Why tough and tenacious former Leeds United and Huddersfield Town defender Trevor Cherry was widely-admired

The former Huddersfield Town, Leeds United and Bradford City defender died suddenly on Wednesday.

Roy Ellam was so effective as Cherry’s central defensive partner at Leeds Road from 1966 to 1972 that when Don Revie took Cherry to Elland Road, he soon bought Ellam too.

“He was such a blummin’ good player,” recalls Ellam. “He played at full-back and wing-half but most of the time he played with me we were double centre-halves. I would always take the tall guys and he would drop off.

“He was such a hard-working man and like Norman Hunter (who also died this month) he was absolutely tenacious – although he was a lot quicker than Norman!

“At Huddersfield, Trevor only missed a couple of games through injury because he was a tough, Huddersfield-born Yorkshire lad.”

Former Leeds centre-back Paul Hart says: “In 1978 I signed to a club with a fantastic reputation of tough, strong-minded and exceptional footballers and Trevor fit that bill perfectly. After Paul Reaney (left in 1978) I became his room-mate and he became captain later on. He taught me so much.

“He’d tell me it wasn’t a place for shrinking violets and warned me you are not going to be very well liked.

“He was a tough man and a highly intelligent person. He was very quietly spoken but carried a razor in his pocket, if you know what I mean.”

As Bradford City’s player-manager, Cherry gave Greg Abbott his debut.

“Trevor had Terry (Yorath) as his assistant and ‘Taff’ was the bad cop while Trevor was the good cop,” says Abbott.

“Trevor played a few games for us as right-back and he said to me, ‘You could do that.’ I think it was just that he didn’t fancy going to places like Newport!

“I thought I was a midfielder but Trevor had seen me play in a reserve game at right-back. I found a career from there.

“He was always the same, really, always pleased to see you and a really humble man, unflappable.

“Taff had been captain of Wales, Trevor played for England, as did Roy McFarland (his predecessor), Norman (Hunter) came in, a 1966 World Cup winner. They didn’t come with any arrogance, they were just proper people you couldn’t fail to learn from. But Trevor had that tough edge the Leeds players had and he was never afraid to make tough decisions.”

Cherry, who won 27 England caps, one as captain against Australia, went into business after leaving Valley Parade in 1987. Abbott thinks the fire which killed 56 people there in 1985 might have been responsible.

“Possibly that put him off managing again,” he says. “Having to deal with that in your first job must have been tough and you didn’t really get help from anyone else back then.”

By the time he died, aged 72, Cherry had left plenty of marks.

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