Home bankers in FA Cup

However, it is a cup tie at Elland Road that I was thinking about this week when looking ahead to Saturday’s first-ever competitive visit of Harrogate Town. It’s unlikely that this derby match will ever take on the significance of Huddersfield or those pretenders from South Yorkshire or Teesside. Some are foolishly calling it a ‘home banker’ which anyone with even the slightest knowledge of football history, let alone the history of the FA Cup, will know to be lunacy – even in the mad world of being a Leeds supporter.

I first thought of the Manchester City riot in the third-round in 1978 but quickly moved back four years to 19 February 1974 and a fifth-round replay against Bristol City of the Second Division. Leeds were top of the First Division at that time, nine points clear of Liverpool and unbeaten after 29 matches. In Don Revie’s last season in charge (though, of course, we didn’t know that at the time) we would go on to win the league by five points and most of us already felt the title was ours – even though we didn’t dare to say so publicly. After the debacle of 1972, I had been so hoping for another Double attempt and this year looked to be the most likely.

More than 9,000 Leeds fans had travelled to a sold-out Ashton Gate for the first match in which Billy Bremner scored a 25-yarder to put Leeds ahead just before half-time. Keith Fear equalised in the second half, but – at a time when we are all discussing Leeds goalkeepers again – I remember David Harvey making an absolutely fantastic save from Don Gillies from just four yards out to keep us in the tie.

Three special trains, two dozen coaches and a convoy of cars brought 3,000 Robins fans to Yorkshire for the replay, which attracted the highest crowd of the season so far at Elland Road (despite the unbeaten league run) with an expectant 47,182 fans packed in. The size of the crowd was all the more remarkable given that it took place in a period of industrial action by miners, which affected coal supplies to the power stations, putting electricity in short supply.

Government regulations, aimed at saving energy, demanded that all but ‘essential’ industries switched to a three-day week, while homes were regularly hit by power cuts. The match therefore kicked off at 2.00 in the afternoon rather than under the evening floodlights; an ‘emergency issue’ of the match programme was issued - priced at 7 pence - and containing just 12 pages.

Leeds dominated possession for most of the first half but without making any inroads – sound familiar? Peter Lorimer hit the post on the hour before Mick Jones had the ball in the back of the net five minutes later, however his challenge on the goalkeeper, who had managed to gather a cross from Roy Ellam, was deemed unfair by Wolverhampton referee Jack Taylor (remember him?)

Bristol City – drifting towards relegation in their league – had clearly arrived with a nothing-to-lose attitude, buoyed by the draw against Leeds in the first match. They had several attempts on target before, in the 73^rd minute, Gillies ran on to a diagonal pass from Fear in the penalty area and, despite the close attention of Norman Hunter, made no mistake this time, squeezing a left foot shot under David Harvey. The match ended, 1.0.

This was probably the only Bristol City goal ever to make the front pages of the national daily newspapers and made a household name of Don Gillies, a former Scottish Merchant Navy deckhand and papermill worker, who had scored his first FA Cup goal and become an instant West Country hero.

I remember the match as though it was yesterday, not nearly 51 years ago. I feel the disappointment all over again just by writing this. We’re top of a league again and, apart from the shock, cup loss can cause a blip in league form – just as it did then. However, in our current tight situation, winning might be more problematic, even if it’s easier to cope with!

Check out Mark's latest book: The History of Football - The Leeds United Story. https://www.markrasdallwriting.com/history.html#leeds