Billy Luke replaced the injured Charlie Fleming after thirty-seven minutes and reduced United's lead in the seventy-first minute, after they had led 2-0 at half time. The Referee was J.S. Pickles of Bradford. (These details and the East Fife team, times of scorers and crowd details, courtesy of Steve Bell).
Programme and Teamsheet:
Match Report: Yorkshire Evening Post: 7th December 1953: Courtesy Steve Bell
'The Floodlight Fusiliers' at Elland Road tonight
By TOM HOLLEY
"Floodlight Fusiliers" is the name given to Scottish "A" Division club, East Fife, because of their frequent visits to England for floodlit games. Leading scorers in the Football League and the Scottish "A" Division will be on view at Elland Road tonight, when full strength Leeds United and East Fife teams meet under floodlights (7.30). John Charles, United's Welsh international centre-forward, heads the Football League list with twenty-three goals, and Charlie Fleming is top Scottish "A" scorer with twenty-two. United, of course, will have manager Raich Carter at inside-left for Iggleden, but East Fife will rely on the side which beat beat Partick Thistle 4-1, when Fleming scored twice. Mr. "Jerry" Dawson, the former Glasgow Rangers and Scottish international goalkeeper, who took over as manager to East Fife when Mr. Scott Symon came to Preston North End at the start of the season, said today that he believed his side had a great chance to be the first Scottish team to beat United under floodlights. Main strength of the team lies at inside-forward. Fleming's long-range shooting is one of the features of Scottish football these days. Ian Gardiner is much fancied by Sunderland as a replacement for Trevor Ford and Jimmy Bonthrone is a centre-forward on whom many English clubs have cast envious eyes.
Monday verdict
United were below form against Hull C.
The 21,000 spectators who braved the damp and the mud at Elland Road had poor reward. Leeds United and Hull City tussled away in a goalless draw, the only real virtue of the game being that it produced a fair result (writes PHIL BROWN).
It also produced, of course, a real disappointment for United's followers, for United set their optimists as well as their pessimists groaning at their form, which was almost a repetition of the slump against Bradford the previous Monday night. That goes for Charles as well as anybody else except Hair, who, I thought, played crisply and well at left-back. It would have been possible to write similarly about Dunn at right-back if he had not marred his game with some scalp-tingling back passes. Kerfoot managed to produce some flashes, but was below his high average and never got a hold on the quick and wily Ackerman, City's dangerous inside-left. Burden, at left-half, also for once failed to get into the game, and City's half-back line, Harris, Berry and Durham, was one of the few half-back lines to visit Elland Road and be the better one. Both sides moved the ball about very freely, and also very inaccurately. Charles was altogether too fond of distributing, but he was up against a nailing good and completely fair centre-half in Berry, whose timing was a joy, and whose work was an inspiration to a side which fought hard, especially when it saw it might get a point. United's disjointed forward play will continue to run the risk of remaining so while Nightingale plays so far up. There is, as I see it, no need for a continual second centre-forward plan - not with Charles in normal form. Nightingale would often be better employed further back taking some of the load off Iggleden, who had a hard match, and of the defence.
Match Report: Dundee Courier: 8th December 1953: Courtesy Steve Bell
Fleming injured in floodlight match
Leeds United 3 East Fife 1
East Fife suffered what may yet prove a serious blow in this floodlight game last night. Charlie Fleming went off with a knee injury after thirty-seven minutes' play and did not resume. Leeds registered their fourth success against Scottish opposition and merited their win. John Charles, United's Welsh leader, again provided the thrills with two splendid goals in the first half. The first came after twenty-five minutes, when he scored with a left-foot drive from near the edge of the penalty area, and the second in the thirty-third minute with a perfectly timed header. The Bayview side made a rousing second-half rally, and Billy Luke, substitute for Fleming, reduced the arrears in the seventy-first minute. Iggleden scored Leeds' third just on time. The Fleming mishap came about in a collision with keeper Wood when making a solo breakaway. He received a painful bruise just below the knee. It was an exciting game and the Fifers came through with credit. Christie and McLennan were two of the outstanding men on the field. McLennan's grip on former England star Raich Carter was rarely relaxed throughout the game. When Charles got his second goal with a neat flick header it was one of the few occasions he was able to beat Finlay in the air. In one of East Fife's first half raids Jackie Stewart cut in at terrific speed and let fly with a glorious shot that produced the save of the night.
Leeds United: Wood; Dunn, Hair; Kerfoot, Marsden, Burden; Williams, Iggleden, Charles, Carter, Tyrer.
East Fife: Curran; Emery, S. Stewart; Christie, Finlay, McLellan; J. Stewart, Fleming, Bonthrone, Gardiner, Matthew.
Attendance was 12,000
Match Report: Yorkshire Post: 8th December 1953: Courtesy Steve Bell
Two goals by John Charles shone through the mist
By ERIC STANGLER
Leeds United 3 East Fife 1
Leeds United's luck with the lights deserted them last night when a thick, misty drizzle kept down the attendance to 12,000 - the smallest at any of their five night-time games. But they retained (for what it is worth) their unbeaten record in the floodlit matches and those who preferred fireside to football missed two more capital goals from John Charles and a third from Iggleden, who was a late preference to Nightingale. Charles' first goal came in the twenty-fifth minute when a through pass from Burden for once found Finlay (a sound centre half) momentarily drawn out of position. Charles was on the ball like a flash and his left-foot drive from the left-hand edge of the penalty area fairly screamed into the net. His second, after thirty-two minutes, was a speciality header against all the odds when Tyrer crossed from Iggleden's move.
Neat, but slow
As a spectacle, the game had its moments without ever approaching the standard set in the first of the floodlit series - against Hibernian - a standard admittedly not easy to attain every week. East Fife, a well set up lot, never lived up to their Scottish reputation. Much of their midfield football was neat enough, but they often looked slow compared with the nippy United, who made up for any deficiency of technique with their usual whole-hearted enthuisiasm. Not until the last twenty-five minutes, when Luke, who had come on as substitute for Fleming (retired with a leg injury late in the first half) had reduced United's two-goal lead, did East Fife come really into the game and in that time the United defence had to fight tooth a nail to hang on to their lead. Indeed, it was only a brilliant save by Wood from J. Stewart, the outside-right, which saved them on one occasion, and on another the ball bounced off the Leeds bar during a fierce scrimmage after a corner.
Iggleden makes sure
Three minutes from the end a United breakaway started by Marsden saw Williams flash across a centre which Iggleden, with the defence concentrating on Charles, met squarely with his head to beat Curran - a goal which was almost an anti-climax after what had been happening in the other goal mouth. United deserved their win. There was no half-back on the field to compare with Kerfoot, who has the assurance of a man right on top of his form these days. There were odd flashes from Carter, who was playing almost at walking pace, but his inability to get backwards and forwards quickly threw much extra work on Burden. East Fife's solid defence was the best part of their team, for their forwards, even when Fleming was on the field, wanted too long to work into position before shooting. All the same when they really turned on the heat United were thankful to keep them out
