Date: Wednesday, 16th February 1966.

Venue: Estadio Mestalla, Valencia, Spain.

Competition: Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Third Round, Second Leg.

Score: Valencia 0 Leeds United 1.

Scorers: Valencia: Nil. Leeds United: O’Grady.

Attendance: 45,000.

Teams:

Valencia: Nito; Verdugo, Toto; Roberto, Mestre Paquito; Poliario, Lage, Waldo, Guillot, Munoz.

Leeds United: Sprake; Reaney, Bell; Bremner, Charlton, Hunter; Storrie, Lorimer, Madeley, Giles, O’Grady.

Referee: Othmar Huber (Switzerland).

United’s morale was not high, as Valencia’s 1-1 draw at Elland Road had tilted the scales in the Spaniards’ favour and United also came into the game after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge the previous Saturday. Despite the defeat United had performed well at Stamford Bridge and had used Paul Madeley, wearing the No.9 shirt but acting as a defender to very successfully block out the potential problem of Chelsea’s Peter Osgood. Don Revie was so pleased with the performance that he relied upon the same formation and tactics for the trip to Spain.

After the recriminations of the first leg when everyone blamed each other, it was thought that the second leg was doomed to be act two in the horror series. Fortunately it did not happen as both teams were on their best behaviour in front of a huge 45,000 crowd at the fiercely parochial and intimidating Mestalla Stadium but the return game was another lively affair.

Gary Sprake was in unbeatable form in goal and maintained his record of keeping a clean-sheet in away games in the competition, while Jack Charlton atoned for his Elland Road aberration and was a tower of strength in defence. While Valencia did have the majority of the possession, Jack Charlton was in total charge and snuffed out the threat posed by the Brazilian star forward Waldo.

Leeds were forced to defend in numbers and the hosts wasted several good chances, with Juan Muñoz missing an open goal, before Waldo saw his goal-bound header cleared off the line by Norman Hunter. Vincente Guillot then hit the post for Valencia, before Leeds grabbed their vital away goal.

Paul Madeley wore the number nine jersey but operated to good effect in anchoring the midfield. This helped United show their growing maturity by soaking up all that Valencia had to throw at them before silencing the crowd with a brilliant Mike O’Grady strike to win the game by the only goal. Receiving a perfect ball from Paul Madeley, he beat the Valencia off-side trap, then, shaking off a double tackle, he cut inside and set his sights on goal. He then unleashed a low angled shot past Rivero Nito after seventy-five minutes. The goalkeeper and the left back Toto were so convinced O’Grady had been offside that they raced up to the linesman and tried to grab the flag from out of his hand. The Swiss Referee was having none of it and waved away their protests and Valencia resigned themselves to defeat as once again United triumphed 2-1 on aggregate. They progressed to a Fourth Round showdown with highly-rated Hungarian team Ujpest Dozsa.

Mike O’Grady had been bought from Huddersfield Town to add width and trickery down the flanks for £30,000 and he paid back a huge chunk of that fee when he scored the goal that won the game for United and sent them through to Fourth Round at the expense of one of the favourites to win the Fairs Cup.

The Fairs Cup was now reduced to just eight teams and had a distinct British and Spanish look about it. Barcelona had beaten Hannover on the toss of a coin, Real Zaragoza had beaten Hearts after a replay, Espanyol had got past Red Flag after a replay, United had triumphed over another Spanish club in Valencia and Chelsea knocked out AC Milan on the toss of a coin, while Dunfermline had disposed of Spartak Brno. Ujpest Dozsa had got past Cologne 6-3 on aggregate and TSV Munich finished 5-2 aggregate winners over Servette. Barcelona were paired with Espanyol, Dunfermline with Real Zaragoza United with Ujpest Dozsa and Chelsea with TSV Munich for a place in the Semi-Finals.

Players:

Leeds-born Mike O’Grady was in scintillating form to score the Gary Sprake was in unbeatable form and saved from Waldo

vital winning goal at Valencia