21- Farewell Vinny & Cockneys
Leeds finally came unstuck....at Luton Town of all places on September 8th 1990, a one-nil defeat. I think away fans were banned at the time. I must admit I did phone and ask for an application form to become a member of Luton Town FC but couldn't be bothered when it arrived! No doubt the Luton ticket office had hundreds of similar requests in the run-up to the game.
What I did miss was Vinny Jones's final outing for Leeds on the plastic pitch at Kenilworth Road, in a patched up Leeds side. His omission in recent weeks had bee the elephant in the room, but Leeds were doing fine without him and the links with his old boss Wimbledon boss Dave Bassett now at Sheffield United grew stronger and stronger.
The following week, Gazzamania and Tottenham Hotspur rolled into Elland Road. Going back to the infamous picture of the pair, Vinny couldn't get in the Leeds side, meanwhile Gascoigne's stock had risen after the Italia 90 World Cup to fever pitch. Like many national icons, his presence was divisive. Some saw him as symbolizing the spirit of England, his weeping into his crumpled England shirt epitomising the country going so near yet so far against the West Germans, others myself included thought he was nothing but a loutish oaf, fodder for the brain-dead and fickle tabloid newspapers.
Leeds dominated the first half and should have been 2 or 3-0 up before the Londoners capitalised on a mistake by Mike Whitlow allowing David Howell's to shoot through Lukic's legs, then almost from the restart Imre Varadi had the ball in the Tottenham net but it was ruled out for offside. Gascoigne jubilanty celebrated and cavorted in front of the seething Kop, then Spurs went down the other end and Lineker doubled their lead. I decided on that day I eternally despised the fat, pissed-up, woman-beating Geordie shit! I know in the twilight of his career some Leeds fans warmly applauded him when he came to ER with Everton and Boro but I can only assume they'd either not been there or forgotten what happened on September 15th 1990 when the prat nearly caused a riot.
Then Vinny was sold to the Blades. I remember taking his poster down that evening and guess what out next game on Sunday 23rd September was against who else but his new side Sheffield United!
I'd imagine in this day and age some "embarassment clause", one of those awful concepts in the modern game, would have been scripted into the deal whereby Vinny would be barred from playing against us on his Sheffield United debut. However back in 1990 the lawyers were not so imaginative. I travelled up to the Steel City on a grey, drab drizzly day, I think the game took place on a Sunday due to Police advice following a small we say bad-tempered meeting at Bramall Lane in 1985. Back then, it was an antiquated, dilapidated old ground, the crowning glory being the main stand which had been plonked on the old cricket pitch. Their own Kop looked like a good gale would blow it down and the John Street stand to our left didn't look much better. We stood on a terrace below a seated upper section which was obscured by thick, concrete posts.
With a wry smile Vinnie nearly headed his new side into the lead. But it was our sub John Pearson who did head us into the lead, prompting much leaping about and jostling on the terraces. As you can see, Pearson (above) looked more shocked than we were. He was one of those players I was surprised was still there, Howard Wilkinson had him at Sheffield Wednesday and had sent him packing to Charlton long before he rolled up at Leeds. But like Glynn Snodin who Wilko also binned whilst at Hillsborough, he kept faith in him and it paid off. Then it was all over as Gordon Strachan grabbed the second with a miss-hit shot, although from where I was standing it looked like it was timed beautifully. It was raining steadily by the time we left Bramall Lane and our coach suffered an attempted "bricking" but it just cracked the pane. Therefore Mick the driver could have been forgiven for wanting to get the hell out of there but as he explained when he overtook the Police escort on Sheffield Parkway, we were heading south but the majority of coaches were going north!
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