Today I'm going back 43 years to 1978 and Leeds United's fixture against Southampton at Elland Road.
The programme cover features Leeds United and England's Paul Madeley in an encounter with Archie Gemmill at the City Ground, Nottingham. Madeley made his debut for Leeds in January 1964 and is remembered as one of Leeds' finest ever defensive players. It comes as a surprise therefore to learn that Madeley wore the number 9 shirt in the 1968 League Cup Final against Arsenal. In fact Madeley is famous for having worn every number from 2 to 11 at some point in his United career which ran until 1980 when he finally retired from playing. Jimmy Armfield tells a story about Madeley negotiating a new contract: "He once actually signed a new contract on what was virtually a blank piece of paper. I called him in to discuss terms and opened discussions by saying, 'OK, Paul, we'll give you so much'. He replied that he had no intention of leaving Leeds so he might as well sign the contract and let me fill in the details. I said, 'What do you want, then, two years or three years?' He answered, 'Either way, I'll leave it to you. I just want to play for Leeds,' and that was that." Madeley was a one club man and they certainly don't make them like that anymore!
This game was United Manager Jimmy Adamson's sixth game in charge and they took Southampton to the cleaners, winning by 4-0. The first goal of the afternoon was scored by Arthur Graham who made space for himself before lashing one past the Southampton goalkeeper Gennoe from outside the penalty area. Remarkably it was the programme cover star Madeley who scored the second, one of only 25 League goals scored across 536 League games for Leeds. It was heavily deflected and was his first goal for Leeds in almost three years. Ten minutes into the second half and the third goal of the afternoon arrived. It was an absolute peach, curled round a Saints defender and their goalkeeper as it was. Cue ageless ITV commentator Martin Tyler: "Oh my goodness...and Tony Currie milks the applause that is so deserved". It's still one of my favourite pieces of commentary ever and the goal's not bad either! Do take the time to admire it on the highlights video attached to my blog. You won't be disappointed. The scoring was wrapped up with an own goal scored by the luckless Ivan Golac who chipped his own keeper having earlier missed a great chance at the other end.
Season 1978/9 was a relatively successful one for Leeds as they finished fifth in the League and thereby qualified for the following season's UEFA Cup. Southampton finished up in the League in fourteenth position. It was the Saints who had been hammered 4-0 by Leeds in the featured game so it was galling for United fans when, two months later, the two sides met in the two-legged League Cup Semi-Final and could only draw 2-2 at Elland Road. Southampton won the second leg 1-0 at the Dell and ended up going to Wembley leaving Leeds with nothing to show for their season.
CRB Match No. 28
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