In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe looks back at 10 of the club's best Premier League moments.
Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.
Whilst there is an element of “I remember when it was all fields round here” to our last sojourn in the Premier League, it’s easy to forget that Leeds United made a lasting impression and left some stellar memories, despite being resident for just 12 of the first 28 seasons of what is apparently now the “greatest league in the world”. So before we make some new memories, let’s celebrate what came before.
1) Rod Wallace v Spurs
Glossing over our title defence in the first ever season of the Premier League tells you all you need to know. It was a season mostly remembered for a Frenchman’s hat-tricks and not winning a single away game, so let’s fast-forward to 1993/94 when a resurgent Leeds finished 5th and Rod Wallace decorated a routine 2-0 win over Spurs with the Goal of the Season. It was a length-of-the-pitch strike which contained a bit of everything; pace, skill, a meandering bit in the middle where he bamboozled three defenders on the West Stand touchline, which was essentially witchcraft, and a tidy curling finish. Wonderful.
2) Brian Deane v Spurs
It’s pleasing to recall how often Spurs were our whipping boys, and while this was only a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane in the final game of the season, it was the point we needed to qualify for Europe. Deano’s direct and fearsome run from his own half resulted in a piercing finish; the perfect goal to capture how a formidable run of form had seen Leeds race like a train up the table. Nine wins in the last 13 games captured a UEFA Cup spot and the ecstasy on Deano’s face was unrestrained joy at a job well done.
3) Tony Yeboah in 1995/96
Not a ‘moment’ as such, but in truth Yeboah’s whirlwind cameo in the 100-year history of Leeds United struck our collective souls with all the relative finesse of a Stobart lorry. He’d rattled in 12 goals in 18 games the previous season, but nothing could have prepared us for the nuclear force in which he would propel himself onto the Premier League scene the following August. People talk endlessly about the Liverpool and Wimbledon goals, but this brief and quixotic sledgehammer vignette was bookended by wonderful strikes at West Ham and home to Sheffield Wednesday. Even 25 years later, we are dusting ourselves down and wondering “what the hell was that?”
4) Christmas Eve 1995
Finally beating Manchester United in September 1994 at Elland Road was a rousing occasion and a monkey off the back. That game was nearly included here, but somehow the December 24th fixture in 1995/96 feels more significant. This is partly because we could all go out and get very drunk directly afterwards, as this was old-school scheduling that you suspect will never be repeated. But this high noon on Christmas Eve fixture against the old enemy was classic theatre for the festive season. Goals from Gary McAllister, Yeboah and Deane decorated a 3-1-win which proved to be the last highlight from a disappointing campaign.
5) The Derby comeback
A frankly weird opening half hour saw Nigel Martyn make some rare errors and Leeds face a 0-3 deficit. However, a youthful and vibrant home team – not characteristics you would readily throw at a George Graham side – never looked out of it. Leeds steadily clawed their way back into the game and the explosion of joy upon Lee Bowyer’s injury-time winner triggered a ripple effect still being felt in parts of Antarctica today.
6) The Derby 5-0
Any away win is very welcome and any 5-0-win equally-so. Combine the two and you have an extremely satisfactory Sunday afternoon in front of the Sky Sports cameras at Pride Park. This was a rampant Leeds United with the emerging class of their home-grown youngsters to the fore. Stephen McPhail had been quietly heralded by the Leeds United inner sanctum and his first touch as a late substitute was a lofted forty-yard pass perfectly into the path of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the fifth goal. It was poetic, it was like a Tiger Woods’ pitch onto the green for an Eagle at the 17th, and it is still fondly remembered today by anyone who saw it.
7) Hello Champions League
There are too many memories from the 1999/00 season to include here, as David O’Leary’s swashbuckling Leeds redefined the phrase ‘cavalier approach’. At their carefree best Leeds were unstoppable, but a 0-0 draw on the final day at West Ham secured a much-coveted Champions League place, which even 20 years ago felt like winning a trophy. In retrospect it was perhaps the end of one chapter and the start of another, because the memory is bittersweet. On a sunny afternoon at Upton Park this was a wholesome and fresh-faced Leeds United welcoming a new approach of opulence and excess.
8) Viduka!
While the 2000/01 season is famous for the untroubled joyride of the Champions League, the Premier League campaign was patchy until a late-season rally of eight wins in nine games secured a fourth-placed finish which was ultimately catastrophic. This run included a 2-1 win v Liverpool at Anfield which felt significant because of how brilliant Leeds were. However, ‘the’ moment came back in November 2000, also against Liverpool, when Mark Viduka scored all four goals in an epic 4-3 win. It was delivered with such dramatic impact that, even today, whenever we see the low sun and long shadows of a bright Autumnal afternoon, we quietly say to ourselves it’s a “Viduka kind-of-day”.
9) Top of the league
Just two defeats in the opening 21 games saw Leeds go top of the Premier League on January 1st 2002 with a 3-0 win over West Ham at Elland Road. A delicate chip from Robbie Fowler and a trademark double from Viduka warmed the crowd at what I recall as the coldest game I’ve ever been to. That and the Kop singing “there’s only one David Gower” at Hammers keeper David James in response to his bleached-blonde mop of a haircut. Alas, no wins from the next seven games meant we wouldn’t see top spot again.
10) The Great Escape
We’d denied Arsenal the title once before at the end of 1998/99 and handed it straight to Manchester United. Back then it didn’t really matter to us, but this time it most definitely did. A rollercoaster 3-2 win at Highbury made Peter Reid’s Leeds mathematically safe at the bottom, and gifted Alex Ferguson’s men the league. For Leeds United, however, it merely delayed the inevitable, and it was our last great memory in the Premier League………until the next one.
