Date: Saturday, 23rd January 1965.

Venue: Elland Road, Leeds.

Competition: First Division.

Score: Leeds United 2 Chelsea 2

Scorers: Leeds United: Storrie, Giles. Chelsea: Graham, Bridges.

Attendance: 47,109.

Teams:

Leeds United: Sprake; Reaney, Bell; Bremner, Charlton, Hunter; Giles, Greenhoff, Storrie, Collins, Johanneson.

Chelsea: Bonetti; Hinton, Harris; Hollins, Mortimer, Boyle; Murray, Graham, Bridges, Venables, Tambling.

Referee: Unknown.

Future England and Leeds United Manager, Terry Venables was captain of Chelsea in the mid-sixties and his Stamford Bridge side were making a strong challenge for the League Championship when they visited Elland Road in January 1965. But so too were United and they sat one point clear of Chelsea at the top of Division One. The importance of the of the fixture was reflected at the turnstiles which clicked away merrily to admit Elland Road’s biggest crowd of the season, 47,109.

A snow-clearing operation, the previous day, had been necessary to get the pitch into something like playing order and the referee made a match-day inspection before allowing the game to go ahead. A round of booing greeted Chelsea as they came out on to the pitch but they silenced the United fans inside three minutes when they took a shock lead. Barry Bridges made ground on the right and when his centre was deflected, Terry Venables stabbed the ball against a post and from the gentle rebound George Graham, who like Venables was to be a future United manager, promptly drove into the net from three yards.

The surface was treacherous but Jim Storrie tested Peter Bonetti with a rising shot which he tipped over the bar and Bonetti continued to be the busier of the two keepers and was eventually beaten in the fourteenth minute. Billy Bremner made the goal with a dribble into the Chelsea box where he placed a short forward pass onto Storrie’s head and the unmarked striker made no mistake from five yards.

Chelsea, however, regained the lead early in the second half. Venables started a move deep inside United territory and knocked the ball goalwards, George Graham dummied and allowed it to run through his legs and Bridges was on hand to fire home with the United defence flat-footed. Within two minutes United were level as Jack Charlton netted his seventh goal of the season when he chested the ball into the net after a shot from Johnny Giles had been partially stopped by Bonetti and so honours ended even. The draw left United one point ahead of Chelsea and Manchester United two points adrift but both clubs had a game in hand. Chelsea faded and finished third, five points behind the two Uniteds with Manchester winning the title with a slightly better goal average, but on the day two future United managers had joined forces to deny United an extremely important point.

Players:

Peter Osgood, George Graham and Barry Bridges Jim Storrie and Johnny Giles were the Leeds scorers

George Graham and Barry Bridges scored

Terry Venables gets to grips with Paul Reaney Manager George Graham Manager Terry Venables