in 1990; and similarly, under Simon Grayson who took us out of the never before experienced by us of the indignity of the third tier in 2010 and it took Don Revie three seasons to achieve promotion and another four for our first Division One title. We held on resolutely for his second title just as we did for our last three promotions.
But come the appointed hour …. Since our sole FA Cup victory in 1972 over Arsenal (the iconic “Clarke One-Nil” moment for a Leeds fans of two generations ago), I have witnessed (excluding Charity Shield finals) seven subsequent domestic, European and promotion play off finals, three as a paying spectator, and seen precisely seven defeats and no goals. Had Dan James (now he is a genuine match winner apart from the penalty spot as Wales found to their distress in another wretched play-off/penalty shootout occasion for this year’s Euros) found the net from that Exocet outside the box in the 85th minute instead of the underside of the crossbar, then I might be writing about Marching on Together (our inspirational club anthem) towards the Promised Land. But sadly not. The ghosts of near things from finals past such as the Jim Montgomery wonder double save which ensured Sunderland’s memorable 1973 FA Cup Final win and the disgraceful ruling out by an easily persuadable French referee of Peter Lorimer’s perfect volley (where was VAR when we needed it?) in the 1975 European Cup Final versus Bayern Munich, came back to haunt us. Such moments validate then familiar sinking feeling for football fans of “It’s Not Our Day.”
This latest incidence of fin de season grief for Leeds United provides ammunition for those who lurk amongst genuine football folk who mock our seeming tendency to choke at the final hurdle; the latest manifestation being the “Leeds are falling apart” meme pushed with particular gusto by players and supporters of Leicester City who won the Championship title only after we wiped out their 17 point lead. Bully for them. They have just lost their manager to the Chelsea mincing machine and will start their latest sojourn in the Premier League with a so far indeterminate points deduction for persistent violations of Profit and Sustainability regulations. But let them jog on. Let us examine the evidence that Leeds United are football’s perpetual bridesmaids, always destined for the Devon Loch experience.
Yes, there is the Mayo SFC type litany of play-off and other final defeats that I enumerated earlier. Add to that sorry statistic, the two-legged play-off defeat to Charlton in 1987 and semifinal defeats to Millwall in 2009 (in our League One days) and to Derby in 2019 means that Leeds United have the worst play-off record of all EFL teams. We have failed to progress from all six play off competitions that we have entered. Going back to the Don Revie era, we were Division One runners up on five occasions, losing FA Cup finalists three times and losing finalists in each three UEFA competition. Set against that we were League Champions in 1968-69 (setting a then record for an unbeaten run of 34 games in calendar year of 1969) and in 1973-74 (with a then record unbeaten start of 29 games), FA Cup winners in 1968, League Cup winners in 1968 and Inter Cities Fairs Cup Winners in 1968 and 1971. From 1964-65 to 1974-75, we were never out of the top four and it was fatigue caused by the sort of end of season fixture pile ups that would not be tolerated in elite football today that was a major factor in us not winning more trophies (the collapse of our Treble attempt in 1970 being the most harrowing example).
Since those halcyon days, only one major trophy has come our way in 1992 when the Class of 92 (including the midfield quartet of Strachan, MacAlister, Batty and Speed – RIP) became the Last Champions under Howard Wilkinson. The era of Peter Ridsdale and David O’Leary at the turn of the millennium promised perpetual paradise before the implosion caused by reckless financial management led to the living hell of two relegations, administration and swinging points deductions. All told we spent sixteen seasons in Siberian exile from the top flight until the legendary Marcelo Bielsa got us promoted amid the pandemic in 2020 and we became for one season everybody’s second team. But as happened before hope turned to dust as incompetent administrators failed to build on the foundations laid by the mercurial Argentinian and we found ourselves banished to the EFL again in 2023.
But we won promotion second time around under Sergeant Wilko in 1990; and similarly, under Simon Grayson who took us out of the never before experienced by us of the indignity of the third tier in 2010 and it took Don Revie three seasons to achieve promotion and another four for our first Division One title. We held on resolutely for his second title just as we did for our last three promotions.
Never forget also that at possibly the club’s lowest ever ebb in the 2007-08 season which we started in League One for the first time with a 15 point deduction (imposed because our then Chair Ken or Master Bates forced through our exit from administration without an approved insolvency deal) which we wiped out with a seven match opening winning run. Our current gaffer, Daniel Farke, another welcome German addition to the English managerial scene, has twice won automatic promotion with Norwich City.
Yes, there will have to be player sales, with Cree Somerville Championship Player of the Year as the biggest realisable asset, to satisfy profit and sustainability rubric. But, unlike the chaos of last close season with club ownership up in the air and a stampede of players being shipped out on loan to balance the books, we will start next season under stable ownership and management. We can go up next season but not the Wembley Way!
Yes, there will have to be player sales, with Cree Somerville Championship Player of the Year as the biggest realisable asset, to satisfy profit and sustainability rubric. But, unlike the chaos of last close season with club ownership up in the air and a stampede of players being shipped out on loan to balance the books, we will start next season under stable ownership and management. We can go up next season but not the Wembley Way!
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.
That's a smashing piece Barry. You should consider doing more sports writing. Seems to flow so naturally and you maintained the interest from start to finish. The day of the Montgomery save I was in Hampden watching Celtic lose 3-2 to Rangers. A certain irony is that Brian Clough who would go on to manage Leeds for 44 days the following year had his soccer career ended by the cup winning manager of Sunderland, Bob Stokoe, with a nasty tackle.
ReplyDeleteIt came from the heart and lived experience as opposed to my more scholarly articles. Not sure if Stokoe did end Clough's career. I know he did accuse him of "bluffing".
ReplyDeleteAccording to Clough, after the tackle Stokoe was protesting to the ref that there was nothing wrong with Clough.
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