Matches – 5 December 1964 – Manchester U 0 Leeds United 1 First Division - Old Trafford - 53,374 Scorers: Collins Manchester United: P Dunne, Brennan, A Dunne, Crerand, Foulkes, Stiles, Connelly, R Charlton, Herd, Law, Best Leeds United: Sprake, Reaney, Bell, Bremner, Charlton, Hunter, Giles, Johnson, Storrie, Collins, Cooper For Leeds United, 1964-65 was the season dreamed of ever since the club Top of Division One prior to the game rose from the ashes of Leeds City in Pos P W D L F A Pts 1919; United had set about their return to the top flight of English football with the 1st Manchester United 20 14 4 2 48 21 32 same approach that had seen them 2nd Chelsea 20 12 5 3 46 21 29 emerge as such impressive Second 3rd Leeds United 20 13 2 5 43 31 28 Division champions the previous spring, and their results were every bit as 4th Nottingham F 20 10 5 5 42 32 25 impressive in the top flight. By the end 5th Blackburn Rovers 20 10 4 6 42 30 24 of November, as they reached the 6th West Ham United 19 10 3 6 44 29 23 halfway stage of the League campaign, the Yorkshiremen were proving the 7th Tottenham H 20 9 4 7 39 32 22 year's surprise packet. 8th Sheffield Wed 19 7 7 5 28 22 21 After winning their first three games, United stuttered to four defeats in their next seven matches, before recovering strongly to climb back up the table. As they prepared to face a star-studded Manchester United side at Old Trafford on December 5, Leeds were sitting at the dizzy heights of third in the table. It was an astonishing turn of events for a club that had been on the verge of slumping into Division Three in 1962, a year after Don Revie was appointed manager. Jim Storrie: "Revie used to say: 'Anyone who beats you at home must know they've been in a game.' We tended to take this a bit too literally; it became an offence for an opponent to encroach our eighteen-yard line! I think we were over-exuberant more than anything. But Revie must take part of the blame because when we were getting all that bad publicity, he told us: 'Don't worry about the Press ... what matters is the fact that they are talking about you.' I am sure he later regretted this attitude." For Manchester United, the times were even more exciting. In February 1958, Matt Busby had fought for his life as many of his Manchester United manager Matt Busby with legendary Babes perished in the snow of a Munich runway. Less Duncan Edwards and Roger Byrne, two of the players whodiedatMunich www.mightyleeds.co.uk - Matches – 5 December 1964, Manchester United 0 Leeds United 1 1 than seven years on, the Scot had rebuilt his club from that devastating horror to become once more the most exciting side in British football. They had won the FA Cup in 1963, and were leading the race for the championship. Their team was among Europe's finest and a new golden age beckoned for Old Trafford. As Brian Hughes recalled in The King, his biography of Denis Law: "With Harry Gregg still struggling with a shoulder injury they had started with goalkeeper David Gaskell but after just five games he was replaced by Pat Dunne who had been signed back in May 1964 for £10,000 from Shamrock Rovers. The full-back pairing would prove to be the bedrock for the entire season. Shay Brennan and Tony Dunne played such commanding roles that club captain Noel Cantwell managed just one appearance. The half-back line was Paddy Crerand, Bill Foulkes, and little Nobby Stiles, who had replaced Maurice Setters. "In the minds of Busby and Murphy these players would merely provide defensive cover for the fantastic forward line the Reds now called upon: Connelly - Herd - Charlton - Law - Best! All these players could be almost guaranteed to score double figures: it was a football fan's dream. Supporters would set off early to get to Old Trafford so that they wouldn't get locked out. In those days fans turned up and paid at the turnstiles and it was mostly standing. Thousands would climb the concrete steps onto the Stretford End, while others made their way behind the scoreboard and still more for the United Road. Inside the ground the build-up would throb Nobby Stiles, the short sighted terrier of with undiluted excitement in anticipation of watching this highly Old Trafford, was brother-in-law to entertaining vintage of Red Devils. There were very few boring 90 Johnny Giles of Leeds minutes in the era that gave birth to the 'Theatre of Dreams'. It was a virtual guarantee that one of Bobby, George or Denis would produce a touch of magic to brighten even the bleakest winter's day." Manchester United were role models for everything Don Revie wanted his club to be. He had sought out Busby when he had first been appointed at Elland Road, in an attempt to glean some insight into the managerial arts. There were other connections, too – Jack Charlton had lived his entire footballing life in the shadow of his younger brother Bobby, though he was now emerging as a star in his own right; Johnny Giles was in the Manchester club's Cup winning line up in 1963 before leaving for Elland Road, and was brother-in-law to Nobby Stiles, the short sighted enforcer of Busby's team. Leeds suffered badly in any direct man-for-man comparison with their star-studded opponents, and it was widely predicted that the Old Trafford showdown would end with an easy win for the home side. Eric Stanger, however, struck an optimistic note in his preview of the game in the Yorkshire Post: "A leading firm of London bookmakers last night was asking for odds of no less than 3/1 on Manchester United winning the Football League championship. Chelsea were quoted at 5/1 against and Leeds United 10/1. Brilliantly as Manchester United have been playing, those strike me as ridiculous odds seeing that there is still half the season to go. I wonder what the revised odds will be if Leeds United should win at Old Trafford today. It is a big if and frankly I think at present it is beyond the capacity of Mr Don Revie's talented but still mostly immature side. This is their sternest test to date in a season which so far as been successful beyond their expectations. www.mightyleeds.co.uk - Matches – 5 December 1964, Manchester United 0 Leeds United 1 2 "To have taken 28 points from their first 20 matches - 17 of them from the last 10 - is a wonderful start back in the First Division, but Manchester United's record is even more impressive. They have taken 32 points, have gone 15 matches without defeat and been held to a draw only twice in this run. "The tactics Leeds employ today will be interesting. Will Mr Revie, who tries to plot the course of his side's games down to the last decimal point, continue to use both his backs and centre-half as marauders in search of a surprise goal? Or will he instruct his men to play tight, as they did when fighting for promotion last season, and try to make sure of one point? "How will he try to cut out the menace of Law? Nominally Law will be marked by Bremner, who had such a fine game for the Scotland Under 23 this week, but Law will probably occupy Hunter's attention just as much since he makes every square yard of the pitch his playground. "Will Reaney, greatly improved back though he is, be able to put a break on Best, the slim Irishman now reckoned just about the best winger in Europe? On the other hand can Stiles stop Collins from making the Leeds wheels go round and Manchester generally be able to shatter the triangle of Collins, Bremner and Giles from which so many Leeds moves stem?" The Reds fielded the same eleven players that were on duty though virtually the entire season. In addition to their brilliant forward line, former Celtic No 4 Paddy Crerand was a match winner, with his silky ability to control play and dominate proceedings. He had signed for Busby after the 1963 Cup win and had made the difference to a team that had previously been merely the first fruit of a seam of rich potential. They were now very much the finished article. Leeds were still without the injured Alan Peacock, and young Rod Johnson continued to partner Jim Storrie in attack. Another of Revie's youngsters, Terry Cooper, was preferred to Albert Johanneson, but Gary Sprake was back in goal after recovering from the injury that kept him out of the 1-0 home win against West Bromwich Albion. Don Revie's game plan relied on his wingers, Cooper and Giles The match programme from Old Trafford (made skipper for the day against his former club), playing deep, where they added defensive width in a midfield quartet with Billy Bremner and Bobby Collins. Paul Reaney was delegated to man-mark danger man Best and neutralised any threat from the gifted Irishman. With Norman Hunter and Willie Bell moving forward regularly, the middle of the pitch was heaving with bone and sinew, leaving little room for manoeuvre and restricting space for Crerand.