The Chelsea side were adored by the southern based national media and their players took full advantage of the "delights" available on fashionable Kings Road and Carnaby street as the newly liberated sixties drew to a close. In an age when off the field activities of players were no where near the radar of sports journalists players such as Osgood, Cooke et al lived life to the full safe in the knowledge that unless they did something absolutely outrageous both the club and the press willingly turned the proverbial blind eye. Yes Chelsea were the archetypal southern fancy dans. Contrast this with Don Revie's mean machine who were ruthless in their pursuit of footballing perfection with a style that got right up the noses of the footballing establishment. When Osgood and Cooke were cavorting in some West End club Revie would have his players tucked up in bed after a cup of cocoa and a game of carpet bowls or bingo. The two teams were as far apart in their approach to the game as you could get and the two sets of players genuinely hated each other on the pitch almost as much as the fans did off it in the embryonic days of rabid football hooliganism. Remember this was an era when players didn't move clubs at the drop of an agents pen and the core of a team would stay together for a decade. Personal running battles would fester as each season passed. One of the most notorious was the match up between Big Jack Charlton and Peter Osgood the Chelsea centre forward. Jack the no nonsense northerner against Osgood the cigar smoking frequenter of West end night clubs who played with flair rather than hard work. They were never going to send each other Xmas cards were they?
The peak of this simmering hatred was the 1970 FA Cup Final. Now in 1970 the whole country stopped for the FA Cup Final. It was the pinnacle of the football season even more coveted than the league title whilst the European Cup (as it was then) was just a distant dream that only one English club had tasted success in. The scene was set for a classic. Don Revie's "Dirty Leeds" against the darlings of the Kings Road, Chelsea, on a Wembley pitch that resembled Blackpool sands after the Horse of the Year show had rotavated 90% of the turf into mud. The game finished 2.2 but will be remembered for two reasons, one a youthful Eddie Gray's man of the match performance and the other the sheer brutality of the contest as both sides sort to settle the battle between the Southern Fancy dans and the Northern heathens. Chelsea prevailed in the replay at Old Trafford to rub salt into Leeds' wounds. The fall out from that game and other contests between the two teams during that period is still felt today and with a certain ex Chelsea chairman's tenure at Leeds United adding to the deep felt resentment towards the West London blues the atmosphere on the 19th Dec at Elland Road will be more explosive than anything that Guy Fawkes could dream up. I just hope that the minority of troublemakers on both sides don't take the opportunity to out do Aaron Cawley's exploits at Sheff Wed?
Before that we have the league to worry about starting with Brighton away. Can we kick on from our cup exploits and secure a welcome three points? Will the Serbian police cart Tom Lees off to jail? Will Diouf's agent take his star away from Leeds? Will the takeover happen before hell freezes over? All questions we will debate to death during the extended pre match refreshments in Brighton tomorrow afternoon. Life is never dull following the mighty whites is it? Enjoy the video of the 1970 Cup final. Hopefully my next post will be eulogising about how a Diouf inspired Leeds destroyed Poyet's southern boys?
Can't wait.
MOT.
Travels of a Leeds Fan.
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