Where there’s hope there’s Eddie Gray - The Square Ball 17/5/22


BEEN HERE BEFORE

Written by: Rob Conlon

If there’s one person who can keep a healthy perspective on Leeds United’s 2021/22 season, it’s Eddie Gray.

The weekend marked two anniversaries with very different vibes for Gray at Leeds. He was among the heroes of 1972 parading the pitch pre-match, celebrating fifty years since the club’s only FA Cup win, now immortalised by plaques outside the East Stand designed by Paul Trevillion (and, cough cough, a special issue of The Square Ball). But Sunday’s draw was played forty years on from a fixture involving eerily familiar circumstances: Brighton visiting Elland Road, the penultimate game of the season, Leeds facing the all too real prospect of relegation.

Gray was wearing the number 7 shirt that day against Brighton in 1982, 34 years old, the glory years he spent under Don Revie consigned to a different era. Just like on Sunday, Brighton were winning 1-0 at half-time, and going into the final ten minutes Leeds were looking doomed. Allan Clarke could only stare intensely from the bench, struggling to translate his success as a player into management. Clarke had overseen Leeds’ highest transfer spend in a single season, but it had been mainly wasted on record signing Peter Barnes, who Clarke had already fined for expressing his regret at leaving West Brom. Barnes could argue Leeds weren’t seeing his best because he was being played out of position, but in the words of assistant manager Martin Wilkinson, “We are not asking Peter to run his blood to water, but we do want to see him get a bit of a sweat occasionally.”

It was left to Gray to inspire the team on the pitch. With the game nearing its end, he appeared on the right wing, keeping the ball until it became apparent where there was space. An inside pass gave possession to Gary Hamson, a midfielder Clarke had placed on the transfer list earlier in the season, with room ahead of him. Hamson was playing left-back, filling in for Gray’s injured little brother Frank, and Eddie couldn’t have expected his teammate to look up with the goal thirty yards away and launch the ball into the far corner of the net. Gray might not have predicted the goal, but he understood its effect on Elland Road. As Brighton were preparing to restart the game, Eddie was giving his hands a big slap together, encouraging his teammates and pointing out instructions, determined to take advantage of the change in momentum.

Archie Gray might have been on the bench for Leeds at the weekend, but if Jesse Marsch only had one substitution left to find a winner, he could’ve done much worse than calling up to the posh West Stand seats and bringing Archie’s great uncle on. Back in ‘82, Hamson intercepted Brighton’s pass, giving the ball back to Gray. A one-two sent him clear into the penalty area, where his pass invited Kevin Hird to charge forward, skipping past a tackle, and squeezing the ball through the ‘keeper’s legs, taking Leeds from second bottom to outside the relegation zone. Under the Daily Mirror’s headline ‘United they stand!’ Gray was credited as the ‘maestro’ behind the unlikely comeback.

Fewer than 20,000 fans were inside Elland Road, but they had an impact. “I’ve never seen supporters help a side so much,” said Brighton goalscorer Mick Robinson, “certainly not when their team is heading for relegation.”

The result meant Leeds only had to avoid defeat at fellow strugglers West Brom to stay up, but they would have to do so without striker Frank Worthington, who had been influential since joining from Birmingham in March, scoring nine goals in seventeen games. Worthington was banned after collecting twenty disciplinary points, a decision that incensed Leeds and led to Clarke calling for an investigation into the FA Commission’s findings. QPR’s Terry Fenwick also reached the twenty-point threshold, but was cleared to face Tottenham in the FA Cup final.

“I’m very upset about this, the verdicts are not consistent,” said Wilkinson. “How can the FA suspend a player for twenty points and let off a player with twenty points who has also been sent off?”

Clarke added: “West Bromwich have had Cyrille Regis and Garry Owen sent off in the past two weeks. Because suspensions start two weeks after sendings off, or the last bookable offence, these two are available for vital matches. Worthington has taken all season to top twenty points, but we lose him under suspension. That’s hardly fair.”

Three days after his wondergoal against Brighton, Hamson switched from the number 3 shirt to Worthington’s number 9, but was forced off just before the break with a serious knee injury. Leeds got to half-time with the game still goalless, and were heading for safety until West Brom took the lead after the break. Typically, Regis was the goalscorer. Typically, the ball deflected into the net off Gray. Leeds subjected West Brom to a ‘storm’ of attacks, but could not score. Regis broke away on the counter with minutes remaining and found Steve Mackenzie. Again, the man who deserved relegation least had a tragic role to play, Gray blocking Mackenzie’s shot on the line only for the midfielder to score the rebound. The Leeds fans at the Hawthorns rioted, trying to tear a fence down and get on the pitch. Police prevented them from doing so, but the referee blew the final whistle early to avert any potential danger.

Leeds were still outside the relegation zone, but had completed their fixture list and were nervously keeping an eye on Stoke, below them in the table but with one final game in hand. Their opponents? West Brom. According to those in attendance, West Brom played as if having little motivation to help the team whose fans had just rioted at their stadium. Allan Clarke went to the Victoria Ground hoping to celebrate a West Brom result, but was leaving by half-time with Stoke already 2-0 up, Lee Chapman scoring the second with his final goal for the club. Stoke scored again in the second half to underline the victory, relegating Leeds. Clarke was sacked, and Gray was left to pick up the pieces as player-manager.

Eddie could have been forgiven for feeling a little spooked by the return of Brighton forty years later with so many parallels between the two fixtures. But there is arguably nobody else who knows the feeling of ups and downs at Leeds United as acutely as Gray. After hearing his name being sung from the South Stand with kick-off approaching on Sunday, he led his former teammates towards the tunnel, at which point Marching On Together started up from the tannoy. I was standing not far from the tunnel, below the Brighton fans in the West Stand, and watched the pure joy as Eddie stopped to take in the atmosphere, belting out the words with a huge grin on his face, pumping his fists and clapping his hands to the fans, looking like he was enjoying singing that song more than anyone I’ve ever seen.

I was hoping to find a clip on Twitter, sadly to no avail, but there were plenty of tweets suggesting Gray did the same thing before the Chelsea game. A 3-0 defeat to Chelsea couldn’t stop him coming back for more against Brighton. If he’s at Brentford for the last game of the season, he’ll no doubt be leading the singing yet again. If ever you feel like you’re losing hope in Leeds United, try to remember everything Eddie Gray has seen and done at our club, the good times and the bad. And he’s still leading the singing.

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