​It seems a very long while since that 0.0 draw at the Hawthorns back in August, doesn’t it? Obviously, we were in disarray following player transfers, fuelled by a media desperate for us to fail. In ‘normal’ circumstances, a draw there would have been a pretty good away result.

I live fairly close to West Bromwich and two of our neighbours are Baggies fans. So starved of meaningful success, they continue to remind me of the 4.1 aberration in November 2018, while I smile nicely before talking of great Leeds players of recent times such as Pablo Hernández who scored that great goal in the opening minute of our 4.0 win at Elland Road in March 2019, and Patrick Bamford who got two.

While scratching their heads trying to remember ‘great’ players of their own, I further remind them that the biggest margin of victory between our two clubs came as a Christmas treat on 29 December 2020 when they presented us with five goals without reply – 4.0 up at half-time – topped by a Raphinha curler reminiscent of one of Tony Currie’s finest…

That was Leeds United's biggest win against West Bromwich Albion since a 5-0 victory at Elland Road in the fourth round of the FA Cup on 18 February 1967.

Back in the 1920s we lost our first four league games to Albion, but even I am not old enough to remember those. What I do remember, whenever anyone mentions West Bromwich Albion, is the events that took place on 17 April 1971.

I was 11 years old at the time and my sister – a mighty and moody 15 – ‘allowed’ me to join her and a few of her friends on a walk to the ‘hills and holes’ at nearby Barnack. The ups and downs terrain was formed as a result of it being a former quarry, out of which Barnack stone was used to build many of the local buildings in the villages around Stamford, and the cathedrals at nearby Peterborough and Ely.

I was told reluctantly by Bridget the Elder that I could go provided that I ‘kept up.’ That was also the case for those teams at the top of the First Division: Arsenal and Leeds United. Our Dad came to pick us up in the car later that afternoon (no doubt worried about my dodgy hamstrings) and I asked him if Leeds had won. There were no mobile phones in those days and a transistor radio would have required a mule to transport it (there weren’t many of those on the flatlands of the Cambridgeshire/Lincolnshire border at that time).

He shook his head and replied that no, they hadn’t, adding that ‘there’s been a lot of trouble!’

Meeting at Elland Road, Leeds needed a win to stay ahead of Arsenal in a very tight title race, especially as Arsenal had two games in hand. The Baggies were already leading by a single goal, while a 'goal' from Leeds was dubiously disallowed for offside.

A frustrated and increasingly hostile home crowd then saw a Norman Hunter pass rebound off Albion striker Tony Brown and ricochet over the halfway line towards Colin Suggett who was clearly some 15 yards offside as indicated by linesman Bill Troupe raising his flag and the game coming to a stop. Inexplicably referee Ray Tinkler not only failed to blow his whistle but waved play on. Brown squared the ball to Jeff Astle who scored. A late Allan Clarke goal was not enough to prevent Leeds losing the match 2.1 and almost certainly the league title.

On BBC’s Match of the Day TV highlights that evening commentator Barry Davies claimed that: "Leeds will go mad! And they have every justification for going mad." while Richard Ulyatt, writing in the Yorkshire Post declared: "In the 45 years I have reported football I have never seen a worse decision by a referee than the one Mr Ray Tinkler gave at Elland Road on Saturday."

A pitch invasion, including the other linesman being hit by a missile thrown from the Lowfields, and a riot in the city followed. The FA delighted in punishing Leeds by closing Elland Road for the first four games of the following season.

Now in second place for the first time that season we won each of our last three league matches - including a 1.0 home win against Arsenal (thanks to a Jack Charlton goal one minute from time) - without conceding a goal, but it wasn't enough. Arsenal would win the title by just one point.

So, West Brom cost us the title, aided and abetted by a referee whose name is remembered by all Leeds United supporters from that time for all the wrong reasons. A lot of people were jealous of us at that time, as they no doubt are now. Let’s hope we aren’t driven to distraction this Saturday… and don’t leave it too late!

This post was first published on ​No Place I'd Radebe on 27 February 2025.

Read more in my book: The Leeds United Story, available on Amazon in print and digital formats, also Kindle Unlimited.

​So, one of the biggest remaining hurdles to promotion is up next!

​We first faced Sheffield United on 8 November 1924 – a 1.1 draw at Bramall Lane. They won the FA Cup that season – for the fourth time – but haven’t won a major trophy since then. Perhaps they’ll have a centenary celebration of that fact, regardless of what happens on Monday.

One of the founding members of the Football League’s new Second Division in 1892, they were promoted in their first season, finishing second behind Small Heath, and became First Division champions five years later. That’s pretty much it… although they are one of only five sides to have won all four professional divisions of English football. Not sure quite how best to interpret that statistic!

Having lived in Sheffield for a while I did know that Bramall Lane is one of only two grounds (the other being the Oval in London) which has hosted England football internationals, an England Test cricket match, and an FA Cup Final (the 1912 replay, in which Blades fans must have been thrilled to see local rivals Barnsley beat West Bromwich Albion 1–0 in the final minute of extra time).

They weren’t always known as The Blades either. No, I’m not talking about blunt instruments. They were originally known as The Cutlers. Snappy eh! Sheffield Wednesday had enjoyed being called Blades until they got wise to the event and became The Owls in 1907 (actually a reference to their new ground in the Owlerton suburb of Sheffield). The Blades nickname sort of trickled to the south of the city after that…

When researching my book, I found that we were actually responsible for the record attendance at Bramall Lane - 68,287 – which came about on 15 February 1936 during a fifth-round FA Cup tie. We filled their ground then and doubtless will do so again on Monday.

In more recent times we’ve had some tediously close promotion battles with Sheffield United – particularly in 1989-90 when we took four points off them, and almost 30 years later, in 2018-19, when we didn’t. Remember Chris Basham’s goal at Elland Road, and Liam Cooper’s late miss?

The matches in this West v South Yorkshire derby which I remember best occurred over a single weekend in 1974. Again, a championship was at stake but this time the First Division itself. We’d had a bit of a blip after our 29-match unbeaten run came to an end at Stoke (also perceived as the end of the known world). After three consecutive defeats we’d beaten Derby (obviously) but then could only draw 0.0 at Coventry on 13 April, which was also Easter Saturday. Liverpool were scoring very late goals all season (not much really changes there) and hot on our heels.

On the Bank Holiday Monday (15 April) 41,140 of us warmly welcomed Sheffield United to Elland Road, hoping to get back on track against a mid-table team, but, again, the match finished 0.0. The day after that (yes, this was in football’s Dark Ages when three games in four days was considered totally acceptable by the nice blazers with matching silk ties ‘running’ the game) we played the return match at Bramall Lane. My favourite all-time player Peter Lorimer scored twice – one from the penalty spot – as we won 2.0 and didn’t look back (certainly not towards Sheffield). Victories against Ipswich and away at QPR secured a trophy that, for once, officious and self-serving football officials could not take away from us.

So, I kind of always think of Sheffield United in a good way as I recall that balmy Tuesday when, dressed in my all-white kit, I would thrash my football into a make-believe goal at the bottom of the garden, thinking I might one day be as famous as Lash. It wasn’t to be of course although, following Leeds United, the dream never really ends either.

This post was first published on ​No Place I'd Radebe on 20 February 2025.

Read more in my book: The Leeds United Story, available on Amazon in print and digital formats, also Kindle Unlimited.

​I still struggle with it. The expectation of victory in a place far from Leeds. A club that wanted to assure the rest of the world that it really was a slumbering giant about to take the biggest football stages by storm. The outpouring of joy at the final whistle from those who had lived without hope for so long.

I’m not talking about the nonsense that took place at Sunderland back in October. Like most clubs a visit from Leeds United did represent their cup final and their fans celebrated a draw in the same way as Burnley’s celebrate their goalkeeper watching Netflix during their matches.

This was an actual cup final – the FA Cup Final on 5 May 1973. Leeds were again favourites to beat their lower-league opposition. Sunderland won the match 1.0 with a goal by Ian Porterfield, but we were all convinced that Peter Lorimer had equalised in the second half. Referee Ken Burns waived both this and a penalty away after Sunderland defender Dave Watson had appeared to foul Billy Bremner in the area.

I genuinely do find it hard to talk about that match, even though more than 50 years have now passed. I suppose it cemented my contempt for corrupt officials – both referees and their sponsoring authorities – which had simmered since 1967, become toxic in 1971 and was reinforced 11 days later in Cyprus. Two years later in Paris it was even worse…

Ken Burns had also presided over the 1967 FA Cup semi-final against the team we’re all still waiting for father to arm us with his loaded weapon. Burns ruled out Terry Cooper’s second-half goal for offside before, in the final minute of the match, Leeds were awarded a free kick, just outside the penalty area. Johnny Giles tapped the ball sideways to Peter Lorimer who crashed the ball into the net. However, Burns ruled it out as Chelsea’s players had not retreated the regulation 10 yards and he hadn’t blown his whistle for the free kick to be taken.

I was seven and I was appalled. That was the day I became a Leeds United fan.

During that same cup run we had met Sunderland in the fifth round. After a 1.1 draw in the original tie at Roker Park, four days earlier, the replay took place at Elland Road on 15 March 1967.

Because of the short turnaround in the matches, the replay could not be made all-ticket and, despite Elland Road's official capacity at the time being 52,000, the attendance that evening was recorded as 57,892 - still Leeds United's record attendance at Elland Road. Many thousands were locked outside and, with the turnstiles being closed some 23 minutes before kick-off, others tried to scale walls and climb onto the roofs of both the Scratching Shed and the Old Peacock to get a glimpse of the action.

Amid this mayhem, a crush barrier on Lowfields Road collapsed causing over 1,000 fans to spill onto the pitch. The game was halted by the referee for 17 minutes while 32 injured people were picked out of the crush and taken away in ambulances to Leeds General Infirmary. The match itself finished 1.1 again. Leeds won a second replay at Hull City's Boothferry Park, 2.1, five days later.

Whilst we wouldn’t want anyone to be hurt on Monday, it is an absolute certainty that Elland Road will be alive and kicking - something we rarely see at Sunderland’s home ground, apart from when receiving gifts. Not that much changes does it?
I suspect quite a lot of you visited Roker Park. ‘The most comfortable place in the world’ it certainly wasn’t – especially with those ferocious gales blowing in from the North Sea – but, even with the delusion of the Stadium of Light, ‘slumberland’ does seem more a more appropriate label for Sunderland than a ‘superpower’ anytime soon.

Our first ever match in the First Division took place on 30 August 1924 against…Sunderland. It too ended in a draw. Sunderland were one of the top teams in the country at that time. Hopefully, after Monday, they will remember where they are now, and we won’t be playing them again for a very long time.

This post was first published on ​No Place I'd Radebe on 13 February 2025.

Read more in my book: The Leeds United Story, available on Amazon in print and digital formats, also Kindle Unlimited.

​So, the potential Cardiff banana skin turned into a skinful after all! Remembering the previous 7.0 win in 1972 and Barrie Davies’s commentary on Match of the Day, I was taken back to the best attacking team I have ever seen play for Leeds United. Could this line-up go on to match it? Some way to go!
 
However, Wednesday’s trip to Coventry showed that there should be no lifting off the accelerator in the league, even if we weren’t as incisive in terms of goals. (At least we’re scoring goals though, unlike Burnley who are so intent on keeping their back door closed that they’ve forgotten how to unlock the front one, and so are stuck in a remarkably quiet place, unsure of what to do next).
 
And so, we move on to Saturday and Millwall at home in the FA Cup. It seems remarkable somehow that we’ve never met Millwall in the FA Cup before – especially when you consider that the competition began more than 150 years ago, in 1872 (and, yes, I remember the Centenary Cup Final very well indeed!).
 
It isn’t as if either club is new (i.e. less than 100 years old) either. Millwall Rovers were formed in 1885, the current incarnation retaining the name even though they haven’t played in that part of London’s Isle of Dogs since 1910.
 
We’ve never met Millwall in the League Cup either – and that competition is in its 65th season now, although I still somehow think of it as a ‘new’ development. Maybe it’s my age, as the League Cup began in the year I was born.
 
I’m sure that statisticians can prove that the probability of one team meeting any other is actually not that high, but then, equally, the clusters of results that seem to come up against certain of the same teams must be even more unlikely.
 
Either way we’ve only faced Millwall in cup competitions on two occasions. Both were in the Full Members Cup – an additional tournament introduced in 1985 and running until 1992 - for clubs in the top two English divisions after the Heysel disaster, after which English clubs were banned from playing in Europe. Obviously, it was another money-making exercise which was hijacked by corporate sponsors. It was known as the Simod Cup by the time we played Millwall in it at the Old Den on 8 December 1987. We lost 2.0 but, honestly, after Billy Bremner had taken Leeds to within minutes of both promotion and Wembley in the spring of that year, did anyone really care? Just 5,034 turned up for the match…
 
Almost a year later, on 29 November 1988 even fewer – 4,242 – braved the elements to see Leeds lose in the same cup, at the same venue, and by the same score of 2.0.
 
They beat us at The Den again this season of course – we’ve lost nine of the last 12 away games against them in the league – but at least this tie is at Elland Road. I’m not entirely sure why a ‘rivalry’ has built up between us; after all, they are just a small, underperforming club from south-east London… The worst memory for me dates back to 2009 when, having lost the first leg of the League One Play-Off semi-final at The Den, 1.0 (obviously), to a late goal from Neil Harris, the second leg took place on 14 May 2009 at Elland Road. The crowd of 37,036 was the highest attendance outside of the Premier League that season.
 
After Jermaine Beckford had missed a penalty for Leeds, Luciano Becchio put us in front after 53 minutes – making the score in the tie all-square – but Jimmy Abdou equalized for Millwall 19 minutes later. Leeds could not find a way through the packed Millwall defence again and the match finished 1.1 leaving Leeds in League One for a third, consecutive season.
 
Ah! The play-offs…
 
When considering Millwall – and, thankfully, we don’t need to very often – we might often use the word ‘mindless.’ Although Daniel Farke wants to ‘keep the momentum up’ of our team, I hope he rotates the players more than usual, as this cup game is really not in our mind’s eyes, any more than Millwall deserve to be. It might be the FA Cup rather than some Mickey Mouse trophy (Chelsea won the Full Members Cup twice; what more can I say?) but a temporary derailment on Saturday would be far better than us failing again to reach the mainline station at all.

This post was first published on ​No Place I'd Radebe on 8 February 2025.

Read more in my book: The Leeds United Story, available on Amazon in print and digital formats, also Kindle Unlimited.