Jon Howe: Getting In The Leeds United Habit

Jon Howe: Getting In The Leeds United Habit

Weekly fan column.

In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe reflects on last minute winners, memories from the past and resilience of Leeds United over the years.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ - which has been updated as a new version for 2021 - and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.


Jon Howe


When you break it down, football is largely about habits; good ones and bad ones, trying to get into them and trying to get out of them. And while it feels as if this season has been like trying to shove 100 tonnes of treacle up a hill with a plastic spoon, there are some good habits that have come out of it, namely Leeds United’s ability to secure draws where we would have previously lost, and also our ability to secure points in the final minutes.

As habits in this most unforgiving of sports go, not losing a game is one that any progressive football team at any level would routinely identify as a good one; you could almost say it is the primary objective. With a record of just five defeats from 15 games, Leeds United are doing okay in that respect. The other habit of scoring late goals suggests a spirit of endurance and tenacity which, again, any football team with designs on retaining or advancing their status would long for. That Leeds still retain a survivalist disposition amid the injury chaos of this season, is of course something to cherish. That we choose to display it during the dying embers of each game does nothing for anybody’s mental or physical wellbeing, but it is, at least, a good habit to have.

Late goals have secured points at Burnley, and at home to Wolves, Crystal Palace and Brentford, and while I have spent years wallowing in Leeds United fatalism, and ‘regaling’ friends and relatives at parties about how if there is a way that something can go wrong, Leeds United are reliable in being able to find it, there are plenty of examples throughout history where this is turned on its head. Leeds United are capable of writing fairy tales, albeit at a significantly lesser rate of frequency, but then fairy tales wouldn’t have a magical quality if they happened every week…….    

For some younger fans, Patrick Bamford’s stoppage-time equaliser, hot on the heels of Raphinha’s spot-kick at the death, or Rodrigo’s similarly time-stopping moment a few weeks earlier, are their fairy tale moments. Bamford stepping off the bench after a long injury absence to plant a reactive knee on a passing football changed everyone’s lives, and gift-wrapped a moment in enchantment and a sense of purity. This was appropriate and morally just in the circumstances.

Indeed, it was Bamford’s third goal as a Leeds United substitute. While his most recent, a penalty versus West Brom in the last game of last season, was routine and low-key, his first was also liberally sprinkled in fairy dust, as he belatedly took to the field on a filthy afternoon in Bolton in 2018 to score the only goal of a putrid game after an equally frustrating injury lay-off.

Leeds United substitutes scoring goals is not a particularly rare thing, but down the years the ‘12th man’ has livened up many a subdued party, and indeed, in doing so has created some of Leeds United’s most iconic moments. A 17-year-old Terry Connor replaced Paul Madeley for his debut against West Brom in 1979, and the Leeds-born striker poked in a late winner to write himself into Leeds United folklore. Keith Edwards’ late equaliser against Coventry in the 1987 FA Cup Semi-Final. Phil Masinga scored a nine-minute hat-trick as a substitute against Walsall in the FA Cup in 1995, the only Leeds United sub ever to score a hat-trick, and also the only Leeds player to score a hat-trick entirely in extra-time.

More recently, Billy Sharp came on as a sub to head in an injury-time winner in a heated derby at Huddersfield Town in 2015, and it is easy to forget that when Pablo Hernandez sent everyone into orbit with his late winner at Swansea during our lockdown promotion run-in, he did so as a half-time substitute. Debut goals also have a magical quality about them, so other fairy tale moments include memorable introductory strikes for Eddie Gray versus Sheffield Wednesday in 1966, Alan Smith at Liverpool, Sharp again with his late winner against Middlesbrough in 2014, and in the season before that Luke Murphy stabbed in a dramatic debut winner in the season opener against Brighton.

And if debut goals and substitute goals provide an unrivalled narrative drenched in romance and heroism, then perhaps our most passionate ardour should be reserved for a most unlikely source; Carl Shutt. 24 goals in 106 appearances (40 of which were from the bench) doesn’t stand out as a record necessarily dripping in gallantry and picture-book fantasy, but his story is a quite remarkable one. It was Howard Wilkinson who plucked Shutt from non-league obscurity at the ripe old age of 23 to become a professional footballer at his hometown club Sheffield Wednesday. But that was just the beginning.

Not only did Shutt secure a move to Leeds United, he scored a hat-trick on his debut versus Bournemouth in 1989, won promotion and a league championship and then came off the bench to score a late winner in a re-played European Cup tie versus VFB Stuttgart at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. Even without the dream-like Leeds United stuff, Shutt’s was a story worthy of a straight-to-DVD low-budget movie featuring Sheffield Wednesday’s cross-town equivalent of Sean Bean. Shutt ended his working life as a travel agent in Meadowhall, and I dare say with each passing day he must have wondered whether his other career, his other life, had really happened.   

Jamie Vardy’s is perhaps the most rags-to-riches story modern football has to offer, but I doubt he’ll end his days re-directing harassed shoppers who can’t find Build-A-Bear. And in that sense, it’s useful to remember that Leeds United have a quality for unique narrative, and a history littered with characteristic quirks which, even in our darkest moments, suggest that anything is possible.

The best habits are the hardest to form, but the longer you have them the easier they are to keep hold of. When Premier League points are so precious, every one is meaningful and hard-earned. So while the 2-2 draw with Brentford last weekend was frustrating, not losing acted as some form of consolation. And not losing also means you are better placed to enjoy the occasional win.

This week we raised a glass to the memory of Billy Bremner, 24 years on from his untimely death in 1997. Our first game after Billy’s passing was a 0-0 draw versus Chelsea at Samford Bridge, when Leeds played most of the game with nine-men in a brutal, uncompromising encounter which typified Billy’s spirit and showed Leeds at their fearless, hard-nosed and pig-headed best.

Whatever injury circumstances Leeds face this weekend, as we return to Chelsea wounded but proud, it will do us good to remember fairy tales of our recent and distant past, and to remember the good habits that have helped form our identity. And if nothing else, it will do us good to remember that, with our backs to the wall and with people questioning the strength of our spirit when the chips are down, Leeds United will always come out fighting.         

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