Great goalie from the 70s and part of the famous Leeds united team past away today
How I hated that team at the time but when you see footage of there great days you appreciate what a superb team thay were
Rip Gary

Yes what a team ,!

RIP  Gary.

I always enjoyed watching Leeds when Revie was in charge.

R.I.P.   Gary Sprake

Yes I remember us playing them just before they got promoted to the 1st Division. I was asking him for his autograph and he was stood there with a woman on each arm. Anyway, just as the rest of the Leeds team answered, no to giving any autographs, where as Northampton, who also went up that year, all gave autographs. I guess that's one of the reasons I never liked Leeds. Still, thy were a good team and Gary a great keeper, so, RIP.

They was that good that I can still remember the team off by heart,

                                                               Sprake

                                   Reaney                              Cooper

                     Bremner                Charlton               Hunter

   Lorimer          Clarke             Jones              Giles              Gray

Only one sub in those days   Madely  he could play in any position,   not so hot on the spelling though.  ,

The only other team I can remember    from years ago ( apart from Town ) was England 66/

A bunch of dirty, cheating barstewards as well, from what I've been told. Before my time.

Sprake was apparently known for making some absolute howlers, but that's the life of a keeper as he also kept over 200 clean sheets for Dirty Leeds!

Quoted from Maringer

A bunch of dirty, cheating barstewards as well, from what I've been told. Before my time.

Sprake was apparently known for making some absolute howlers, but that's the life of a keeper as he also kept over 200 clean sheets for Dirty Leeds!

They were a very talented team all internationals apart from Reaney ,

BUT

Was inclined to kick the man and not the ball a lot.

I  can never forget when Bremner and Franny Lee had a good scrap on and off the pitch.

How the intercourse did 2 defenders work against 5 attackers?? Makes no bloody sense!

Quoted from immariner

How the intercourse did 2 defenders work against 5 attackers?? Makes no bloody sense!

Maybe that's why there was a lot more goals in games in those days,

Spurs  13    Crewe  2     one example in cup replay,

Quoted from grimsby pete

They were a very talented team all internationals apart from Reaney ,

BUT

Was inclined to kick the man and not the ball a lot.

I  can never forget when Bremner and Franny Lee had a good scrap on and off the pitch.

Hate to p1ss on your bonfire Pete but it was Norman Hunter and Lee that had the punch up. Hunter tw@tted Lee and split his lip. They both got sent off. On the way off Lee put Hunter on his @rse. I'm 90% sure it was on match of the day.  

But back on topic RIP Gary. A great keeper in his day.  

He missed it cause he went for a pee....

Bremner did have a spat of 'handbags' with Keegan in the Charity Shield

I remember them playing at BP the year they were promoted and they won pretty comfortably, 2-0 if I remember rightly. The side wasn't the one people remember these days.

Sprake

Reaney
Charlton
Hunter
Bell

Bremner
Collins

Giles
Storry
Weston
Johansson

Jack Charlton had only really just established himself, it was Revie who made him knuckle down. Prior to that the CB was Freddy Goodwin who was manager at Scunny for a while.

I'm fairly sure Don Weston played in this game. He was an excellent striker who had a bit of a hoodoo over Town from when he was at Wrexham. Pretty sure Jim Storry scored one.

Albert Johansson was a black South African which was unique in the game at the time. He was like greased lightning but he took a lot of racist stick from defenders and crowds including sadly at BP. Leeds signed O'Grady from Huddersfield soon after and eventually Johansson died an alcoholic I believe.

Bobby Collins was an absolute genius. If he had been 6 inches taller he would have had everything. He taught Bremner & Giles everything about being a midfield player. Why Everton let him go I will never know. Revie also conned Busby into letting Giles join Leeds.

Sprake was about 18 at this time. He couldn't kick the ball hardly, even out of his hands. Nearly every ball ended up in the stands for a throw in his own half. But he was a good shot stopper.

His most famous incident was in front of the Kop at Anfield when he caught the ball and went to throw it out but it went behind him into the net. The Kop almost immediately started singing "Careless Hands" which Des O'Connor had in the charts that year. Even more unfortunately it was in front of the TV cameras! ;D

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

His most famous incident was in front of the Kop at Anfield when he caught the ball and went to throw it out but it went behind him into the net. The Kop almost immediately started singing "Careless Hands" which Des O'Connor had in the charts that year. Even more unfortunately it was in front of the TV cameras! ;D

As I recall, his excuse was ice on his string glove sticking to the ball! Lololol 😆

Quoted from Badger57

As I recall, his excuse was ice on his string glove sticking to the ball! Lololol 😆

Might have been true! ;)

Just looked up that goal but couldn't find the film so maybe it wasn't on MOTD but I have seen it I'm sure. And I gave the Kop too much credit - it was the club DJ who played Careless Hands at half time and then the Kop sang it when he came out for the second half.

Sad that his career is defined by errors because he was an outstanding reflex keeper in the same sort of mould as Charlie Wright and Nigel Batch. RIP Gary.

I had a pair of his sock number thingys. [url]https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwiqj_GE_-jPAhVCWBoKHYASDrkQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mightyleeds.co.uk%2Fmatches%2F19720318.htm&bvm=bv.136499718,d.d2s&psig=AFQjCNGCkWM_vbxVMCG1BrTeAcklmswESA&ust=1477039487253696[/url]

Was given them when I went met him after a game when I was 16.

Quoted from Civvy at last

Hate to p1ss on your bonfire Pete but it was Norman Hunter and Lee that had the punch up. Hunter tw@tted Lee and split his lip. They both got sent off. On the way off Lee put Hunter on his @rse. I'm 90% sure it was on match of the day.  

But back on topic RIP Gary. A great keeper in his day.  

You are right Civvy ( memory playing up )

It was Bremner and Keegan that had a go at each other and both got sent off.

Quoted from grimsby pete

They were a very talented team all internationals apart from Reaney ,

BUT

Was inclined to kick the man and not the ball a lot.

I  can never forget when Bremner and Franny Lee had a good scrap on and off the pitch.

Look at the footage. They were filthy. Clough was right.

Quoted from grimsby pete

They were a very talented team all internationals apart from Reaney .

In fact even Reaney got 3 England caps and he was a regular in the squad but not first choice full back.

Quoted from grimsby pete

They was that good that I can still remember the team off by heart,

                                                               Sprake

                                   Reaney                              Cooper

                     Bremner                Charlton               Hunter

   Lorimer          Clarke             Jones              Giles              Gray

Only one sub in those days   Madely  he could play in any position,   not so hot on the spelling though.  ,

The only other team I can remember    from years ago ( apart from Town ) was England 66/

But you can't remember what happened yesterday Pete!  ;)

Quoted from gtfc55

In fact even Reaney got 3 England caps and he was a regular in the squad but not first choice full back.

You mean regular in the England squad? He was a regular member and almost certainly would have won a lot more caps but he had a very bad leg break. When he came back he wasn't quite the player he was but more importantly, Paul Madeley had taken the RB spot at Leeds and very often for England as well.



People mention the "Dirty Leeds" tag which is fair enough though a lot of other teams were just as bad, Chelsea in particular were cloggers personified in those days from Chopper Harris through to Elbows Osgood.

A lot of Leeds' reputation came from Bobby Collins in the first place. He was a fantastic player but being very small he always  wanted to make his presence felt by leaving his boot in. He was captain and he started the tradition of 'one in, all in' when there was a foul or a fracas. Giles, Bremner & the others followed his lead and it became a trademark

It has to be said though that the Leeds side around 1969 to 1975 was as good a footballing side as I've ever seen though I'm not a Leeds supporter. They were consistently better taken week to week even than the Man Utd Charlton, Law, Best side. Only Liverpool were close for consistency. Apart from that wonder passing move on MOTD against Southampton when they won 7-0, I saw them totally destroy a decent Forest side 6-1 in 1972 which wasn't exactly easy.

Quoted from Ipswin

But you can't remember what happened yesterday Pete!  ;)

Depends on what day it was yesterday Swin. ;D

sad news.

I never saw Sprake play ...he was just a little before my time. But when i was a kid i had heard of him. His reputation was that he made some high profile mistakes.

Of course back in those days teams werent on TV every week so if a few mistakes are picked up on TV (which unfortunately for Sprake was often the case) it seemed to over exaggerate them even more.


The truth is all keepers make mistakes from time to time even the very best.


Fact is he made almost 400 appearances over nearly 10 years for one of the best sides in the land and won almost 40 caps for his country. Not bad at all was it?


RIP Gary Sprake

This was in today's Yorkshire Evening Post. Quite an interesting perspective.

[url]http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/the-black-sheep-why-gary-sprake-was-shunned-by-leeds-united-for-30-years-1-8190242[/url]