15 years in the Wilderness

Following the aftermath of Paris Leeds United went into a slow decline, the main reasons the players that served us well were getting old and replcements were needed. Prior to Paris Leeds could attract the big stars but this was a club that was now banned from Europe so the stars turned their backs.

The man given the task of rebuilding the Club was Jimmy Armfield an honest man who did his best in almost impossible circumstances.

This was also a period of my life when I went on a great adventure. For the next 6/7 years I lived and breathed my Football Club travelling the length of the country to support my chosen team.

We still had some good players during this period but we never really competed for trophys but this didn't stop me and many like me been proud of them all. We are not stupid people we know those playing ran their hearts out for the club.















On my travels I found following the Paris riot Leeds fans had become a target for hatred, they were seen as legitimate targets for the local thugs in the cities we visited, everyone wanted to take the Leeds fans on. I found this out on the first match following Paris when we travelled to Aston Villa in Birmingham. A group of Leeds fans were outside the ground when suddenly Villa supporters attacked with bottles.

Eventually about 1979 Armfield was replaced by Jimmy Adamson and basically he was a crap manager and the club went into a spiralling decline which eventually took us down into the 2nd division.

Before this happend I was lucky to be about to see the club return to Europe in 1979 and I travelled to Malta to see them face Valletta City for a comfortable 1st round victory in the Eufa Cup. Alas the team wasn't good enough and they fell at the 2nd hurdle to Craova in Rumania, I couldn't afford that trip.

During these years I saw hooliganism grow starting with a number of gangs following London Clubs plus a few other areas. One of the biggest group of supporters with a bad reputation were our immortal enemy Manchester United. I had many scary moments on my travels but was never discouraged from supporting my team.

Yes "The English disease" Football hooliganism was growing and organised gangs were attaching themselves to Clubs. Leeds gang the Service Crew were amongst the most well known and caused problems up and down the country. One big clash that made the national headlines happend in Londons Picadilly Circus when the Service Crew Clashed with the infamous Chelsea Headhunters.

Anyway back to the Football we did have some star players during this period two that spring to mind are Tony Currie and Arthur Graham who were awesome talents who were worshipped by the fans.

We moved into the eighties this was a period I actually stopped going to soccer matches through other sporting commitments but Leeds decline continued despite a string of ex players from the Revie era taking the reigns (Clarke, Gray, Bremner, etc). Once again the club found itself in the 2nd flight of English Football.

As the decade came to an end once again the club turned the corner as Sgt Wilko (Howard Wilkinson) arrived.

Next - The Wilko era