Reds up to 4th after comprehensive victory at Elland Road
Retro Series Vol.20: Leeds United 0 Liverpool 2, 27th February 1982
Retro Series Vol.20: Leeds United 0 Liverpool 2, 27th February 1982
Leeds United and Liverpool, the all whites versus the all reds, was THE fixture of the late 1960’s as well as the early 1970’s as Don Revie’s Leeds United battled for ultimate supremacy of the English game with Bill Shankly’s Liverpool. A decade on, the footballing fortunes had been incredibly kind to an incredible team from Merseyside whilst Leeds United languished in the basement of the country’s premier football league. The all whites of today’s hosts were synonymous with the likes of club legend Eddie Gray and behind him a spine of a team including the grizzled veteran Kenny Burns, Trevor Cherry and the twin attacking threats down each wing of Arthur Graham and Peter Barnes. The visiting reds of Liverpool were unchanged again (spine of Grobbelaar, Hansen, Lawrenson, Souness, Lee, McDermott, Dalglish and Rush) as they looked to extend their winning run since the end of a very poor 1981 with their 11th win from 14 games played so far in the new year of 1982.
Before we venture into a game described by the local Yorkshire TV commentator as “sterile”, as ever, a respectful thanks to the www.youtube.com channel that continues to provide these beautiful insights into a bygone age of footballing history:
Dave Waller
This channel is about a football team - the greatest team you've ever seen. A team that played total football, won the…www.youtube.com
The first half in particular was rightly described as “sterile” as the ten minute highlights package shows just two (two!) attempts on goal, and both from the visiting reds of Liverpool. As a Leeds attack petered out, Liverpool demonstrated their quick fire attacking prowess for the first of several occasions as Sammy Lee broke through the Leeds midfield at pace before releasing Kenny Dalglish who’s immediate cross field pass found Ronnie Whelan bearing down on the hosts goal. A rushed shot didn’t particularly test the Leeds United goalkeeper John Lukic but minutes later, the Reds grabbed a precious lead just before half-time.
GOAL! Leeds United 0 Liverpool 1 (Graeme Souness 40 minutes)
“Here’s Souness. He’ll surely have a crack. And get it right!”
Finally football broke out on 40 minutes as the Reds swept from defence into attack, pivoted around the eventual goal scorer before cycling it, if a little fortuitously, back into his goal scoring path. But the move deserved a goal. Alan Kennedy turned defence into attack aided and abetted by a Kenny Dalglish pass to his Scotland roommate and eventual goal scorer Graeme Souness who stretched the play from the centre of midfield to Ian Rush on the left side of the Leeds United penalty area. Rush’s intended pass infield was to Sammy Lee who mis-controlled the intended pass but instead set up a perfect long range shooting chance for his skipper. As was Souness’ beautiful trait, he drilled a low hard shot fizzing past John Lukic, and perfectly into the side netting and bottom corner of his goal.
The second half was a stream of great goal scoring chances spurned by the Reds before their decisive second goal, and a game defining goal that finally broke the shackles on a Leeds team who until the 75th minute of the game had barely registered a goal scoring chance worthy of merit or inclusion within the highlights. Liverpool’s first (and best) chance of the second half was a brilliant sweeping move at speed that cut through the Leeds midfield and defence and should have resulted in the easiest of goals. From Ian Rush’s simple pass, to Ronnie Whelan’s delicate “dink” pass to a marauding Sammy Lee who brilliantly chest controlled the pass in stride before releasing Ronnie Whelan again, now running at pace on the left wing, to Whelan’s cut back from the by-line brilliantly dummied by Kenny Dalglish into the path of his forward thinking central defender Alan Hansen who with the Reds outnumbering the white shirts of Leeds 4 to 1, manages to fluff his lines with just the goalkeeper to beat and Leeds only defender, striker and Number 9 Aidan Butterworth, denying him. The game was so stretched and at pace, that Liverpool’s central defender was denied the easiest of goals by a desperate tackle from Leeds central striker!
But with 14 minutes left to play, the Reds wrapped up all 3 precious points.
GOAL! Leeds United 0 Liverpool 2 (Ian Rush, 76 minutes)
“Oh Ian Rush! He took it so well”.
The second and final goal of the game typified the Reds springing to life with quick transitional play through defence and midfield, stretching the play, the ball, and Leeds tiring defence. Another sweeping move from back to front was started by Alan Kennedy, stretched by a surging run from Graeme Souness and a delicious, pin point cross field pass from Kenny Dalglish to Sammy Lee. Lee’s simple pass inside the penalty area to Ian Rush found him between Leeds defenders Frank Gray and Byron Stevenson but with a whip sharp cutback, he snaked through both retreating defenders before a beautiful left footed drive whistled into the top corner of the Leeds goal.
The final 14 minutes saw the game comparatively come to life as at 2–0 down the hosts clearly had nothing further to lose and although both Ronnie Whelan and Mark Lawrenson could have added further goals for the visitors, the hosts finally came into the game with half chances falling to emergency striker Kenny Burns and substitute Terry Connor.
These 3 precious league points saw the Reds climb from 6th into 4th place in the English 1st Division and with 3 “games in hand” on table toppers Southampton. They were now just 8 points from top spot and closing in on 3rd place Manchester United and the surprise team of the season in 2nd place, Swansea City. Leeds United on the other hand were flailing in 19th place in the league with just 7 wins and 3 draws from their first 23 games of the season.
Whilst the Reds would embark on an unbelievable run of just 2 losses in all competitions from their final 20 games of the season, bagging the League Cup and 1st Division Title in the process, their hosts today Leeds United would finish the season exactly where they were at the end of today’s game, in 19th place with just 42 points and only 3 places and 3 points above the relegation zone.
Thanks for reading. If you’ve enjoyed this retrospective look into a footballing past, please feel free to take a peek into my archives for any of the previous 19 editions within this time travelling series.
Alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles on the Reds current season hence far:
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