For April 13th I'm going back 36 years to 1985 and Leeds United's League Division 2 game against Crystal Palace.
Leeds United are one of footballs "Big Clubs" not that you'd have necessarily known it over the past 30 years. Since the late 1970's Leeds have had a difficult history which has been speckled with golden moments (such as the League title!) amongst all the underachievement. I think you can always get a handle of which clubs are the big ones by surveying work colleagues or far distant friends. In both cases, no matter how far away from Leeds you care to go, there's always a sizeable proportion of Leeds followers. I noticed it especially in Ireland where Leeds seemed to me to be as well supported as Manchester United and Liverpool and much better supported than more recently successful clubs such as Chelsea or Manchester City.
Yes, Leeds United are "Big" and it's all down to the Don Revie era. In Revie's golden era between 1961 and 1974 he guided Leeds to two top flight titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two UEFA Fairs Cups plus a Second Division title and a Charity Shield for good measure. He also guided them to three other FA Cup Finals, another UEFA Fairs Cup Final and a European Cup Winners' Cup Final. The team also managed to finish second in the First Division on five occasions. In my mind, Leeds had something of a reputation for being "bridesmaids" as it felt like they finished as runners up rather a lot. If I'm right, this was almost certainly down to sheer weight of fixtures as they always seemed to be going for the big prizes right through to the business end of a season. Revie left Leeds to manage England in 1974 and his career was never the same again. His team carried on without him for a while and, indeed, reached the European Cup (now called the Champions League kids!) Final in 1975 but Revie's side was ageing and they found it impossible to replace their stars when the time came. They were relegated into the Second Division in 1982 which is where I found them for this game.
Leeds, under the management of Eddie Gray, won the game 4-1. They had a more than useful side containing the likes of Denis Irwin, Andy Linighan, John Sheridan, Eddie's brother Frank Gray and club captain Peter Lorimer (RIP). 39 year old Lorimer was back at Leeds for his second spell with the club in the twilight of his career and he remains to this day as Leeds United's highest-ever goal scorer with 238. Palace, under Steve Coppell were a little more workmanlike and included Henry Hughton (Chris's brother), Jim Cannon and Micky Droy in their line-up.
Incidentally, that's centre-half Neil Aspin starring on the front cover of the programme. He made 207 League appearances for Leeds only one of which was in the top flight. This was another of those games played in the dark days of the mid-1980's where English club attendances suffered due to hooliganism. The attendance on this day was just 12,286. Leeds finished the season in 7th place, five points behind promoted and third placed Manchester City. Palace finished 15th in the 22 team Second Division. Today, both clubs can be found in the Premier League.
CRB Match No. 369
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