Leeds United versus Southampton, 9th January 1993, Elland Road.
30 years ago, Leeds faced Southampton, who were entering the Premier League for the very first time, and back in the day we had an all-star cast. The likes of Tony Dorigo, Lee Chapman, Mel Sterling, Rod Wallace, Gary Speed and Gordon Strachan OBE were just a mere handful of players that Howard Wilkinson had at his disposal. Coming off the back of a controversial sale of Eric Cantona to Manchester United in November 1992 for an alleged £1.2m, the club later admitted it was actually £1m and that they had bumped up the numbers to “appease the Leeds fans”.
Southampton also had just offloaded Alan Shearer to Blackburn Rovers for a record breaking £3.6m, and both clubs could never have forecast how selling those two players would both affect their own teams, and the individual successes Cantona and Shearer would have in their future careers.
During the 1992/1993 season, Leeds United were eliminated from the Champions League by Rangers and finished 17th in the Premier League. Although their home form was amongst the best in the League, their failure to pick up points away from home ensured a mad scramble at the end to secure the points and avoid relegation.
So as Leeds took on Southampton in front of a 26,000 strong crowd, Southampton broke the deadlock first with combination of errors by both Chris Fairclough who failed to clear and then goalkeeper John Lukic, mistiming his own clearance, allowing Matthew Le Tissier to knock the ball forward, cross and a neat little tap in from Dixon after just 19 minutes.
It wasn’t until the second half that Leeds were able to equalise with a corner kick taken by Gary McAllister floated into the box, flicked on from David Wetherall, headed towards the net by Chris Fairclough, redeeming himself to score and bring it back level, although it is disputed who could claim the goal, Fairclough or Lee Chapman got the final touch? It didn’t matter, Leeds United were back in the driving seat.
Leeds went ahead in the 72nd minute with another quality set piece by McAllister who floated into Wetherall who couldn’t quite get the aim towards goal, but knocked back out to McAllister who forged ahead in the penalty area, headed down, crossed and it was Gary Speed who finished cleanly and clinically. Final score, 2-1 to Leeds United.
So back to today’s match, who in this new, young Leeds United team can replicate, duplicate or even emulate the set piece master of Gary McAllister? Will it be Summerville or Dan James that can deliver exceptional and essential floating balls, or short passes? With an ever changing team every week, and the loss of Greenwood who was earmarked for such a position it’s hard to say who could follow McAllisters sensational set pieces and game play, but we have hope in Farke and his coaching team that they are developing and training the new kids on the block to take advantage of potential goal scoring opportunities.
The likes of Georginio, Ampadu and Kamara are showing some serious talent through the midfield and up front, and with an ever growing confident defence in Rodon, Struijk and Byram maintaining clean sheets, are they watching old videos of Mel Sterland Tony Dorigo and Chris Fairclough?
Howard Wilkinson stated on that day “confidence factor is intangible. One win and all of a sudden it’s back almost as quickly as it disappeared” which is a thoughtful and reflective statement made 30 years ago and which is still pertinent in todays multi million pound market.
The clash at St Mary’s sees two of last season’s relegated Premier League sides go up against each other with the two teams in contrasting recent form. Leeds United are looking to extend their six match unbeaten run, whilst Southampton have lost their last four games on the bounce and have the divisions worst defensive record, sorry Southampton, but we hand the baton over to you having acquired that delightful title for the most part of last season!
Gnonto, Spence and Firpo are still out with injury but there may be an invite to the party for Patrick Bamford this afternoon.
We await the team sheet with bated breath, and hope the scoreline today is the same as 1993, but maybe with a few more goals from Leeds United just to seal the deal.
