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Season
1924/25
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A
bit of a struggle
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There were a number of departures, including goalkeeper Fred Whalley
and Jimmy Frew, who had been succeeded at left-back by Bill Menzies, but
there were a host of newcomers, including goalkeeper Bill Moore, forwards
James Clark, Jock Thom, Cuthbert Robson, John Martin, Frank Mears and
Fred Graver, half-backs Josh Atkinson and Tom Duxbury and full-back Jim
Kirkpatrick. Of these, however, only Robson and Atkinson made any impact. In general, it was business as usual at the back with Bert Duffield,
Ernie Hart and Jim Baker holding down the key spots for most of the time
alongside Menzies, but they were understandably not as effective in the
top division, conceding some 61 goals. Life in the top flight could not have started with a more difficult challenge.
The first day of the season had Leeds at home, but the opposition was
one of the strongest teams in the country, Sunderland. The Wearsiders
had a long history of success at the top and the contrast between the
two sides could hardly have been starker. Leeds had
won the Second Division title on a shoestring and had little experience
of big time football in their ranks. Sunderland, with 45 years of history
and five league championships behind them, the most recent in 1922/23,
had invested £8,000 in new blood during the summer. The West Yorkshire public flocked to Elland Road to see the start of
a new era, and the attendance of 33,722 was a club record for a league
match. The Yorkshire Post reported the day thus: 'A knowledge of
the training methods led to the expectation that United players would
lack nothing in physical fitness, but the speed and alertness of the whole
side and the incisive methods of the forwards astonished even the most
fervent admirer ... the Sunderland half-backs ... were overwhelmed by
the whirlwind attacks.' A header from Swan, 'greeted with a wild celebration of enthusiasm',
gave Leeds an unexpected advantage, but the lead lasted just two minutes
before Sunderland equalised. There were no further goals and the result
was welcomed by Leeds fans as an indication they might just be able to
survive at the top end of the game. But even as the team savoured their
first point in the First Division football, their perennial financial
difficulties continued to undermine their ambitions, just as had been
the case for Leeds City. After the match, the club began a 'Lend us a Fiver' campaign to urge
supporters and well wishers to help raise funds. Chairman J Hilton Crowther
had backed the club's cause heavily following his arrival from Huddersfield
Town, and Leeds United were indebted to him to the tune of £54,000. He
now wanted to step down from the role of After the Sunderland game, even though they had home wins in September
over Preston 4-0 and Everton 1-0, by mid-October Leeds United had just
8 points from their 10 games and were firmly stuck in the bottom half
of the table. They were finding life at the top difficult. They did manage
three successive victories against Tottenham, Blackburn (a rare win away
from Elland Road) and West Ham in the fortnight leading up to 1 November,
but their run through to Christmas was pretty dismal - they picked up
just three points out of the next fourteen and the poor run culminated
with a 6-1 thrashing at Arsenal on 20 December. A 6-1 thumping of Aston Villa on Christmas Day (including a hat trick
from Percy Whipp and two goals by Jack Swan) and a 4-1 win at Preston
on 17 January were two rare victories, but the side was in dire straits,
without another victory until the end of March. During this period, there
was defeat at the first time of asking in the FA Cup, this time by 3-0
away to Liverpool. Clearly action was required. Manager Fairclough had never shirked difficult decisions when they were
required and brought in some new blood to stem the tide, enlisting big
name captures, Tom Jennings, Willis
Edwards and Russell Wainscoat during March. 23-year-old Jennings was an established goalscorer with Scotland's Raith
Rovers and achieved a prodigious strike rate during his years at Elland
Road - 112 goals in 167 League appearances. He was a determined striker,
heavy and strong. hard to knock off the ball and ferocious in the challenge.
Were it not for sporadic bouts of illness, Jennings might have scored
many more for Leeds. Edwards had been making a name for himself as a rounded wing-half in
the Third Division (North) with Chesterfield and went on to serve Leeds
as a player for the next eighteen years, going on to win England caps.
He cost £1,500. Wainscoat enjoyed a dream league debut, scoring a hat trick for Barnsley
against Fulham in Match 1920. He moved to First Division The three players were signed within the space of a few days in March
and came into the team for the run-in along with Josh Atkinson, goalkeeper
David Russell, a January buy from Doncaster, and Indian forward John Armand.
Jack Swan was dropped, along with keeper Billy Down, who joined Doncaster
the following September, long-serving skipper Jim Baker and forward Joe
Richmond. From the match on 21 March at Newcastle until the end of the season,
Atkinson, Edwards, Jennings and Wainscoat were ever present. The revolution
didn't start too well - they lost the Newcastle game 4-1, but then things
started to improve and United won four of their last eight games, including
an impressive 4-1 win over Liverpool who ended the season in fourth spot.
Jennings and Wainscoat both got three goals in that closing run and the
improvement was enough to see the club avoid relegation with an 18th place
finish. In the end they had eight points to spare on the relegation spots
but for a while it had been distinctly touch and go. Nevertheless, Leeds had shown enough resilience at the death to give
supporters some optimism for the future. Other Football Highlights from 1924/25 |