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TERRY COOPER had been the victim of the same bad luck that Paul Reaney had suffered in 1970, when he broke a leg and missed the last few very important matches of the 1971-72 season, including the F.A. Cup final, and Cooper's injury was such a bad one that Don Revie decided he needed a replacement and during the close-season he brought Trevor Cherry from Huddersfield Town in exchange for a six figure transfer fee. Cherry went into the Leeds United side at left-back, although it was not his normal position, and he became the second new regular in United's defence as goalkeeper David Harvey had been rewarded for several patient years as understudy, when he retained his place after deputising for the injured Gary Sprake - just after Cooper had sustained his injury. The word injury was, it seemed, synonymous with Leeds and a perfect example was the opening fixture of the 1972-73 season at Chelsea, where the game was goalless with 25 minutes gone when both Mick Jones and David Harvey were hurt in different incidents and had to leave the field, so that United had to play for over an hour with only ten men and Peter Lorimer in goal. Chelsea took full advantage of such a good opportunity to beat their old adversaries, and they rattled in four goals without reply to get themselves off to an unexpectedly fine start to their League programme.

Jack Charlton was by now approaching the end of a distinguished career, and with this in mind manager Don Revie had been scouring the country in an attempt to find a suitable long term replacement, so Revie felt pleased with himself when he secured teenager Gordon McQueen from St. Mirren, and he joined up with another young fellow Scot Joe Jordan, who had also made the journey south, from Morton, on the recommendation of the former Leeds star Bobby Collins. Both these newcomers had been purchased for very modest fees and they went into the reserve side to learn their trade thoroughly, under the guidance of the excellent backroom staff at Elland Road, whilst Jack Charlton soldiered on impressively - seemingly getting better with age like a good wine should.

United were having their first taste of the European Cup Winners' Cup tournament and finding it to their liking too, as they dismissed Turkey's Ankaragucu, Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany, and the Rumanians of Rapid Bucharest, with aggregate scores of 2-1, 2-0 and 8-1 respectively, to reach the semi-final. In the F.A. Cup as well, Leeds had won through to the semi-final stage once more, with the hardest hurdle having been in round three against lowly Norwich City who gained two one-all draws, first at Carrow Road and then, after extra-time at Elland Road, where they survived a continuous attacking onslaught from United.

Before a second re-play could take place the teams faced each other once more in a League fixture at Norwich, which Leeds won closely 2-1, so that when they met again at neutral Villa Park it was the fourth game between them in 17 days and they were heartily sick of the sight of each other, with vitriolic comments made off the field adding fuel to the flames of a real 'needle' clash. At this point Allan Clarke decided to take the matter in hand, for he felt, like everyone else at Elland Road, that United should not be having such difficulty with mediocre opponents, and he promptly slammed a hat-trick in the first 20 minutes - a most remarkable achievement when one considers that he spent several minutes off the field receiving treatment for an injury - before Mick Jones and Peter Lorimer completed a five goal triumph.