Remember This? Yorkshire Post Thursday, 25/4/74 Leeds the champions as Liverpool lose
Barry Foster
A goal in the 56th minute at Anfield last night
by Arsenal’s striker, Ray Kennedy, finally killed Liverpool’s attempt to keep
their title and Leeds United became champions for the second time in five
years.
It was at Anfield that Leeds won their first League title in 1969. Last night Liverpool needed to win to have a realistic chance of saving their crown, but despite intensive pressure, particularly in the second half when the Arsenal goal had a charmed life, they never quite penetrated Arsenal’s defence in depth and so lost the chance of doing the double.
Arsenal played well, breaking fast under the guidance of Alan Ball and Liam Brady, finally scoring the vital goal when Liverpool overstretched in attack.
Ball started the move on the right but by the time Eddie Kelly made his short cross from the left Liverpool had been split wide open and Kennedy had no trouble in prodding the ball home from close range.
The 47,897 spectators had seen Jimmy Rimmer, the former Manchester United goalkeeper, make some fine saves, particularly close range efforts from Kevin Keegan and John Toshack.
It is an ironic twist that after their record breaking start to the season during which they went six months without a League defeat. Leeds United should play no part in the victory which finally gave them the title.
Nevertheless, Leeds, despite their late indifferent form, have never been other than top of the League all season.
Perhaps the most important part of the season was their opening seven matches. They won all seven and in doing so built up a formidable goal average. It was the foundation of a superior goal average which had always been a valuable reserve asset during Liverpool’s late assault on the League title.
Those opening seven wins were a club record, but they were to go until February 23 before they tasted defeat in the League, setting up a new record of playing their opening 29 games without defeat.
The first setback in any competition came on October 8 when they lost 2-0 at Ipswich in the League Cup.
They reached the third round of the UEFA Cup before being beaten by Vitoria Setubal of Portugal and the fifth round of the FA Cup before going out against Bristol City in a replay at Elland Road.
Before the match against Bristol few teams had faced Leeds with confidence. They had built up a nine-point lead at the top of Division One and in early February it looked as though they would have the championship sewn up by March. But injuries, together with a loss of form, began to take toll.
On February 23, they went to Stoke, built a two-goal lead, then lost their unbeaten League record 3-2.
During March, they lost three successive League games – against Liverpool, Burnley and West Ham – but since the start of April they have been picking up points regularly and have taken eight of the last ten points played for.
Their disciplinary record since the halfway mark in the season has gone downhill, but with one match to play they have recorded only just over half as many cautions this season as they did last, which ended with the club being faced with a suspended £3,000 fine for disciplinary offences.
It is expected to be July before Leeds learn whether they will have to pay the fine.
Last night, Mr Manny Cussins, the Leeds chairman, said: “Naturally, I am delighted to be chairman of the team that has won the title. It is quite an honour for me, Don Revie and the team. The quality of the side is tremendous and I feel its success is a benefit to the city as a whole.
“Now, I am looking forward to competing in the European Cup next season.”
Sir Andrew Stephen, the chairman of the FA, congratulating Leeds, said: “It is a just reward for Leeds for the consistency they have shown. It has been on merit and hard work and can do Yorkshire football nothing but good, especially when coupled with the efforts of Middlesbrough and York this season.”
Guardian Thursday, 25/4/74
‘Worthy champions’
Don Revie, the Leeds manager, said: “I am absolutely
delighted for all the players and staff because they have earned it. We have
lost only four games out of 41 and after the first seven matches we have never
been free of injury problems.
“When we were going through the shaky patch of losing against Liverpool, Burnley and West Ham, I thought we had lost it, but the players’ tremendous application, character and ability showed over the Easter period when we didn’t concede a goal in four games and got right back in it. Now on Saturday they can go out at Queens Park Rangers with no pressures on them and show the country that they are worthy champions.”
Yorkshire Evening Post Thursday, 25/4/74
This man Revie
Derek Naylor
Don Revie today sits on top of the football world – but for
how long? TV viewers last night saw the Leeds United manager, clad in a casual
polo necked sweater rather than the familiar blue suit, looking somewhat
bewildered by the news that his team had again become champions.
But the popping of champagne corks was muffled by his
comment, which he has made previously, that he would like to retire from full
time football managership by the time he is 52 – in 1980.
Ten years at the top is a lifetime in the cut throat
atmosphere of First Division soccer. The rewards for success are great but the
strains are incredible.
Don Revie has lived football since he was breaking windows
with a tattered bundle ball in the back streets of Middlesbrough 36 years ago.
That is a lot of football in anyone’s language.
The signs of strain have been there for some time now, never more so than when Leeds’ triumphant run this season was brought to a shuddering halt by three successive defeats and Liverpool were breathing down his neck.
This man Revie is an enigma. Intensely loyal to his friends, abrasive to his enemies – and his continuing success had bred them in abundance – he often has to plough a lonely furrow.
Honours and abuse have been heaped on his broad shoulders in equal quantities since he began to lift a struggling Second Division side into a world class outfit.
Because he is not a man who can easily shrug off criticism and can never be content with second best, Don Revie finds himself on the rack every time his team plays a game.
This Saturday, at Queens Park Rangers, when he thought he would be fighting for the title, he will go as manager of the champions, able for the first time this season to relax.
But he won’t. It is this will to win anything and everything that has turned this architect – manager is too prosaic a word – into a soccer colossus.
The news that he may bestride the soccer world for only another six years will sadden his fans but gladden his detractors.
Revie’s last golden goal is the European Cup.
Now, for the second time in his rich career with United, the chance for the final accolade has come again.
Even Bill Shankly would not begrudge him this remaining honour.