Joe Jordan was the first to arrive in his grey Rover car.
We were sat up on the grassy bank of the training ground overlooking the car park at Elland Road. It was Wednesday 27 October 1976, my dad’s 49th birthday. We were on holiday in Wakefield and as a 12 year old fan of Leeds United, I had pestered my dad relentlessly to take me to watch the first team train before they played Arsenal the following Saturday. Dad had eventually given in.
Ten minutes before Jordan arrived, I had purchased a colour picture of Peter Lorimer, my footballing hero. The woman in the shop said I should have chosen Norman Hunter, “because Peter Lorimer never gives autographs, and Norman Hunter is a lovely man”. She couldn’t dissuade me. Not only did Peter Lorimer score amazing goals – he wasn’t nicknamed “Hotshot” for nothing – I had his number 7 sock tags.
So, Peter Lorimer’s picture it was, but it would be a couple of hours before it was covered in autographs. The woman in the shop told us that the players only signed souvenirs after training. So we sat on the bank and watched as Billy Bremner, Paul Reaney, Trevor Cherry, Paul Madeley, David Harvey, Gordon McQueen, Eddie and Frank Gray, Duncan McKenzie, Allan Clarke, Peter Hampton, Terry Yorath and Jimmy Armfield parked up below us. I was unbearably excited.
My dad was one of those men who always took a punt, who had the cheek to try something not quite allowed, until someone stopped him. As we were milling around outside, in awe of the flashy cars – Eddie Gray and Peter Lorimer turned up in some snazzy orange number – dad and I joined the back of a small group of people who seemed to be going into the ground. Sure enough, a minute or so later we were walking down the side of the pitch.
As we neared the dugout under the main stand, Joe Jordan flew past. He was doing post-training laps of the pitch, hair flowing, pounding out the yards. I knelt down and grabbed a handful of grass he had just flattened. I kept it in a plastic bag for years afterwards.
Back out in the car park, the excitement was growing. First out was Norman Hunter. He signed autographs for everyone. Bremner had clearly had a row with McQueen and it was only the presence of so many fans that meant they kept a lid on things. I managed to get autograph after autograph, but Bremner remained elusive. He was surrounded. Eventually, my dad leaned across a few people’s heads and said, “Here you go Billy, here’s one to sign”, and he did. Genius!
On the way back to our friends’ house in Wakefield, I was ecstatic. I found it hard to explain to my mother quite what had happened. When dad then produced tickets for the match against Arsenal on the Saturday, it was more than I could have ever wanted.
That said, the team was on the wane. Revie had been gone some time. It was over a year since they had lost the European Cup Final against Bayern Munich, in the face of some corrupt refereeing. Armfield was struggling to string together two consecutive wins. When they faced Arsenal on 30 October 1976, Leeds were 12th in the First Division. Arsenal were one place below them, still trying to find a new direction after the departure of Bertie Mee.
Whilst Revie’s legacy was still to be found amongst the Leeds line up, this was a team in transition. A player of Tony Currie’s inconsistent flair would never have made a Revie starting eleven:
What gave the tie a bit of edge was the appearance of Malcom MacDonald, recently signed by Arsenal from Newcastle United for £333,333.33. As SuperMac shot and missed, shot and missed, chants of “What a waste of money!” rang out across Elland Road all afternoon.
Leeds won. Sitting behind the goal in the South Stand, I can remember Jordan’s winner vividly – a through ball over the Arsenal back four and a cushioned lob over the advancing Rimmer did the trick. I left Elland Road a happy boy. The next time I was there was more than two decades later, when I sat in almost the same seats with my own son to watch the Peacocks beat Fulham.
Watching the players’ cars fill the Elland Road car park on that October day, at the end of the long hot summer of 1976, is etched indelibly upon my memory. Bremner, Lorimer, Madeley, Reaney, Gray, Clarke – they were, and are, Leeds United legends. It was beyond exciting.
By the way, the woman in the shop was right – Peter Lorimer jumped straight into Eddie Gray’s car and shot off, without signing a thing!
Norman Hunter signs his autograph for me; my dad in the dark trousers in the background looks on.
Memory added on July 4, 2021
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