For the sake of anonymity, I'll call her "Dimples". During the summer of 1990 she started coming into my Dads pub and I developed a massive crush on her. She had that typical late 80's, early 90's styling, short hair flicked over, I think id got longer hair than her in fact because I had succumb to the dreaded mullet. She wore baggy jackets and turned up jeans and when she flashed her toothy smile, her cheeks inset on fine high cheekbones would dimple. I was besotted
Obviously the likes of John Pearson put my own scoring record to shame, it had been nearly 20 months since my split with the girl from Somerset. Single-life kind of suited me, after all it was a thrilling time to be a Leeds fan with the promotion-season, the arrival of all the big-signings in the summer of '89, so there was not any time or need for another girlfriend.
I asked around and found out that she was part of a section of society who were probably more despised than even us Leeds fans at the time - single mothers. The climate and tabloid agenda appeared to target mother's, who had children out of wedlock and experienced the misfortune of seeing the father often disappear before the child was born, leaving the tax payer to allegedly pick up the tab.
But I digress, on Wednesday 26th of September I made the short journey to Filbert Street wedged in the back of car with four Leicester City fans. We'd drawn the Foxes in the 2nd round of the League Cup then in its Littlewood's guise. One of my Dads mates had arranged my lift and I was sat in their upper double decker stand which Leeds had been given. It seemed a very long journey home as Leeds lost 1-0 to a David Kelly penalty and were abjectly poor against the Foxes, in fact it was hard to argue on the way home that they deserved to win by a much more bigger margin.
Whilst I had to endure the taunts from the local Leicester fans, who were crowing despite it only being half-time technically as the second-leg wasn't until October 10th, I had to rehearse my chat-up lines for Dimples benefit (creepily id made a mental note of her attendance at the pub, 7:30pm on Sunday evening) and more importantly, hope that Leeds would fare okay against the reigning English Champions Arsenal managed by George Graham who were next up at Elland Road.
Having seen Arsenal's bitter-rivals Spurs sneak home with a 2-0 win a fortnight earlier, the same hostility was stirred up with the rendition of the Rambler's 1979 hit "I'm only a poor little Sparrow" but Sparrow replaced by "Cockney" and "Bastard" which to be fair was sung at all London teams! Lee Chapman who famously had a miserable spell at Highbury side-footed us in front but then just before half-time, the Gunners new signing from Sweden Anders Limpar burst through, the referee correctly overruled the linesman's flag as the ball cruelly ricochet off David Batty, to level the scores at half-time.
Then we were treated to some typical George Graham football, Lee Dixon picked the ball up loose on the Leeds left, hoofed it to Paul Merson, who cut it inside to Limpar who somehow twisted his right boot round it to slot home past Lukic to make it 1-2. However we were awarded a penalty when Gary McAllister was pulled down and Gordon Strachan converted the penalty- a result we were quite satisfied with.
The following day, I asked Dimples out and much to my amazement she said "yes" and told me she'd meet me the following Wednesday night in the pub at 7:30pm, I'd witnessed two miracles on consecutive Sunday's, this and John Pearson opening the scoring at Bramall Lane. The first date with Dimples went very well, so the following Saturday much to my shame, I was stood in a long queue with her at a cinema waiting to see the film "Ghost" with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze rather than trek down to Crystal Palace to see us earn a point courtesy of a Gary Speed header!
I did manage to drag myself away from my blossoming romance four days later for our revenge mission against Leicester City in the 2nd round 2nd leg of the Littlewood's Cup. The Second Division side held a 1-0 lead from the 1st leg. They say that the course of true love never runs smoothly and Lee Chapman was clearly struggling for form against the Foxes. After 70 minutes, Howard Wilkinson hauled him off and he left the pitch with jeers ringing in his ears and Leeds staring at a humiliating exit from the cup. Chapman's departure seemed to settle the anxious crowd down and sub Chris Kamara seemed to be pivotal in lifting the side and spirits. We were also dealt a couple of huge slices of luck as Leicester's Steve Walsh headed home our equaliser, then Martin Hodge who had single handedly kept us at bay in that penultimate game of the promotion season six month's earlier saw a rasping shot from Gary Speed cannon off him and into the net, then he would have been disappointed as Gordon Strachan nearly tucked home our third at his near post to set up a Halloween encounter with another Second Division side in Oldham Athletic in the third round at ER.
Our next match was against QPR at Elland Road on October 20th. It must have been getting serious with Dimples as I went into the club shop and bought her a Leeds Teddy Bear, a cute little thing with the famous bar scarf around his neck- I wasn't ambitious or optimistic enough to have invested in some of the more risque gifts in the souvenir shop such as the g-strings!
As the players took to the field, the Kop clearly had a huge pang of guilt and struck up the chant "We love you Chapman we do, we love you Chapman we do..." probably an omission of guilt on how he'd been jeered off the pitch midweek having struggled against Leicester. Chapman eventually acknowledged our apology and got on the scoresheet to prove his knockers wrong. By then we were already 1-0 up, Chris Whyte having put us ahead after 6 minutes and the cricket score was on the cards.
Alas two pieces of individual brilliance pegged us back. Ray Wilkins halved the deficit with a rasping long range drive that earned a and ripple of applause from the home fans, then the American striker Roy Wegerle picked the ball up on the right flank, caressing and teasing the ball past at least half a dozen challenges before slotting past Lukic. The most partisan fans in the country spontaneously burst into a round of genuine applause at such brilliance. However his winner far was less of a showpiece as he drove a simple drive home at the South Stand to give QPR the three-points.
Comments
Post a Comment