A REVIVAL OF DEEP HATRED
BREAKING POINT Law’s ripped shirt during rivals’ melee
DENIS LAW’S ripped shirt – legacy of a scrap with Jack Charlton – signalled the start of a bitter rivalry between Manchester United and Leeds United.
Sir Alex Ferguson described one visit to Elland Road as “frightening” and did not take too kindly to his No.2 Steve McClaren’s confession that he was a secret Leeds fan.
It is football’s equivalent of the War of the Roses. And, after a 16-year cessation of hostilities, the feuding pair will be back at it at Old Trafford today.
It will conjure up images of ‘The Lawman’ leaving the Hillsborough pitch with his shirt t in tatters in 1965 following a goalless FA Cup semifinal draw which had involved an earlier melee with big Jack. .
The Yorkshire hire Post reported: “Both sides behaved like a pack of dogs snapping and snarling at each other over a bone.”
United, under Matt Busby – rebuilding in the aftermath of the Munich disaster – were being confronted by their cross-Pennines upstarts managed by Don Revie.
With players such as Charlton, Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter, they were not battle-shy.
The two clubs slugged it out for football silverware, although, strangely, there was no shortage of transfers between the pair.
Leeds fans were left disgusted by the decision to sell Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen to United. There was outrage, a few years later, when Eric Cantona made the same journey.
But Leeds’ 1992 title triumph under Howard Wilkinson was in part attributed to Gordon Strachan having gone the opposite way.
Roy Keane snapped his cruciate ligament at Elland Road in trying to trip Alf-Inge Haaland, who, he admitted, “was doing my head in”.
The Norwegian, with team-mate David Wetherall, stood over a prostrate Keane, accusing him of acting.
Keane waited until a Manchester derby to exact revenge on thenCity star Haaland with an X-rated tackle, bringing a red card (below).
Former United star Gary Neville said: “When we went to play at Leeds, it was brutal, pro probably more b brutal than Liverpool.
“The rivalry between L Liverpool a and
Man Manchester United is huge, but the Leeds-Manchester United rivalry is deep hatred.”
On a trip for a League Cup tie in 2011, Sir Alex Ferguson recalled: “We had problems outside the hotel. I don’t know how many hundreds of them (Leeds fans) were there but it was like the film Zulu. It was frightening.
“There were seven police vans around the hotel protecting us.”
Ferguson had complained about the behaviour of some fans as they made their way in a coach to the ground.
“I told him I used to be one,” said McClaren.
“He nearly threw me off the bus, making me walk the final mile to the stadium. Yes, there is rivalry – hatred.”