Date:
Venue:
Competition: English Premier League.
Score:
Scorers:
Attendance: 31,460.
Teams:
Referee: D. Elleray (
Special Contribution: From AdiB
of MOT forum.
This was the most memorable game I can remember because it
was the first time in my life that we had actually beaten Manchester United. I
hardly remembered the Championship winning season as I was too young and
although we had beat them to the title we had not beaten our fiercest rivals
since the last game of the 1979/1980 season where Parlane
and Hird scored.
I didn’t get to go to many games in the season as we
couldn’t normally afford to go on a regular basis also my mum would usually
shout at my dad to spend more time with me and my brother James other than
gallivanting to Elland Road and he had given up his
season ticket at the end of a disappointing 92-93 campaign. I loved going to
Leeds and had a bit of a lucky charm as I had not seen Leeds lose however most
of the games that I went to were in the 92-93 season where we only lost once at
home. I also saw the F.A Youth Cup final against our rivals from over the
The next game I went to was the same fixture but in the
following season and I remember it clearly. I was sat in the Kop as it had just
had a makeover, my dad had somehow managed to get tickets through some
colleagues at work that couldn’t go and there we were near the front bang
centre behind the goal watching
You could tell how much this meant to us as there were
people next to us shouting out god knows what and every time a certain
Frenchman got the ball we all went boo as well as other stuff which was usually
blurted out. On thirteen minutes we were down to ten men as Noel Whelan, who
was a handful all game, had to receive treatment for a dislocated finger. We
had a corner and were giving Eric Cantona (That
certain Frenchman) some stick. It was whipped in by McAllister and was missed
by players on both sides. It eventually found its way to David Wetherall who totally miss-hit the thing but Schmeichal the Manchester United keeper who had thwarted us
on so many occasions in the past had gone the wrong way. The Ball went in and
the whole place erupted, we all went mad. It was like we were all on ecstasy;
we were jumping up and down waving our fists like hyper headless chickens
screaming at the top of our voices. There were fans celebrating in arms on the
pitch as Steve Bruce the Manchester United defender had bust his lip and was
furious with something but we didn’t care. There players were never in any
danger, we were just celebrating like mad men with ourselves.
We were singing so loud on that game as the reds couldn’t
get into their stride, we kept going at them, McAllister and Speed were giving
them hell, Deane was holding the ball up superbly and
should have scored near the end of the half to increase our lead. How costly
would it be? That’s what some fans were saying at the interval as we knew we
would be holding on and this could be the longest forty-five minutes of our
lives.
But it wasn’t, as the second half started, Noel Whelan who
was by far the man of the match beat three or four Manchester United players
and played the ball to Brian Deane who poked the ball home into the South Stand
end to again… send us mad!
I think I smacked my fist into the lad in front of me,
right at the back of the head, although I was only eight I was jumping around
with some force. I apologised but he said it wasn’t a
problem as I think a few people were not in their usual seats after that one
went in. We could tell that it was going to be our day but by god we were made
to work for it. Forty-two minutes plus the usual Fergie
time, Howard Wilkinson our manager was going mad on the sidelines but back came
Manchester United. As time went on, they grew with more and more confidence
then with twelve minutes left they got a disputed penalty when Brian Deane was
adjudged to have fouled Paul Ince inside the box when
it clearly was outside. To step up was Eric Cantona,
all of
We were all stood up booing and whistling when the ninety
minutes were up and I swear down wars have been thought and won in lesser time
than that. It felt like an eternity then David Ellery blew his whistle and
there was this massive cheer and I mean massive! We were there jumping up and
down, Strangers hugging each other, kissing each other. People were crying with
tears of joy. Songs broke out and Marching on Together could be heard all
round. We applauded our heroes and oh boy, what a game. When outside the ground
the scenes were that of a carnival atmosphere.
Fantastic Result!!!
Adrian Burke -
Match Action:
Brian Deane shoots past Peter Schmeichel
and then celebrates after he had scored United’s
second goal
Peter Schmeichel
saves a header from Noel Whelan
Brian Deane wins the header but is off target
The Penalty that was given against Brian
Deane Peter Schmeichel
thwarts Noel Whelan Rod Wallace
congratulates David Wetherall
Players:
David Wetherall and
Brian Deane were the
John Lukic had won
back the goalkeeping role.
Gary McAllister and Gary Speed were superb in midfield. Phil Masinga started as striker. Noel Whelan was the Leeds star performer and made the second goal. Peter Schmeichel kept
goal David May and Denis Irwin were at
full-back
Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister were in central defence Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes were the strikers
Alexei Kanchelski,
Brian McClair, Paul Ince
and Ryan Giggs started in midfield Lee Sharpe and Nicky Butt were the substitutes 
