A history of violence! Five infamous ties

MANCHESTER UTD 0 LEEDS 0

27th March 1965, FA Cup semi-final

Hillsborough

Leeds, just promoted from the second division under Don Revie, were upstarts compared to the football royalty of Manchester United under Matt Busby. This game shocked the nation, the Guardian calling it a ‘sordid shambles’ of ‘open violence’ while the Daily Mirror described it as ‘X-certificate stuff’ Jack Charlton and Denis Law brawled and Leeds won the replay at the City Ground, Nottingham 1-0 with an 89th-minute Billy Bremner goal.

HEATED CLASH: Leeds and United in 1965

MANCHESTER UNITED 0 LEEDS 0

March 24th 1970, FA Cup semi-final

Hillsborough

Leeds were now in the ascendancy, having won the league title in 1969 while United were in decline, this remarkable series of matches being marked by the press noting the regression of George Best. After 300 minutes of football, watched by 173,500 people at Hillsborough, Villa Park and finally Burnden Park — these were the days when FA Cup replays went on until the bitter end — that man Bremner separated the teams in a 1-0 win.

LEEDS 2 MANCHESTER UTD 3

August 28th 1978, Football League Div One Leeds were now in decline and United perceived to be getting back to their best under Dave Sexton. This was Jock Stein’s first game as Leeds manager but more significantly it was the first game back at Elland Road for two Leeds stalwarts, Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan, who had controversially moved to United. Jordan describes the atmosphere as ‘healthy!’ and McQueen, who scored, as ‘terrible... but it didnae bother me at all.’

LEEDS 0 MANCHESTER UTD 0

Premier League February 1993

After helping Leeds to the title in 1992 and declaring ‘I don’t why I love you but I do’ to the Leeds’ fans, Eric Cantona moved to Manchester United. Just three months later, he returned with United to Elland Road.

Gary Neville, who travelled as a fan and stood in the away end, recalled it was ‘moody as hell… there was a massive police presence and concern as to how it would go off.’

MANCHESTER UTD 0 LEEDS 1

FA Cup third round January 2010 Gary Neville describes this as one of his ‘worst experiences in football’. With United utterly dominant now and Leeds, traumatised by a financial crisis and in League One, Sir Alex Ferguson called up fringe players, such as Neville, in the tail end of his career. The results was, according to Neville, a ‘shambles’.