Our Cup History is Embarrassing - Send us all the way Marcelo
FA Cup 3rd round weekend is here. It is one of those traditional days in the football calendar that bring with it romance of giant killings, past encounters and for Leeds United (apart from three years in League One where we entered at the 1st round stage), the first steps towards Wembley way. It brings those emotions that allow the mind to wander of Liam Cooper walking up the steps to the royal box and lifting the most famous old trophy of them all above his head. But more likely and more prominently the FA Cup and particularly this stage of the competition has been a constant source of embarrasment for the club. Sure we had January 3rd and it will forever live in the memory but we’ve also had painful exits were Leeds have left stadiums the size of the Norman Hunter stand with their tails between their legs. Hereford in the 1st round in 2007, Histon in the second in 2009, Newport County - 2018 and Sutton United in the forth in 2017.
It’s not just the FA Cup but the League Cup also. its been 25 years since Leeds last went to a cup final, although its questionable to say the Leeds United Players turned up to Wembley in the 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa in the 1996 Coca-Cola cup final. It’s been 34 years since we made the semi-finals of the FA Cup when Billy Bremner’s brave 1986/87 Second Division side lost in extra-time to eventual winners Coventry City. You have to go back to 2003 for our last apperance in even the quarter-finals where Terry Venables’s atruggling side were eliminated to Sheffield United, then a league below the whites.
In 1973, when Sunderland pulled off one of the biggest shocks in FA cup history by beating holders United in the final, no one could possibly envisage that being the last time Leeds United would make it to the FA Cup final. The early seventies had been Leeds’s most productive spell in the competition, reaching three of the first four finals of the 1970’s. Even then, the only time they faced elimination was in embarrassing circumstances, as the best team in the land lost 3-2 at Forth Division Colchester United.
For all this negativity, Leeds have been lucky to win the FA Cup and in its centenary year in 1972 which we are rightly proud of. I, myself have two signed photos from the team on the day proudly hung in my bedroom. But it is an event that occured twenty years before I was born and a memory of my Dad’s generation of Leeds supporters. Only two days after the historic win against Arsenal though, we were unexplicably expected to play a title deciding fixture at Wolves and missed out on a league and cup double so even our only taste of glory in the cup did’nt last long.
Leeds United are a massive club in English football with a gloriously proud history. But in the FA Cup it is’nt anywhere near good enough for a club of their stature. The Old Etonian’s can boast two victories to their name and with one cup and three finals Oxford University hold the same recored as Leeds United.
It is time for that record to change, for this generation of Leeds fans and indeed even some of the generation above to experience cup fever and success. This year could be an ideal one to turn the tide and here is why:
Winnable 3rd Round Tie - Leeds head to Crawley Town tommorow. They are having a decent season sitting 6th in League Two at the time of writing. However, that is a difference of 60 league places and without the extra nuance of home support available to them, there are few excuses for Leeds not to progress.
We’re a Premier League side now - for the first time in 16 years Leeds are back in the Premier League. We also won the Championship title at a counter by a lead of over 10 points. Therefore we will be favourites to beat anybody below the Premier League and as we have already proved this season we will be favourites against a large portion of fellow top flight clubs. We are yet to beat any of the league’s giants yet but as we have shown against Liverpool and Man City we are capable of giving anyone a game and in a one off knock out competition Leeds’s gung-ho syle of play could be perfect.
Time to Focus on the Cup - for as long as the memory serves, the FA cup has always crept up awkwardly as an expensive distraction from the overall goal of the season, be it promotion, play-offs or avoiding relegation. This season Leeds have acclimatised brilliantly to their first season back in the Premier League and sit 12 points above the drop zone. It’s hard to envisgage us getting sucked into the nasty side of a relegation battle so why not give the FA Cup all we’ve got? This season is ideal as there are no inconvenient midweek replays to contend with as each round is settled on the day. Even in this condensed league season, if Leeds were to reach the final there total number of fixtures for the season would be 45, which is four less than last season.
We could know our route to the quarter-finals - Should we get past Crawley Town, all of the winners of the 3rd round ties will know their possible route to the 6th round and quarter finals by Monday night as the 4th and 5th rounds are being drawn back to back. It will be a bit like plotting England’s route on a World Cup wallchart.
The Carabao cup final that will be contested between Tottenham and Man City has been put back to the end of April in the hope that some fans can attend at Wembley. The FA Cup semi finals are scheduled only a week before so it’s a possibilty that we are only 4 wins away from possibly watching United again in the flesh, and at Wembley! But who knows.
Either way, the Championship title gave a generation of supporters a taste of success last season and the appetite for more. So, Marcelo Bielsa and team, etch yourselves in Leeds United immortality like Don Revie and the boys and send us all the way.
By Lawrence O’Sullivan