Iconic Moments In Football No.9
“Leeds will go mad….and they’ve every right to go mad”
It’s April 1971 and the Championship is now a two horse race. Leeds are edging it but Arsenal are close behind.
In a crucial game for Leeds at their home ground Elland Road, they are 1-0 down to West Bromwich Albion in a match that they really must win.
Suddenly West Brom are on the counter attack but they had a player in an offside position in Colin Suggett. Everybody stopped and Tony Brown, who was racing into the Leeds half with the ball, also slowed down and looked over his shoulder at the referee.
The linseman had raised his flag to signal that Suggett was offside but referee Ray Tinkler waved for Tony Brown to carry on. Brown did so and when the West Brom forward was met by Leeds’ goalkeeper Gary Sprake, he squared the ball to Jeff Astle who was running slightly to his left to tap the ball into the net.
Cue pandemonium all around Elland Road! Angry fans ran onto the pitch to get at Tinkler. Leeds manager Don Revie stormed on to the field of play with the blanket that he used to keep himself warm in the dugout in his hands.
Calm was eventually restored with several policemen having to go and frog-march the angry Leeds fans off the pitch who had got on it moments earlier to confront the referee.
The goal was given, West Bromwich Albion won the game 2-0 and Arsenal won the league championship and followed it up with the FA Cup several days later.
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