Big Jack Stole My Bobble Hat

As David Coleman might have said, “Er, he’s gone too early.” I don’t remember thinking at the age of six that my football career had peaked during my first ever visit to a match but it most certainly had. The date — March 4th, 1972. The ‘memory match’ — Leeds United vs Southampton. The final score — Leeds 7, Saints 0. The performance — simply awesome.

My parents had emigrated down South before I was born but even as a young lad I knew I was a Yorkshireman at heart. My first tears as a Leeds fan were shed in 1970 after the FA Cup final and Leeds seem to be reducing me to tears pretty regularly ever since. However, on that March day as we drove up to Leeds and looked forward to my first visit to Elland Road most of those tear jerkers were in the dim distant future. Fortunate enough to have an uncle who knew the great Bob Roberts, a great man and Leeds United director for many years, I was in for the match of a lifetime.

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