In time for tonights Chelsea v Leeds FA cup game, a link to some of the errrrr highlights from 1970 Cup Final replay a game I remember well. Featuring the classic Leeds team (with Madeley a worthy replacement for Paul Reaney). Only one booking.
*Contains adult content*
Of course both clubs argue mitigation in that the playing surface was stuffed as it had recently been used for the Horse Of The Year Show. So they weren’t really bad tackles, they kept getting their feet caught in divots on the pitch.
As it says in the article, applying modern reffing standards both teams would have been reduced by half due to red cards, so the match would’ve probably been abandoned anyway
ITV4 showed clips from it this evening. The tackles had nothing to do with the pitch. Especially the head-high flying tackle on Alan Clarke. Dirty Leeds, indeed.
It was watched by a modern ref and there would have been 11 red cards by today’s standards apparently.
That was the final at Wembley where they had Horse of the Year. This is the replay at Old Trafford.
Sad to see how devalued the FA Cup has become.
Ties played over three weeknights and the draw
made before half the ties have been played.
Sad to see how devalued the FA Cup has become.
Ties played over three weeknights and the draw
made before half the ties have been played.
Completely agree.
The rot really set in when the bigger clubs started fielding reserve sides.
What I don’t understand is why teams who NEVER win anything – Tottenham, Newcastle United, Leeds United, Fulham, Wolves, West Brom etc. – started to do the same thing! What’s in it for 8th placed Newcastle not to go full strength at every possible opportunity?
Following the draw, I don’t hold out any hope for anything than yet another final that means precisely diddley squat to both participants, let alone anyone else.
See last Sunday’s League Cup Final.
Last night Leeds rested some players but the game was essentially a free hit for us.
It makes sense to rest players if you’re 2nd in Division 2 (a club that remains outside the top division faces a slow financial death) and have 3 games in the next nine days. Even so Leeds started the match with 7 of the first team.
Don’t let facts get in the way of your argument though 😉
The rot started the year they exempted Man U from the competition to go overseas and play for a trophy no one even remembers.
The FA’s sole reason for giving Man U their free pass so was that they thought their doing so earn them a few votes for one for their ruinously expensive World Cup bids
I think last few years teams have generally been stronger in the FA Cup. Liverpool only had 2 first teamers playing last night, but they have 9 players out injured. Same applies to League Cup final and they also started with a, these days, scarcely believable 8 players from the British Isles. That’s a positive throwback to the old days.
Playing rounds midweek not good, do the draw when the round is finished and kick off for the final must be 3pm on a Saturday in May
And there’s this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68423241
Cue people saying they are paid millions and should just get on with it, but top athletes require rest in order to perform at high levels over long periods
First game I ever recall watching (the first one), not sure I was allowed to stay up to watch the replay, I was 8. Then got to see Leeds play in Cardiff when I was 9.
Does anyone remember the numbered sock tags with tassels the Leeds players used to wear in the 70’s? I would’ve loved to have seen the players faces when they were told they’d be wearing these.
They sound perfectly attractive.
Given clubs’ desire to wring every last bit of cash out of their fans, I’m surprised sock tags haven’t made a comeback in home away and third change kit versions
When would you ever need a third change kit?
When you wanted another £1m of revenue?
MCEscher above mentions “the head-high flying tackle on Allan Clarke”.
I must confess I don’t remember that.
But I do remember Eddie McCreadie’s head-high flying tackle on Billy Bremner. Yikes!
Yep, Bremner not Clarke.
If McCreadie’s feet had connected with his head, BB would have come away thinking he was Clarke
Ach, no more than Bremner deserved. There’s the famous picture of Dave Mackay taking him by the throat for a dirty tackle on his second comeback after two broken legs.
Grew up in the days when every team had its resident clogger.
Some of the more successful teams had two or three.
Leeds were fairly unique in that they had 10.
They would have had the full legs-broken 11 but the only time
Gary Sprake let things get out of hand was when he was holding
the ball
Wow, ten cloggers and still kicked off the pitch by Chelsea.
Chelsea weren’t exactly short of cloggers themselves
My understanding is that Leeds were known as being hard as f*ck in addition to their obvious talent & that Revie had instilled a terrifying ruthlessness in his side.
Chelsea, by contrast were pretty cavalier & very entertaining, but in fits & starts & a little light physically (Chopper Harris aside, obvs).
As a result, Dave Sexton decided that the warrior approach was the way forward & that unless they ‘got their retaliation in first’ Leeds would run the show.
Hoof prints can clearly be seen all over the pitch in still photos of the Wembley final & it was a bog – not exactly conducive to the beautiful game – which surely contributed to the battle that followed & then continued at Old Trafford in the replay when the gloves were definitely off!
A great scrap without doubt, but it’s Osgood’s headed equaliser that never fails to thrill me beyond words.
True. Charlie Cooke was one of the best examples of why the Docherty/Sexton era Chelsea were so thrilling to watch.
Apart from Duncan McKenzie, I can’t think of one real flair player who
Made much of an impact at Leeds – and that was in the mid-70s when the all-conquering team of a few years earlier was in decline.
What they did have was an incredible all-for-one-technology and-one-for-all team spirit. The surviving members apparently still meet up regularly to this day
Tony Currie was the main creative influence at that time.
True to sat that Leeds team could play a bit