Whether it be Dennis Law being pulled from a melee with his shirt shredded, George Best on the deck with Johnny Giles looking on, or Billy Bremner pleading with referee Jack Taylor for leniency, the visceral nature of the contest when was plain.
The visit of Manchester United to Leeds always carried an X rating, just the kind of rivalry the football fans fought to preserve when the European Super League reared its confected head.
The two clubs meet at Elland Road in the league for the first time in 18 years on Sunday. Lou Macari, who arrived at Old Trafford in the immediate aftermath of that texture rich Don Revie-Matt Busby epoch, floods with nostalgia at the mention of the fixture, if you can catch him, that is.
In between handing out a prize to a schoolgirl in Stoke and delivering a donation of frozen Kentucky Fried Chicken to the residents of the homeless centre that bears his name, Macari pulled into a layby to take a call. “Got to be quick Kev, the chicken is melting.” Macari was always on his toes, one step beyond the lunge of a white shirt.
“We played them in the semi-final of the Cup [1977] with a trip to Wembley at stake,” Macari tells i.
“You can imagine the feelings on the terraces and in the dressing rooms before the game. The Leeds team was full of characters, experience, players who could look after themselves. They would frighten the life out of any team nowadays.
“They were famous for their tactics. Not tactics to do with the game but any strokes they could get away with. The buzzer went at five to three. We jumped straight in to the tunnel. Leeds didn’t appear.
“The buzzer went four times before the referee got them out. It was a tactic to keep us waiting, to sap the energy out of us.
“Eventually their door opens. Out they come one by one. They seemed to get bigger and bigger as they came out; Paul Reaney, Paul Madeley, Allan Clarke, Joe Jordan, Gordon McQueen. It was as though small players weren’t allowed. I remember big McQueen yelling at the top of his voice, ‘Come on lads, we’ve got f___ all to beat. They are just a bunch of f___ing midgets.’
“Gordon ended up playing with me at Old Trafford. He was one of the funniest guys I have ever played with. But I didn’t know that then. It was a semi-final, you are waiting in the tunnel, worried for a good four minutes about the crowd and the atmosphere on the pitch. It was quite intimidating.
“We reminded him of that when he joined us at Old Trafford. Luckily it didn’t work. We were two up in 15 minutes and won the match.”
Macari would go on to claim the winner, via the chest of Jimmy Greenhoff, in the final to deny Liverpool the treble. Liverpool were in early part of their dominant phase. The rivalry with United had yet to gain the depth and ferocity of the fixture with Leeds. It was de rigueur for Greater Manchester schoolboys of a certain vintage to carry hidden on the underside of their school blazer lapels badges bearing the slogan “I hate Leeds”.
The FA Cup semi-final between the clubs in 1970 took three ties to settle. The United of Law, Charlton and Best and the Leeds of Giles and Bremner, Lorimer and Gray, could not be separated at Hillsborough and Villa Park, both matches ending goalless. Bremner nicked it in the second replay with the only goal at Bolton’s Burnden Park.
The United that Macari joined was in the process of renewal. Leeds were at their peak. The trip to Elland Road was the heat spot that glowed deepest red. “A game against Leeds was an occasion. The support was crazy. Even when they were clinging to their past like United, they would still follow the team in large numbers. Elland Road was always packed. As soon as you stepped on to the pitch it was a war.”
The language of football, its metaphors and insults, are much modified in this more enlightened age, yet the intensity to which Macari alludes remains untouched. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer takes his United team to Elland Road amidst the heightened atmosphere of a tumultuous week. Mercifully for them, the stadium remains empty of those who would hold them to account terrace style.
United are shamelessly chasing the Champions League place they plotted to reject. Leeds are chasing nothing and everything. A win against this lot, in this of all weeks, would put hairs on the chest of Bremner’s statue and set ripples of satisfaction pulsing through the righteous.
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