Today I'm going back 44 years to 1978 and Leeds United's First Division fixture against Birmingham City at Elland Road which was attended by 23,331. This was only the 21st professional football match that I ever attended.
As can be seen from the cover of today's programme, the Leeds manager at the time of this game was Jock Stein who was in charge at Elland Road for just 44 days following his appointment before jumping ship to accept the opportunity to manage the Scottish national team. In fact Stein left Leeds just four days after this fixture. In the opposite dugout was another manager who would carve out a long and successful career in management: Jim Smith. Smith started out on the managerial trail in 1969 and had already occupied the hot seat at Colchester United and Blackburn Rovers before arriving at Birmingham City in 1978 following the resignation of his predecessor Sir Alf Ramsey. Smith couldn't save the Blues who were relegated at the end of his first full season in charge but he was allowed to rebuild the club and they bounced back at the first attempt. However, in 1982 Ron Saunders walked out of Aston Villa and the Birmingham hierarchy couldn't resist poking their local rivals in the eye by appointing Saunders as their new manager with Smith being shown the door as a result. Next stop for Smith was probably his most successful managerial spell too: Oxford United were in the Third Division when he arrived but back-to-back promotions in 1984 and 1985 put Oxford in unprecedented territory in the top flight. Foolishly Chairman Robert Maxwell failed to improve Smith's contract and he walked out as a result, pitching up in West London at QPR. Further managerial spells were to follow at Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Derby County and Oxford United (again!). Sadly he died aged 79 in 2019.
Amongst one or two notable players in Jim Smith's selection for the featured game was Blues goalkeeper Jim Montgomery. Montgomery was responsible for that fantastic double save from Trevor Cherry and Peter Lorimer whilst playing for Sunderland against Leeds United in the 1973 FA Cup Final. Montgomery is rightly regarded as a Sunderland legend and he played 537 Football League games for Sunderland in total between 1960-1977 before moving to Birmingham City in the twilight of his career. Between 1977-1979 he made a further 66 appearances for the Blues before retiring as a player to become a goalkeeping coach.
Notable by his absence from the Blues side for the featured match was 24-year old Trevor Francis who was to leave Birmingham in February 1979 to join Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest as, reputedly, Britain's first £1 Million footballer. Certainly, Birmingham needed all the help that they could muster against Leeds and they ended up conceding three goals without reply, with the goals being scored by Brian Flynn, Frank Gray (penalty) and Ray Hankin. Birmingham's season went from bad to worse as they were relegated in 21st position (of 22) alongside QPR and Chelsea. Leeds had a much happier time of things and finished in 5th place thereby qualifying for the following season's UEFA Cup. Champions that season were Liverpool.
CRB Match No. 21
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