For one United it was agony, their hopes of ending a 25-year wait for the league title having been ended by their fiercest rivals, for another it was ecstasy as they were crowned champions thanks to someone else’s victory.
Manchester’s loss was Leeds’ gain as Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Sir Alex Ferguson’s side gave Howard Wilkinson and his players one of the greatest days of their careers. At Lee Chapman’s house in Yorkshire, the celebrations began with cups of coffee; or so it seemed.
“They were coffee cups but I can assure you they did not have coffee in them,” recalls Gary McAllister who was joined by Eric Cantona, David Batty, Chapman and a television crew at the home of the Leeds striker.
Having won at Sheffield United earlier that day, Leeds knew that if Manchester United failed to win by two clear goals at Anfield the title would be theirs and the TV cameras were there to capture the moment.
The footage recorded on that momentous Sunday afternoon is made particularly remarkable by the restraint shown by the Leeds quartet, who had all played crucial roles in ending their own club’s first title success for 18 seasons.
“We thought Manchester United would take it to the final game,” McAllister told John Helm of ITV, his professionalism masking his true feelings. “I couldn’t say it then but I knew on the day that Liverpool wouldn’t be doing United any favours at Anfield,” he says. “We’d been 12 points behind at Easter but going into that game, United had to win by two goals at Liverpool’s ground. That was a big ask for them, so I was pretty confident.”
Neither the ordinariness nor the humility of Leeds’ reaction to their own triumph should disguise the magnitude of their achievement.
In October 1988, they had been 21st in the old second division and there they were, less than four years later, with an irrefutable claim to be the best team in England. McAllister says:
“Maybe we didn’t get as much credit for that as we deserved,” McAllister says. “It was some feat because the club had been out of the top flight for a number of years.
“It was only when Howard Wilkinson arrived as manager that things started to turn around and we finished fourth in our first season in the first division after getting promoted in 1989/90. That was when the momentum really kicked in and we just felt going into the next season that if we could keep on doing what we had been doing but improve a little bit we could be in with a chance.
“We didn’t think we would win it because you just don’t think like that, not at first anyway. But we had some great young players in the team, the likes of Batty, Gary Speed and Rod Wallace, and the main man for me was Gordon Strachan because he was the driver.”
Gordon Strachan (pictured here with Jon Newsome) was the driving force on the pitch behind Leeds’ title win (Credit: Allsport UK /Allsport)“On top of that we had Howard who remained calm no matter what happened, even when we took some heavy beatings, and the combination of all those things together – the players, the manager, the fans – ensured we got over the line.
“In some ways, it was similar to what Leicester City did last season because we came from nowhere to win it. It wasn’t seen as quite as big a sensation for some reason, probably because we were Leeds United and the club had been successful in the 1960s and 70s, but we had also come from nowhere to win the title when not many people had thought we had a chance.
“From the Second Division to champions in such a short space of time. It’s incredible when you think about it. They were special times. I still look at the medal now from time to time and it brings back some wonderful memories.”
Vivid recollections of Anfield will be stirred tonight when Leeds return to the stadium where their last major honour was confirmed. They will do so having long since returned from whence they came and with Garry Monk, their current manager, needing to become the catalyst for a revival that Wilkinson was at the end of the 1980s. The days of glory, glory Leeds United might be in the past, at least for the time being, but McAllister does not see why they cannot return.
“Leeds is still in my blood so I’m not going to claim to be impartial,” McAllister says. “But anyone who has experienced the club and what it means to the city and the supporters will know that it is a great club, the kind that can build up a head of steam and make progress very quickly if the circumstances are right. That isn’t just my opinion from my own experiences, history tells us that.
“We all know about the problems that the club has had and it hasn’t been easy for the supporters because they expect Leeds to be in the Premier League competing for trophies and rightly so. But when things do click, Leeds is a bit like Liverpool in that it’s possible to gather momentum very quickly and when that happens anything is possible.”
“Obviously you have to walk before you can run and the immediate aim is to get into the Premier League but Garry is a good young manager and I fancy them to get into the play-offs this season. In the recent past, Leeds haven’t really had the players to do that but the team is looking stronger, they’ve had some good results and even though they lost to Newcastle United at home recently they put in a really strong performance against the best team in the Championship so I’m definitely hopeful.”
McAllister is as aware as anyone that it would be a particularly tall order to ask any manager to take Leeds on the journey that Wilkinson took them on and it is for that reason that he also feels that the achievements of his old manager have somehow become overlooked.
Wilkinson’s inclusion on the FA panel which will appoint Gareth Southgate as England manager in the coming days raised eyebrows in some quarters, but McAllister believes he is more than qualified to offer guidance in that kind of role.
“Howard was the last English manager to win the league title,” McAllister says. “That speaks for itself but it’s only one of the reasons why he’s got so much to offer. Howard was always ahead of his time. I don’t know what it is but we sometimes find it easier to praise people who come from outside for developments that are made in football but in terms of sports science, preparation and sports psychology, Howard was ahead of the game.
“We had a relationship with Leeds University and Howard would use their expertise to give us an edge. We were regularly monitored and tested because he recognised the need to do anything and everything that we could to find whatever advantages that we could. He was so meticulous in his approach and, as I’ve said, I don’t think he’s been given as much credit as he deserves so it’s good that his experience and his expertise is being tapped into. We need to make the most of people like that.”
McAllister will be at Anfield for tonight’s EFL Cup quarter final and he will have a foot in both camps having attained legendary status at Liverpool during a glorious swansong to his career in which he played an influential role as Gerard Houllier guided them to a cup treble in 2001.
Divided loyalties are only to be expected even if the former Scotland international is now a Liverpool ambassador and his focus pre-match is primarily on the youngsters who will also be attending the game as part of its Young Fans ticket initiative by the Merseyside club.
“Standard Chartered, the club’s main sponsor, have generously given over their box for the game which the club is using to get some young people in,” he says. “I’m hoping to call in to see them, possibly on time, because I think stuff like this is really important. We want to see as many young people as possible at matches. On Merseyside, kids have got two clubs to choose from so we want as many as possible to choose the Reds so any initiative like this has to be a good thing.
“As someone who started off going to the match with my own dad and grandfather, I’m totally supportive of it. It’s not easy to get tickets for Liverpool; they are a huge club with an enormous fan base and a big waiting list for season tickets so the club deserves a lot of credit for coming up with whatever ways that it can to get young people into the ground supporting the team.
“Liverpool will need them tonight as well because I know the Leeds supporters are really looking forward to this one.”
“Going to Anfield,” he continues, “to the home of one of the Premier League clubs and one of their old rivals, is important to them, and I’m sure it will be as competitive in the stands as it is on the pitch.
“It will be a big ask for Leeds but they can enjoy the game because not many people are expecting them to win but even if they don’t get the result they are looking for at least they will have been back on the kind of stage that the club belongs. The next challenge is to make sure it isn’t just a one off.”
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