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| Having made such a bad start to the season, there was virtually no chance of United retaining their League title, and when they turned in an atrocious display against Fourth Division Chester and lost by three clear goals to go out of the League Cup in round four, things looked black indeed, yet oddly enough that catastrophe at Chester had come just a week after a superb performance against Ujpest Dosza in the European Cup. United had triumphed in Budapest in the first leg by 2-1, despite missing a penalty and playing with only ten men after Duncan McKenzie was sent off in the opening minutes, and when the Hungarian champions visited Elland Road they were swept aside by 3-nil and must have left baffled at the very modest results that Leeds were producing in domestic competitions. Slowly but surely however, Jimmy Armfield began to steady the rocking boat, and United started to string together good results with something approaching their famed consistency of the past, and they eventually finished a creditable ninth in the First Division table as well as reaching the quarter-final of the F.A. Cup - where they finally went out after four titanic battles with an impressive Ipswich Town. |
April 1974: After going through a worrying spell Peter Lorimer scores the first in a 2-goal win over visitors Derby County - to give United a boost and put them back on course for the League title. |
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A considerable change had also taken place in the appearance of the Elland Road stadium, which went a stage nearer its proposed super status when the old 'scratching shed' at one end of the ground was demolished and replaced by a spanking new stand, which brought the overall seating capacity up to 18,000, and the new structure was in use in March when
R.S.C. Anderlecht of Belgium made a European Cup third round visit. The match should never have been played really, as there was thick fog shrouding the ground from start to finish, but it was nevertheless
possible to see that Leeds were once more inspired by the tournament's glamour and Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen and Peter Lorimer scored to give them a three goal victory with a distinctly Scottish flavour about it.
Conditions for the second leg in Brussels were not too good either, as the surface was very heavy, but the Scots contingent excelled themselves again with goalkeeper Dave Stewart saving everything that Anderlecht threw at him to ensure that a cheeky Billy Bremner goal was enough to win the match, and therefore the tie 4-0 on aggregate. Stewart had been another of Don Revie's astute signings when he came south from Ayr United in exchange for around £30,000, and he had always deputised with distinction whenever David Harvey had been absent so, because of a persistent injury to Harvey in the 1974-75 campaign, Stewart had the chance of an extended first-team run. |
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April 1975: Billy Bremner is seen here scoring his most famous goal at Elland Road to give United an early lead in the European Cup semi-final first leg with Barcelona in front of a 50,000 crowd. |
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The semi-final of the European Cup brought Johan Cruyff and the crack C.F. Barcelona side to Elland Road, where, on one of the ground's most famous occasions, over 50,000 witnessed a pulsating struggle with Billy Bremner and Allan Clarke both profiting from the aerial supremacy of Joe Jordan to score the goals that gave United a 2-1 advantage to take to Spain for the second leg. Again Jordan won a vital ball in the air and headed it through for Peter Lorimer to drive Leeds into an early lead in Barcelona, and it seemed as if they would stroll into the final until the Spaniards equalised midway into the second half before, a few minutes later, Gordon McQueen foolishly threw a punch in anger and was rightly sent off the field. But United survived a fierce onslaught from Barcelona to deservedly go through on a 3-2 aggregate to the final of the European Champions Cup - becoming only England's second club to achieve that distinction - and meet the reigning European Cup holders Bayern Munich in Paris.
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