Morning folks The day I started supporting Leeds is indelibly etched into my memory, it was the 14th November 1974. having been born in Leeds, my family moved to North Wales when I was 3 to be closer to my mum's family. I started to get interested in football when I was about 6 or 7 and at that time Stoke City were my team, mainly because my mum had organised a charity event, which due to fog, a number of Chester celebrities (yes Russ Abbott, I'm looking at you ), together with a number of well known Liverpool and Manchester based footballers failed to turn up. However despite the travel conditions, Gordon Banks managed to travel up from London and make it there on time, despite only having sight in one eye. Having got his autograph, he was instantly my hero , and thus Stoke City were my team, until that fateful date mentioned above. Well having been born in Leeds and living close to Chester, just across the border in Wales, when both the clubs were drawn together in the League Cup, it seemed like the ideal occasion for my dad to take me to my first ever live professional football game. Did I actually have any interest in the the result or who won, not one bit I was just excited to be at a live game surrounded by the whole atmosphere. Can I actually remember much of the game, specifically no. I do remember how the abject shock for both players and supporters of Leeds about how the game panned out, and that I probably also took some delight (as a young 7/8 year old would) at the way that my small local football team had outplayed the best team in England if not Europe at that time. Having gone to bed all hyper and excited, before going to school next morning I told my mum (dad was at work by this time) that I no longer wanted to support Stoke, but was going to support Leeds from now on, and well here I still am 39 years later. We've had a few good times since then, a lot of bad times but the image of the absolute look of shock and horror on the faces of the Leeds fans at the way the result went, is still very vivid in my mind, and over the years despite everything that has happened to our club, I look back and think I could never have picked a better moment to become Leeds fan as the day that the mighty Leeds were humbled by Chester,as no matter what happened in the years to come, nothing could be worse than seeing the dismay on both players and supporters faces as that game progressed. In reality we lost one game and in the grand scheme of everything it was nothing, and overall a lot worse has happened to the club since then, but in my own mind, whenever some calamity falls specifically relating to the club, I always think back to the night before the 14th November 1974, remember the look on the Leeds fans faces at that time and take some comfort from the fact that no other football related event since has even come close to my allegiance for the club waiver for one moment.
The OS are bloody copyin my ideas Bastards.. http://www.leedsunited.com/news/article/18fdlaztmihh818nm5a8hs7d5d/title/%23iam-leeds-why?
Cheers Elland As a very lowly paid worker in North Wales I don't get to go to games as much as I would like these days, and thus there are numerous threads where in reality its difficult to comment with anything like a meaningful reply, when the basis of your knowledge is based either on what I've read on here or in the papers etc, thus I just quietly read the majority of threads, smile to myself at the numerous differences of opinion about certain subjects, so it is nice on occasion to find a thread where I can make a post of some substance, that's not just a non informed opinion. In addition when I do actually make a post I do tend to ramble on a bit, hence this post that was just to say thanks ends up being a 5 lined response, instead of just a "thanks Elland" response
Pal, we have posters from Arizona, Australia, the Middle-East, Norway, literally all over the place. Football is all about opinion. The one thing we all have in common is Leeds Utd. No one persons opinion is more important then anyone else's. Keep posting fella
Enjoyed your story, Aski. I'm now about to out-ramble you! lol. My first club was a local one called Cumbernauld United. You won't have heard of it. It did have a youngster by the name of Kenny Dalglish play for it. I thought he was rubbish, but hey!, I was a kid. What did I know? United officially opened the ground in 1967-68 with a match against Celtic, a few months after they won the European Cup. I remember standing a matter of 10 feet away from Jimmy Johnstone, the Celtic winger. Even though I was only 9, I was sure I was taller than him! Possibly was! To my discredit, I spat in his general direction. I did it because the other kids did it. I don't think any of us kids knew why we were doing it. Ironically, he has become my footballing hero. Better than Best etc. Class act. Funny how things turn out. Other thing I remember is that it cost 1/6d to get into the match. I was given 2 bob so I could get a pie & a drink. At every opportunity, I stood on the 'Jews Hill' to watch the match for free, or crawled under the mesh fence if someone stronger than me had kindly pulled it up. The benefit of having 2 bob instead of 6d was that I could buy loads more packets of football cards to collect & swop. Glory days! Dad used to take me into Glasgow to see Partick Thistle. The only specific match I can recall was in 1971 when we won the League Cup against Celtic. Won 4-1, David vs Goliath. This was the Celtic team bristling with Internationalists who beat Leeds on the way to the European Cup final the previous season. We had just been promoted, our team, including Alan Hansen, had and average age of 22! Won't bore you with the detail, but this article is a good read ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...and-Thistle-were-a-thorn-in-Celtics-side.html Leeds? As an avid follower of Scotland, it was almost a natural thing to adopt Leeds as your english team. After all, half the bloody team played for Scotland! I was restricted to watching Leeds on the telly if it was a featured match (only one english match - Scottish football was what the programme was all about!). First time I saw Leeds in the flesh was when they visited Glasgow to play Partick Thistle! I was like a dog with two tails that day. Didn't know who to support. Got so drunk after it that to this day I don't know who won! This was back in the days when you could turn up for a match with your Addidas shoulder bag (the original man bag!) stuffed with beer, ***s & vodka. You didn't mind turning up early as you had all the pre-match entertainment you needed in your bag! And throughout the match too. Wonderful days, now sadly gone. Jeez, can't even have a good swear at the football these days.
Yeah, thats right. They have quite a good set up at Guys Meadow Football park. They have been around for the last 50 years or so. Think they play on astroturf...
My first games were in 68/69 when I was five years old and my old man used to take me. I would be lying if I said I could remember them. The first game I went to with mates was a night match, I seem to think it was the last game of the season at ER? We were playing Liverpool when they used to be good. They had won the title and needed to beat us to set a record points tally of 68? They also needed to score twice to score a record 100? Goals in a season. They tonked us and won 3-0. The crowd cheered them to the rafters. I was a scrounger even then, the tickets were freebies in the west stand, my mother got them off Lesley silver. Early eighties me and my best mate took his considerably younger brother to his first game, he was 12 or 13 at the time. The game was against Sunderland and we at that time STOOD in the south stand. Now the young kid was a giant and even at that age was 6ft 6, there we were, all Pringle jumpers and Sergio Tachini track suit tops (if you need to ask you are too young). Next thing we know the coppers are kickking feck out of the kid, turned out there were mackems in the new boxes behind us and he had been flicking the v's at them. The coppers refused to believe he was so young and thought they had nicked a head nutter from the service crew. To make matters worse we had to ring his old man and say Gerry had been nicked, his old man was a copper and got it straightened out, but we never took him again.
Aski the only bad forum is a quiet forum. Every opinion is a valid opinion. Now put the ewe down and start posting regularly.
