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Leeds United<br />
1968-69<br />
A Season in Brief<br />
DIVISION ONE<br />
Preview<br />
The manager was clear in his objective,<br />
‘this year we want the title he declared’.<br />
He also hinted at a more attacking policy,<br />
many people thought that they had<br />
thrown the title away the previous season<br />
by being too cautious.<br />
Success in Europe<br />
The home leg against Ferencvaros took<br />
place on the 7th August, before the league<br />
season had begun. An undercooked<br />
Leeds scraped a 1-0 win courtesy of Mick<br />
Jones, but the Hungarians were confident<br />
of overturning this slender lead.<br />
The second leg was not played until<br />
five weeks later, by which time United<br />
were fully in to their stride and enjoying<br />
an unbeaten start to the season. They<br />
produced a typical away performance<br />
and strangled the life out of the<br />
opposition. Gary Sprake gave a wonderful<br />
performance to show why Don Revie was<br />
prepared to overlook the occasional error.<br />
Once more Bremner surrounded by<br />
ecstatic teammates held the trophy aloft.<br />
The ‘always the bridesmaids’ tag, could<br />
now be firmly banished.<br />
The Season<br />
United hit the ground running, winning<br />
six of the first seven games-, including<br />
beating Liverpool. After winning the Inter<br />
Cities Cup, they had to begin their defence<br />
of the trophy only a week later. The<br />
manager had decided where his priorities<br />
lay and used this competition along with<br />
the League Cup to blood youngsters.<br />
On August the 24th Leeds visited the City<br />
Ground to play Nottingham Forest. In<br />
their preview of the game, the Goal feature<br />
writer claimed, ‘Leeds ready to set fire to<br />
Forest’. Never can a headline been more<br />
accidentally correct, when the game was<br />
abandoned at half-time as the Main Stand<br />
went up in flames. Luckily there was no<br />
loss of life, but all the players belongings<br />
were lost.<br />
There was a slight wobble in October<br />
and November, when in the space of<br />
two weeks, they were knocked out of the<br />
League Cup by Crystal Palace, suffered a<br />
bad 5-1 defeat at Burnley and then drew<br />
three successive games 0-0. This proved<br />
to be the last league defeat of the season,<br />
as they stayed unbeaten for the remaining<br />
twenty eight games.<br />
Early on in the season, Jimmy Greenhoff<br />
was surprisingly allowed to leave for<br />
Birmingham City. Almost a regular the<br />
previous season, he wanted first team<br />
football, but surely he was better than<br />
Division Two?<br />
After a 2-2 aggregate draw against Napoli,<br />
Billy Bremner kept up his 100% record<br />
when he won the coin toss that allowed<br />
Leeds to progress. It is unbelievable that<br />
such a system was still in place for a major<br />
competition.<br />
The year ended in great style, firstly<br />
Hannover were beaten 5-1 and then there<br />
was revenge when Burnley were thrashed<br />
6-1. Leeds were two points off top spot. It<br />
may have turned out to be a blessing when<br />
they were knocked out of the FA Cup in<br />
third round by Sheffield Wednesday. For<br />
the first time in years they only had two<br />
competitions to worry about and though<br />
it might have just been a coincidence, they<br />
didn’t suffer the amount of injuries to key<br />
players that they had in previous years.<br />
They eventually hit the top, overtaking<br />
Liverpool after a routine 2-0 win over<br />
Ipswich in February and never lost it.<br />
Whilst Liverpool were still involved in the<br />
cup, Leeds were able to get points in the<br />
bag and pull eight points clear.<br />
There was some disappointment though,<br />
old foes Ujpest Doza knocking the holders<br />
out in the quarter finals. Bill Shankly and<br />
Liverpool were not pleased when United<br />
applied to have the fixture between the<br />
two teams postponed because they had ten<br />
players unavailable for a variety of reasons,<br />
they accused Revie of gamesmanship.<br />
With the season on the final stretch, only<br />
results mattered and there was no better<br />
team in the country at keeping things<br />
tight. The final nine games were dour tense<br />
affairs, United scored only seven times,<br />
but more importantly only conceded two<br />
goals during this run in.<br />
They couldn’t have chosen a better place<br />
to clinch the title, a 0-0 draw at Anfield,<br />
in a hard fought game that perhaps<br />
surprisingly didn’t spill over. The players<br />
were generously applauded off by the Kop,<br />
whilst things weren’t quite as friendly<br />
outside the ground.<br />
In just eight seasons, Don Revie had<br />
turned Leeds United from a team at the<br />
bottom of Division Two, playing in front<br />
of small crowds in a ramshackle stadium<br />
into the champions of England.<br />
Postscript<br />
The chance to regularly pick a settled team<br />
and concentrate only on one competition<br />
clearly was beneficial. Finally becoming<br />
winners after so often going close, had<br />
increased the team’s confidence, so that<br />
this time they never looked like losing<br />
their nerve. With more money available to<br />
strengthen the squad and signs that more<br />
young players were capable of stepping up,<br />
the signs of a dynasty were there.<br />
84 /((’681,7(’
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