Bygones: Leeds got back on the footballing map before it all ended in tears

IT was a time when one of football's giants stirred back into life, with a roar of defiance in the direction of the authorities, too.
Leeds Uniteds scorers in the FA Cup against Wigan, Micky Adams and John Stiles (Picture: Yorkshire Post).Leeds Uniteds scorers in the FA Cup against Wigan, Micky Adams and John Stiles (Picture: Yorkshire Post).
Leeds Uniteds scorers in the FA Cup against Wigan, Micky Adams and John Stiles (Picture: Yorkshire Post).

Just as the current Leeds United are striving to return to what the club sees as their rightful place at the top table of football and are evoking memories of happier days, so Billy Bremner’s class of 1986-87 started to flex their muscles around three decades ago, with the white flag starting to look resplendent again.

Leeds may ultimately have fallen one step from Wembley in their quest for a first FA Cup final appearance in 14 years. But it was one tremendous ride.

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A memorable cup adventure started on January 11, 1987 when United took on famed 80s cup giant-killers Telford United.

The third-round tie was switched to the Hawthorns from Bucks Head on the advice of Shropshire Police, who felt that they would not be able to cope with the bumper crowd, while fearful that a big following of Leeds’s hooligan element would converge on the town.

With trouble having occurred during Leeds’s earlier visit to West Bromwich in the previous month – an occasion which saw three visiting players sent off in a 3-0 loss – the FA decreed that the game would kick off at noon on a Sunday.

In the event, just 6,460 spectators converged on West Brom, amid Baltic winter conditions, with the game controversially given the go-ahead in the morning, with both clubs believing the game should have been postponed.

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The frozen Hawthorns was more akin to a skating rink, but United showed professionalism to prevail thanks to a brace from Ian Baird in a 2-1 win, with his winner coming on 86 minutes.

Earlier, Baird had put Leeds in front with an early header, cancelled out by Colin Williams’s looping header early in the second half.

So the journey had begun.

Wiltshire was United’s next port of call with the visitors again triumphant by a 2-1 margin at Swindon Town, albeit with goalkeeper Mervyn Day proving the undoubted star of the show with a string of keynote saves.

Day was powerless to stop the Robins – runaway leaders in the old Third Division – taking a 12th-minute lead when David Bamber headed home and the hosts pushed strongly for a second.

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Leeds levelled against the run of play on 31 minutes when Jimmy Quinn headed home an unfortunate own goal and a deflected header from Baird in the 51st minute put the visitors ahead. Try as they might, Swindon could not find a way past Day.

Top-flight outfit QPR provided the marquee fifth-round opposition at Elland Road and an iconic moment in a pretty wretched decade for Leeds was captured for posterity in front of a crowd of 31,324, the club’s biggest home gate for five years and 10,000 higher than their seasonal average.

It came in the form of a late 85th-minute header in front of the Geldard End from captain Brendan Ormsby, with time seeming to stand still when he powered the ball home amid raucous scenes as United recorded a famous 2-1 win to a book Leeds a last-16 berth in the cup for the first time in a decade.

Both home goals were set up by big striker John Pearson, recently arrived from Charlton and he headed back Micky Adam’s centre to enable Baird to head home spectacularly past David Seaman on 18 minutes.

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A cracking tie ensued with Rangers gifted a 64th-minute leveller when David Rennie sliced the ball into his own net.

Ormsby had the final word, heading in a text-book set-piece after Pearson flicked on John Sheridan’s floated corner.

Fortune favoured Leeds in the quarter-final draw with the club sent to Springfield Park to face outsiders Wigan Athletic in front of a capacity 12,500 crowd in another game switched to noon on a Sunday – March 15 – once again on police advice.

The game is widely remembered for a fierce gale-force wind which lashed that quarter of Lancashire, with United also handed disruption with Ormsby and Baird missing.

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Unlikely heroes stepped forward in the shape of Adams and John Stiles in a 2-0 Roses win.

Those thousands of Leeds fans unable to get tickets for the tie watched the action unfold on big screens at the Town Hall and Queens Hall and they were not disappointed.

Once again, the redoubtable Day came to the fore with another excellent performance before Stiles’s smile lit up the stadium on 58 minutes.

Stiles, deputising for the ineligible Mark Aizlewood, broke the Latics resistance with a fine curler for his first goal of that 86-87 campaign, celebrated deliriously by United fans packed on the grass bank in the Shevington End.

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It was an extra-special moment for Stiles as his strike flew past goalkeeper Roy Tunks, goalkeeper at Preston when his father Nobby was in charge in the Seventies and someone who was an early idol for him.

Adams then added a killer second, a left-back scoring with his right foot and United were in the last four.

Stiles recalled: “I remember Billy joking that the way some people were going on about Leeds, that we might have to kick off at Wigan at eight in the morning!

“At that particular time, we felt everyone was against us.

“I also remember Emlyn Hughes saying on Football Focus that he thought Wigan would beat us.

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“Most people wanted us to get beat and, typical, Billy pulled us all together and we were determined to go to Wigan and get a result.”

Unfortunately, the story ended in heart-breaking circumstances in the sunshine at Hillsborough in the semi-finals when fifth-round hero Ormsby took centre stage, sadly for the wrong reasons when he failed to clear his lines which enabled David Bennett to pick his pocket and set up Micky Gynn for a 68th-minute equaliser.

The game, televised by delayed telecast by ITV, kicked off 15 minutes late, but it was Leeds who were the early risers with Rennie’s thumping header giving them a 14th-minute lead.

Substitute Gynn restored parity before Keith Houchen rounded Day to put the Sky Blues ahead – only for super-sub Keith Edwards to haul United level with virtually his first touch seven minutes from time amid delirious scenes in the Leppings Lane end.

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But Dave Bennett’s close-range strike in the 99th-minute was to prove decisive and an epic cup journey was over.

Leeds could console themselves at being back on the footballing map. But it was still an ‘if only’ tale.

Stiles, a successful comedian on the after-dinner circuit, said: “We did think we could win it, because we were that close. Looking at the semi-final, we were the better side for most of that game.

“Obviously, everyone speaks about Brendan not kicking the ball into the stands. But Brendan was a whole-hearted excellent player and that wasn’t like him, to be fair. Everybody makes mistakes, although I’ve never forgiven him!”

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