Leeds United title winner Jon Newsome on bizarre delay to famous 1992 city bus parade

The bus parade got off to a weird start. I remember it like it was yesterday.

A few of the older players had invited their families, Gordon Strachan invited his kids along, but for the likes of me, a younger player, we just turned up.

When we pulled out of Elland Road there were two buses. The first was a photographers’ and journalists’ bus, it pulled out ahead of ours.

On the first bus there were all these photographers stood on the back seat taking photographs of us.

As you turned right out of Elland Road, there’s a railway bridge.

We were driving towards this bridge and we were waving and screaming at them to get down because their heads were stuck up where this bridge was – but they thought we were taking the micky.

They turned and at the last minute most of them dived down, but one of them didn’t get down in time and cracked his head open on this railway bridge.

The parade was delayed for about 20 minutes, there was an ambulance for the poor lad, he almost chopped his head off.

It was all a bit strange.

Then off we went, the weather was great, a lovely sunny day.

We didn’t realise how many people were going to turn out.

The number who did turn out, especially as we got up towards the square in the city centre, it was amazing, absolutely amazing really.

I think it had sunk in already what we’d done, in the final game of the season against Norwich. We were awarded the trophy and there was a big fanfare, a big celebration.

It was a carnival atmosphere day, it hit home there.

But when the club say we’re going to do an open-top bus parade you scratch your head a little bit and think well, I wonder how many are going to turn up? If not that many come out it’ll be a little bit embarrassing for us.

It was the complete opposite really, it was unbelievable, the numbers out there.

It was an amazing day.

We had a few drinks on the bus but the lads weren’t getting stuck in, in the way others might have, we’d done our celebrating already.

We had the week after the Sheffield United game, we were under orders – go out and enjoy yourselves but remember you’ve got a game against Norwich on Saturday.

It was always club rules that from the Wednesday night you weren’t allowed on licensed premises anyway and it had been mentioned to us that the rules still stuck. That group were a very professional group anyway, but we’d had three or four days at it and we celebrated after the Norwich game, we went out for dinner in the city.

We knew we were going to the city hall and had to meet a few of the hierarchy, go out on the balcony, so the lads were sensible and we had a few older heads, so we appreciated the day and wanted to enjoy it but not go over the top.

That period of time was quite easily the best part of my footballing career. It was the anniversary last Sunday, luckily enough I notched that goal at Bramall Lane and that day was probably the best day of my career.

The subsequent celebrations and aftermath, the fact that I had played enough games and managed to get a medal, it was amazing.

You don’t realise it at the time, what it means. You come through the junior ranks, I did at Wednesday and you win a few things, you get into the reserves and we won the reserve league, then you come to Leeds and get thrown in at the back end of the season and win the league. You think oh it’s great this.

It’s only when your career moves on you think just how difficult it is to do that and how important and special it was.

Upon retiring, a few years later for me anyway, I look back and think wow, that really was a special time.

In the club’s history it’s known as a major part of it, especially with what’s happened at the football club over the last couple of decades.

The older you get the more you reflect on it.

I don’t know if we did appreciate it at the time, but I do now – I look back on it with massively fond memories.