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N AT WEMBLEY<br />
I felt very dopey. With the vital league championship<br />
match against Wolves due on the Monday, the team was<br />
going to Wolverhampton from Wembley via our cup final<br />
headquarters at Hendon. There they were to have a meal. I<br />
went back with them in the coach as far as Hendon, picked<br />
up a few things, then returned to the London hotel where<br />
our wives and the Leeds officials were staying.<br />
The game at Molineux, just 48 hours after our Wembley<br />
appearance, was an opportunity for Leeds to become only<br />
the third team in modern history to pull off the League and<br />
FA Cup double. But I knew I wouldn’t be out there to help<br />
them in the second leg.<br />
I went to bed when I got back to the London hotel and<br />
tried to watch the Cup Final recording on TV. I’d have<br />
given anything to have seen myself going up the steps so I<br />
could get an idea of what happened.<br />
I travelled back to Leeds the next day. And even though I<br />
normally dislike watching the team play, I made a point of<br />
asking Mr Revie if it would be all right to travel down to<br />
Wolverhampton on Monday. I was determined to be there<br />
to see if we could get the one point that would clinch the<br />
title–and therefore the double. With that point we would<br />
have gone ahead of Derby County on goal average and<br />
would have remained ahead of Liverpool, irrespective of<br />
their result against Arsenal at Highbury.<br />
I travelled down to the Midlands on Monday afternoon<br />
with club secretary Keith Archer, and watched the game<br />
from the stand, along with our full-back Terry Cooper. He,<br />
of course, was out of action with a broken leg.<br />
I said I didn’t like watching the team play. I know I’ll<br />
never go to another Leeds game after seeing that one. It<br />
was torture. We were beaten 2-1. And as Liverpool only<br />
managed a draw with Arsenal, Derby County became<br />
champions.<br />
You can imagine our disappointment after coming so close<br />
to the double. We hadn’t failed because we played badly.<br />
It was the circumstances that had piled up which caused us<br />
to miss out on the double.<br />
winning the double again. I certainly believe that if the<br />
Wolves game had been two days later, on the Wednesday<br />
instead of the Monday, I would have had another<br />
championship medal to add to the one I got three years ago.<br />
In the end, we all made up our minds it was only because<br />
the fixtures were so close together that we missed out.<br />
But Leeds’ supporters seemed very satisfied with the way<br />
things turned out. I do believe the fans wanted us to bring<br />
home the cup more than they wanted the League trophy.<br />
Because the city had never seen the FA Cup.<br />
I never even saw the trophy until the Monday after the<br />
final. But I hung on to that medal for a good while on<br />
the Saturday. It will always remain one of my treasured<br />
souvenirs.<br />
THE FANS WERE HAPPY<br />
To begin with, the game shouldn’t have been played so soon<br />
after our Wembley appearance. But the League insisted<br />
it be staged that night because of Wolves EUFA Cup<br />
commitments. We went out with around eight fit players.<br />
I was amazed how well the lads played after an hour and a<br />
half on the tiring Wembley pitch just two days before.<br />
I think it’s fair to say most of us would have preferred to<br />
win the league to the cup. Yes, even though the Wembley<br />
final has more glamour to it.<br />
I would like to think we’ll get as good a chance of<br />
/((’681,7(’<br />
167
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