Date:
Venue:
Competition: First Division.
Score:
Scorers:
Attendance: 18,700.
Teams:
Leeds United: Stewart; Reaney, Hampton; Cherry, McQueen, Madeley; F. Gray, Clarke, Jordan, Currie, E. Gray (Lorimer).
Norwich City: Keelan; Ryan, Sullivan; Machin, Jones, Powell; Neighbour; Reeves, Gibbins, Steele, Peters.
Referee: C.N.Steel (
Although not exactly unknown, it is something
of a rarity when both full-backs end up on the score-sheet in the same game.
That is what happened when Norwich City visited Elland
Road in March 1977, when Leeds United were looking to return to winning ways
after having drawn at Queens Park Rangers and lost narrowly at Manchester City.
If you consider that the two full-backs concerned scored only eight goals
between them in six hundred and twenty-five League outings, this same-strike
perhaps takes on an even greater significance.
Paul Reaney was a
first class right back, brilliant at defending and good at getting forward on
the overlap, but ‘Speedy’ as he was nicknamed, scored only six goals in five
hundred and fifty-seven League outings for United. His full-back partner in
this particular game was Peter Hampton, whose League scoring record for United
was just two in sixty-eight outings. What made it even more incredible was that
not only the two full backs, Reaney and Hampton,
scored in their earlier 5-2 FA Cup win just two months previous but also Joe
Jordan had scored too, along with Clarke and McQueen on that occasion.
United turned on a feast of attacking football
and all three of their goals were splendid affairs, but they missed a bagful of
other chances as City’s defence reeled in the face of
an attacking display inspired by Scottish international Joe Jordan. Fittingly
it was the brave and hard working Scot who headed the eighty-eighth minute
winner, diving in to finish the move after skipper Trevor Cherry headed the
ball back across the goalmouth from a Gordon McQueen pass.
Twice United had fallen behind to a City side
out to avenge a 5-2 FA Cup Third Round defeat at Elland Road in
January. Ex-Spurs winger Jimmy Neighbour fired them
into a ninth minute lead but Paul Reaney’s goal, a
well directed shot from eighteen yards, after a fierce thirty yard free-kick
cannoned back off the Norwich defensive
wall to him, brought the equaliser.
Roger Gibbins swept
Norwich into a 2-1 lead just before half-time but Peter Hampton followed Paul Reaney’s example when he shot through a group of players
for a fiftieth minute equaliser. The rest of the half
was almost non-stop attacking from United but it was left to Jordan to grab the winner two minutes from time,
much to the relief of the majority of the 18,700 spectators, who had formed the
lowest attendance at an Elland Road League game for
fifteen years.
Match Action:
Teams:
Leeds United 1976-77:
Back Row: Don Howe (Chief Coach), Paul Reaney, Tont Currie, Norman
Hunter, David Harvey,
Jimmy Armfield
(Manager), David Stewart, Gordon McQueen, Joe Jordan, Geoff Ladley
(Physio).
Front Row: Frank Gray, Paul Madeley,
Allan Clarke, Billy Bremner, Terry Yorath,
Peter Lorimer, Eddie
Gray.
Norwich City 1976-77:
Back Row: David Jones, Duncan Forbes, Mel Machin, Roger Hansbury, Kevin Keelan,
Martin Peters, Tony Powell.
Fronr Row: Phil Boyer, Steve Grapes, Billy Steele, Colin Sullivan, Colin Suggett, Mick McGuire
Players:
United’s goals came from Paul Reaney,
Peter Hampton and Joe Jordan
Trevor Cherry and Gordon McQueen combined well for Joe Jordan’s
goal David Harvey
did not play
Jimmy Neighbour
and Roger Gibbins scored for Norwich City Martin
Peters played for Norwich