The long game: Leicester City vs Leeds United, November '89
"Had those passes been made by Glenn Hoddle or Paul Gascoigne," wrote Gordon Strachan in his next Yorkshire Evening Post column, "everyone would have been raving about them — but because it was Leeds United, it was just a reference to the long ball game."
Gary McAllister is famous in Leeds for his intervention in United's promotion in 1990. There was one shot thumped in off Mervyn Day's post, and another that Day had to be brilliant to put wide. McAllister could have kept Leeds down, but where would that have left him?
He'd have had no choice but accepting Brian Clough's offer to join Nottingham Forest, despite his trashing of McAllister's prized cowboy boots. As it was, Gordon Strachan saved the day, and McAllister's goal was reduced to an advert to Howard Wilkinson and the Leeds fans, to justify spending a million on him before that summer's World Cup. But where did that leave Vinnie Jones?
That tumultuous game at the end of April was not McAllister's only attempt at perverting the course of Leeds United. Back in November, Leeds had travelled to Filbert Street in confident mood. Since an opening day shock, losing 5-2 at Newcastle United, Leeds hadn't lost any of fifteen league games, winning the last four, naming the same team for eight consecutive matches. They hadn't overtaken Sheffield United at the top, but as kick-off waited for misplaced Leeds fans to follow police into a pen behind the goal, the travelling supporters sang that their second placed team was gonna win the league. They were also booing Tommy Wright, the ex-Leeds youngster on Leicester's left wing, ready to supply debutant striker Kevin Campbell, a nineteen-year-old on loan from Arsenal.
You couldn't contradict those fans in the first half. Leeds took an early, simple lead: in the seventh minute Mel Sterland got the ball near his right-back home, paused, stalled, then punted as a tackle came in. The punt, though, was perfect. The ball curled and dropped gently on the line of Leicester's D, bouncing away from the chasing Tony James but right in front of Ian Baird. He ushered it towards the six yard box then shot under goalkeeper Martin Hodge, with a sideways roll for emphasis.
Before the half-hour Leeds scored again. James launched a free-kick towards United's left-back, Mike Whitlow, and the ball dropped to Gordon Strachan. He turned quickly, scanned the field like a quarterback, and played a long, high pass to the far edge of the centre circle, from where it rolled into the control of Andy Williams. He only took it near to the penalty area; still a couple of yards outside, he stroked a precise shot into the far corner of the goal.
"Had those passes been made by Glenn Hoddle or Paul Gascoigne," wrote Gordon Strachan in his next Yorkshire Evening Post column, "everyone would have been raving about them — but because it was Leeds United, it was just a reference to the long ball game." About Williams' goal, he said: "If Holland had scored a goal like that, it would have been hailed as a great goal. It was Leeds United, so it was the long ball game again."