Anniversary brings back 'horrible' memories for Harvey

Great friends as well as fierce rivals, the two men had hoped Leeds United and Celtic would meet in the European Cup final.

Both clubs were reigning champions and at the very height of their powers, so it was no wonder Revie and Stein had been keen to avoid each other in the semi-finals.

Instead, the draw in Rome set up a two-legged Battle of Britain that triggered such huge interest among supporters that thousands of Scots descended on Yorkshire without tickets, while the second leg in Glasgow had to be moved to the much larger Hampden Park.

The clamour to be there was understandable with Celtic on course to collect what would be the fifth in a run of eight consecutive Scottish league titles.

For Leeds, meanwhile, the prize was even greater with Revie's men chasing an unprecedented treble. Already through to the last four of the FA and European Cups, United's league form had been equally impressive with just two defeats in the 35 games that preceded Standard Liege's interest in Europe being ended at Elland Road in the quarter-final second leg on March 18.

A 2-1 victory at Wolves three days later plus the subsequent Cup semi-final triumph over Manchester United merely strengthened the belief at Elland Road that the treble was on.

It was, admittedly, going to be tough.

The 1970 World Cup taking place in Mexico – where players had to acclimatise to the altitude – meant the end of the English domestic season had been brought forward, leaving United with a potentially draining schedule of nine games in just 23 days and a possible May 6 appearance in the European Cup final to follow.

In the end, Leeds played 10 times in 31 days due to the Cup final against Chelsea going to a replay and finished the season empty-handed.

All three near-misses were heartbreaking, though none perhaps quite so much as the European Cup defeat to Celtic.

Certainly, former United goalkeeper David Harvey can, even 40 years on, vividly recall the dejection of the second leg defeat when a British record crowd of 136,505 packed into Hampden Park.

Now 62 and happily recovering at home in the Orkney Islands from a heart attack suffered in January, he remembers a night that has since gone down in British footballing folklore.

"The atmosphere was unbelievable," says the man who came off the bench in that second leg to replace the injured Gary Sprake.

"We just could not hear ourselves think, never mind hear what each other was shouting. It would have been loud enough at Parkhead, but Hampden Park was something else.

"When the game was moved to allow a bigger crowd to watch, I remember thinking 'this is going to be some atmosphere'. But I think even the more experienced lads were surprised by the sheer volume of noise."

Trailing 1-0 after a goal by George Connelly in the first leg at Elland Road, Leeds had travelled to Glasgow knowing Celtic were overwhelming favourites to reach the Milan final.

By now, hopes of a second consecutive league title had been virtually dashed by United taking just one point from three league games in a hectic six-day period that also included that first meeting with Celtic.

Nevertheless, Revie's men travelled full of confidence and such optimism seemed well-placed when Billy Bremner opened the scoring at Hampden in the 14th minute. Momentarily, the partisan Scottish crowd was silenced only to quickly rediscover their voice as Celtic laid siege to the goal.

United made it to half-time with the aggregate scores still level only to concede two minutes after the restart when John Hughes glanced in a corner. Sprake was then stretchered off soon after play resumed, thrusting Harvey into the fray and his first task was to pick the ball out of the net after Jimmy Johnstone had made it 2-1 on the night.

The former Scotland international recalls: "When you are sat on the bench, you don't expect to get on but then the injury happened and I had to be ready.

"It is just a shame that I didn't get a bit longer to get used to the pace of the game and the noise out in the middle."

Celtic went on to lose 2-1 to Feyenoord in the final, while for Leeds more heartache lay ahead with an FA Cup final replay defeat to Chelsea at Old Trafford a fortnight later.

Harvey, who was in goal as the Blues won 2-1 after extra-time, added: "We were very close to the treble, only to fall short. I suppose it was nothing new to us as we seemed to do that quite a bit. It was hell after the game at Hampden. All the Celtic fans were celebrating and our second chance of a trophy had gone, leaving us with the FA Cup.

"Losing to Celtic had made us even more determined to beat Chelsea but, again, it just wasn't meant to be. It was a horrible end to what had, until the final few weeks, been a good season."