CLARKE: CITY IN WITH MORE THAN A SNIFF

LEEDS legend Allan Clarke has a special reason for hoping Leicester win at Wembley today.

The Foxes have been beaten in their four previous FA Cup finals – the last of which in 1969 saw Clarke named as man of the match (below, being presented with trophy by manager Frank O’Farrell) even though he was on the losing side.

He now hopes this is their moment 52 years on. “I’d love Leicester to win it,” said Clarke (above), 74.

“They’ve got an excellent team and have a real good chance. Man for man, they can do it. If I was in Brendan Rodgers’ shoes I’d be confident.”

Nicknamed Sniffer for his predatory goal sense, Clarke might be instantly remembered for his time at Leeds.

But that came after a season at Leicester who had broken the British transfer record when they signed him from Fulham in 1968 for £150,000.

He scored the winner in the FA Cup semi-final against West Brom and though Neil Young’s goal won the trophy for Manchester City in a 1-0 triumph, Clarke was honoured at the end. He had started the game in midfield yet still had a couple of cracking efforts which were kept out by City keeper Harry Dowd.

In the next four years he would reach the FA Cup final a further three times and in the 1972 final, scored the winner with his memorable diving header as Leeds beat Arsenal 1-0.

“The first final flew by,” said Clarke. “Princess Anne was 18 and she was presenting the trophy. A year later, I was back. I tried to soak everything up.

“The Man of the Match trophy was a silver replica of the stadium with the Twin Towers – the first time they had that as a trophy when I won it with Leicester. I’ve got two, the only one to do that.” Clarke set the bar higher again when he went to Elland Road for £165,000 in 1969 and by the following spring he was back in the FA Cup final.

Leeds drew 2-2 with Chelsea before losing the replay at Old Trafford 2-1. His golden moment of 1972 was followed by defeat by Sunderland 12 months later.

Clarke said: “We absolutely paralysed Chelsea before losing the replay. The Sunderland game, well, they got an early goal. If we’d got one, we’d have had 10.

“We should never have lost those two games. We were a great team.”