100 Years of Leeds United - Daniel Chapman: Whites build first great team in Elland Road history

Trying to fight back after relegation, 11 games without defeat took Leeds United to the top of the Second Division in 1927/28; nobody put a goal past them for nine games in a row.

The 12th match was tough; Chelsea were third, trying to keep their promotion chances alive, while a win for Leeds would guarantee their return to the First Division, and contribute to a big day for West Yorkshire.

While Leeds were at Stamford Bridge, Huddersfield Town were at Wembley, facing Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup final, and all through the night trains were taking Yorkshire folk down to London.

At half-time Leeds led 2-0, and early in the second half Charlie Keetley added a third. That roused Chelsea, and as Jock White and Willis Edwards succumbed to injury and left Leeds short of players, only the agility and determination of Jimmy Potts in United’s goal kept Chelsea down to two goals.

Huddersfield were beaten 3-1 at Wembley, but Leeds United won 3-2, and promotion was theirs.

A slightly haphazard homecoming greeted them that night; 2,000 supporters packed the approaches to Wellington Station, and although the police formed a passage, it led the players straight into ‘two motor drivers, a man and a woman’ whose cars were blocking each other’s way at the station entrance.

While they ‘sat in their seats exchanging candid comments on the other’s lack of manners’, the team were seized by the crowd. Keetley was lifted shoulder high and carried around, until he made his escape to the nearby Midland Hotel.

The vice-chairman, Kaye Aspinall, paid tribute to the team spirit and togetherness that had taken the same group of players from relegation to glory.

‘I am so pleased we have got promotion without securing any fresh players,’ he said, perhaps also thinking of the club’s bank account.

‘The players have trained for this, and they have pulled together both on and off the field as one man.

“They are a fine lot of men, and there has never been the slightest unpleasantness throughout the season. That spirit helps a side enormously. The way the men are playing at present makes me think that we have nothing to worry about in meeting First Division sides. We shall do well.”

Promotion added confidence and a winning habit to the players’ previously misused quality, while manager Dick Ray’s training methods were given credit for the players’ improved deftness of passing and control.

Eight of the first 12 games in the First Division were won and United started November in third place, the press calling them ‘quite one of the wonder teams of the present soccer campaign.’

They could not maintain that form.

Willis Edwards was still an England regular, and Ernie Hart joined him after keeping Everton’s prolific striker Dixie Dean quiet early in the season – forward Russell Wainscoat was the team’s third England international – but the defence had a hard time.

After conceding just 49 on the way to promotion, Leeds now let in 84, finishing 13th, losing five of the last six games.

At the start of the next season Leeds were unstoppable. Seven wins were followed by a draw, then a 6-0 win over Grimsby Town; only six goals were conceded, and 23 scored.

Leeds United were top of the First Division throughout October, and the city was buzzing with excitement about a real challenge for the championship by a side that seemed to fear no-one; they beat the champions, Sheffield Wednesday, and FA Cup holders Bolton Wanderers.

Through steady progress and trust in their abilities, United had built the first genuinely great team in the club’s history.

They were relegated together, promoted together, amassed hundreds of appearances together. They were well known in the city, committed to each other and to the blue and white striped shirts of Leeds United.

The club reported its best ever profit of £1,893, and membership of the Supporters’ Club increased by more than 300; these dedicated fans were now fundraising to put a roof over the Lowfields Road side of the stadium.

Ernest Pullan, of nearby building firm JP Pullan’s, joined the board and his company were using building waste to build up the terraces; capacity was said to be nearing 60,000.

The area was becoming a campus for sport; the cricket ground was in use, and large sports pitches were formed for Whitehall Printeries across Lowfields Road.

The greyhound stadium to the south of Elland Road was a success, while the track on Fullerton Park was converted to speedway. All this, and the team had a two-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the First Division.

Glory was there to be grasped.