What is the most important football match you have attended?
It could well have been Newcastle-Portsmouth in 1992 and that David Kelly goal that saved us from the 3rd division and possible oblivion.
The obvious one would of course be Wembley last year when we finally achieved what I thought would never happen.
For me though, it was a long time ago, in 1976. Leeds United v Newcastle United, 2-2 and a thumping Paul Cannell equalizer in front of thousands of crazy boys.
Let me explain why.
In the summer of 1976, when it was warmer in Tyneside than in Spain, I was due to take my exams (then called O-levels), but as I was a boy of 16 with the brain of a four-month-old spaniel, I decided that instead of attending my exams I would spend the days in the park with my very friendly girlfriend.
It seemed like a much more productive way to pass the time.
Surprisingly, I leave school without a diploma.
My father is not a happy man.
A few months later we reach my 17th birthday which falls on the same day as Leeds United. Despite the fact that I am now on my last warning with my father, there is only one way to spend the day and that is on a special football train to Leeds.
I’m dressed in my absolutely mint birthday present: a leather jacket I bought at the market. Well, I thought it was leather, but since it cost five dollars, I now think it was probably plastic.
It didn’t matter, I loved it and five pounds was a fair amount of money for my dad to spend.
The game is brilliant and is played against a backdrop of real hostility between the fans. My mind may be playing tricks now, but I remember spending the 90 minutes on a human tidal wave and ending the game 100 yards from where I started it.
When the game ends, West Yorkshire devises a cunning plan to stop the Geordies causing trouble.
Those who came in the carriages were surrounded by a ring of officers and marched to their means of transportation. But what about those of us who need to get to the train station?
The police decide to release us in small groups of 10 or 20 people, so that we cannot cause any nuisance. No bother to us…but the memo clearly didn’t reach the hundreds of Leeds fans waiting for us on the way to the station.
The next hour was hell, culminating in my new ‘leather’ jacket being sliced open by a Stanley knife as I tried to run over a chain-link fence.
We finally get back to the station, way too late for our train, so I don’t get home until around 11pm.
My father is going all monkey. He tells me it’s over. I’m out of the house.
Where the hell am I going?
Don’t worry about that boy, you’ll see.
And so, 36 hours later, I am put into my father’s Triumph 2000 and driven to the army career office.
“You can’t be serious daddy”
“Oh yes, I am son”
So I go in and after just five minutes in my company the recruiting sergeant tells me I have so much hidden potential. And he has just the job for me.
Well, who would have thought that?
By the end of the visit I’m signed in and a few weeks later I’m off to Sutton Coldfield to get my beloved Noddy Holder haircut.
What the hell just happened?
This sliding door moment would be the beginning of a series of events that would give me a profession, 50 years of friends and introduce me to my future wife.
Ultimately it has led to me having a very good life, but sometimes I wonder…
What if?
What if I had left the bus instead of the train?
What if I hadn’t worn my expensive new coat and just wore my denim jacket?
What if I could have run a little faster and run the fence faster?
But I didn’t and I couldn’t.
So I guess it’s thanks to the Leeds United skinhead who cut my jacket.
Because Leeds United against Newcastle United in 1976 changed my life.
#guess #Leeds #United #skinhead #cut #jacket..