Rally Round Leeds United: 1931/32 season, part five
Injuries were threatening Leeds United's promotion bid, and the club called for more backing for its young team. But even the local ghosts weren't interested.
Public appearance!
I'm going to be out and about in Leeds next Saturday afternoon, speaking on a panel as part of the Voice of the Fans exhibition at Leeds Central Library.
It's a co-production of Leeds Libraries, the British Library and Leeds Lit Fest, and part of an exhibition of sixty years of fan-led media — from fanzines to podcasts — at Leeds Central Library.
I'll be exploring 'fan-driven publishing in the present moment' alongside Mike Harrison from The City Gent, Felicia Pennant from SEASON Zine and Zoë Hitchen from Girlfans, with Deputy Editor of When Saturday Comes and co-editor of Along Come Norwich zine, Ffion Thomas, as chair.
It should be fun! It starts at 2.30pm at Leeds Central Library on Saturday 14th June, and it's free but you need tickets — the button below will take you to more info and booking.
I'm sure I wasn't alone, as Leeds United ground their way through the winter of 2024/25 season, whose mind went back to 1931/32's attempt at promotion from the Second Division.
A stubborn manager, a board that wouldn't pay for new players, a disputed style of play, bored fans: Elland Road in 2024 felt a lot like Elland Road in 1931.
I decided to use the next couple of weeks to tell the story of that season, when the future of the young Peacocks was hotly debated in their own city.
The story so far:
The young blood slogan: 1931/32 season, part one ⭑ Leeds United were relegated from the First Division in 1931, denting soccer's growth in a rugby obsessed city. But the manager was backing his young players to bounce back — and backing himself.
It's a long time since there was such enthusiasm: 1931/32 season, part two ⭑ Leeds United's young players couldn't score at Elland Road, but the explanation seemed simple. The fans.
Willis Edwards breaks his nose: 1931/32 season, part three ⭑ Leeds were the outstanding side in the Second Division, a fine tribute to manager Dick Ray. But his young squad needed their best players to be at their best.
Too much pessimism, too many excuses: 1931/32 season, part four ⭑ Leeds United's chairman, Alderman Clarke, was looking for common cause among struggling football clubs. What he got was to be put back in his place.
Leeds United's form was patchy in 1932 following the FA Cup defeat to QPR. It may have been a knock to the young team's confidence, as they felt the pressure of trying to get promoted back to the First Division at the first attempt. The knocks to Willis Edwards' fitness didn't help, as he struggled to overcome his groin problem, and injuries began to test Dick Ray's policy of shipping out experienced players and training up youngsters. While the chairman, Alderman Eric Clarke, was making pessimistic noises in the national press about finances, the team beat Barnsley away, drew 2-2 at home with Notts County, and lost 3-2 away to outside promotion contenders Plymouth. United came back to Elland Road and beat Bristol City 1-0, but in a reverse from the early season they were now struggling away and lost 2-1 at Oldham.
Win, lose or draw, performances were lacking the vitality needed for promotion and injuries were mounting up. Fortunately Stan Moore, the nineteen year old standing in for injured goalkeeper Jimmy Potts, seemed a talented deputy, but as well as half-back Edwards coming in and out of the team, centre-forward Billy Furness was missing for a long stretch, and Dick Ray's reserves were stretching thin. The defeat at Oldham, wrote Hugh Whitfield in the Leeds Mercury, 'made finally and completely clear that until the invalids return, or until new strength is found for these two positions, the club is likely to suffer. There is a very plain red danger-light ahead.'
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The players remained keen, and a Mercury reporter watched several of them limping through a practice match while Dick Ray shouted at them to take it steady and not risk new injuries. Even this stringent manager, however, couldn't protect his players from every pitfall:
To add to the tale of minor misfortunes, Jack Milburn turned up at the practice with an injured knee, obtained at home through falling upstairs while carrying a bucketful of coal. He will not be prevented from turning out on Saturday, it is thought, but it is these little unforeseen accidents that are so worrying and trying to a club that is already having more than its share of misfortunes on the field of play.
Mr Ray is cheerful and optimistic that all will come out well in the end, and he is backed up by his staff who are making prodigious efforts to get the men fit again as early as possible.
Alderman Clarke, perhaps stung by the criticism of his pessimistic comments about falling attendances and dropping profits, and perhaps rebuked for them by his board, led an appeal to the public for more support for Dick Ray's promotion aims. Both the Mercury and Yorkshire Evening Post received his letter, published under the headline 'Rally Round Leeds United', calling for the city to get behind its team:
Sir, — At a meeting of the directors of Leeds United Football Club, it was decided to make an appeal to the Soccer enthusiasts of Leeds and district to rally round the club for the remaining nine home matches.
We have an excellent chance of promotion and can be materially helped by large and more enthusiastic crowds, which are assured of some sporting games against clubs which are also facing difficulties, and are always out to take the leaders down.
Away from home we are the biggest draw in the Second Division, yet our home gates are not sufficient to meet our working expenses.
The attendance of over 30,000 at Plymouth (a town with one-fifth of our population to draw upon) shows that enthusiasm for the game is lacking in our city. The directors have, so far, resisted the many tempting offers which have been made for some of our players (in spite of a considerable overdraft at the bank), the reason being that our objective is First Division football for Leeds, but Leeds cannot have it unless the people rally round the club at what is a critical time in its history.
Our team has been good enough to hold its position as leaders of the Second Division, and only bad luck through injuries has resulted in our deposition. Every team can be strengthened, but when opportunities occur the financial bogey is facing us.
If Leeds wants to see the elite of the football world, then the slogan must be "Rally round the United." Help us to make our objective the top of the First Division.
A visit from First Division football teams like Huddersfield Town, Everton, West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal, etc, means prosperity to Leeds as a city, and a solution to all our financial worries.
The problem of low crowds at Elland Road, and the barracking of the players by the spectators who did come to watch, had been debated in the papers all season. In January a long letter by 'A Sportsman' — signed F.G.W. — appeared in the Mercury, addressing the question of United playing so well away from home, and so badly in Beeston:
AND THE REASON IS THE "LEEDS UNITED" CROWD. Whenever I go to Elland Road — it is only at irregular intervals, true — I come away with the conviction that it would require a combination of Everton - Arsenal - Glasgow Rangers to play real football in Leeds. Notice I did not say win matches ... The point is, football as it should be played is hardly possible at Elland Road: the crowd will not have it.
...
As soon as one of the home players gets the ball, hundreds of hoarse voices shriek in unison, "Get rid of it! Get rid of it!" And if the player is brave enough to attempt to do something with it first, and loses it — as the best player in the world may well do — what groans of disapproval reach the unfortunate man's ears!
The effect on a young team like the present one is obvious. The players lose confidence and resort to booting the ball about instead of trying to play football.
...
(On Saturday) Cochrane started well, but he did not keep it up for long, due, I am convinced, to the crowd's clear disbelief in his ability — or indeed in that of anyone else in the team except Edwards.
Then there is another matter. As soon as an opponent gets the ball, a thousand under-sized, pale faced critics yell with one accord, "Get at 'im!" "Put 'im on 'is back!" and various less polite versions of the same theme. No one ever suggests the Leeds man should play the ball. Indeed, I usually begin to wonder whether I have got to the wrong ground, and am really mixing with a Rugby League crowd at Headingley. Probably the city's Rugby traditions have something to do with it: but whatever the reason it hardly tends to improve the game as a spectacle of pure football. As a matter of fact it is a wonder to me that the Leeds players keep their tempers as well as they do in the circumstances.
F.G.W. even questioned whether the Elland Road spectators were happier seeing their team win, or lose:
At Elland Road the crowd seems to have no love of its side; they want the foreigners to be beaten, but if they are not the crowd is almost equally happy in seeing its eternal criticisms of the team's hopelessness justified. In Sheffield parts of the town almost go into mourning when the Wednesday or the United loses an important game; in Leeds it seems to provide the "supporters" with morbid satisfaction.
...
What the United's young players want at home is moral support; what they generally get is hardly concealed hostility.
Such a scathing assessment of Elland Road was bound to draw replies, and 'That Leeds United Crowd' was the main question in the Mercury for several days. A.Y., to an extent, agreed with F.G.W. about the influence of rugby:
What is wrong with the Leeds United crowd is the semi-Rugby atmosphere. It will be years before the United will get rid of this handicap; if they ever do. The impatient "get rid of it" partly proves it ... To semi-converted Rugbyites Soccer seems too slow, and to see a man tiptoeing through the tulips with the ball at his toe is alien to them.
But Another Sportsman gave the views of a committed football fan, who had been watching soccer at Elland Road since Leeds City were founded, and the game in general around the country:
I have also attended matches in Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and other places when other teams than Leeds have been the opponents, and I can say from experience that the crowds at Elland Road are no worse nor better than on many other enclosures. I do not hold with conduct such as "Sportsman" hints at, but to say that this is the cause of poor home displays is wide of the mark.
Another Sportsman gave three reasons for Leeds doing so badly at home: the general industrial and economic depression affecting everybody; being in the Second Division, when by making some smarter transfers in the First Division the team would have stayed up and attracted crowds to pay the fees for those new players; and the lack of promotional pizzazz in the local press:
Look how Arsenal was boomed, not only by the London, but by provincial papers as well. They know how to do the "showman" business. This is sadly lacking in Leeds. I do not profess to know whether the fault is with the Press, or the difficulty of getting copy from headquarters. One League club I know publishes almost daily bulletins, particularly of the official opinion on form and the condition of any injured players, and this is placarded in the centre of the town.
Advertising is necessary. Publicity creates interest in sport, just the same as in every other up-to-date business, and while we like to look upon sport as sport, the times demand that the commercial side is not lost sight of.
Eventually a representative of the Supporters' Club weighed in, agreeing with A.Y. that Elland Road was no worse than anywhere else, and that shouts like 'Get rid of it!' could even be heard at Aston Villa, Everton and Newcastle. They gave recent examples of the crowd praising Joe Firth for setting up a goal for Charlie Keetley, and applauding the Swansea Town goalkeeper whose performance had almost denied Leeds a win: 'The latter, to my mind, showed fine sportsmanship towards a visitor, without in any way working against the interests of the home side.' The writer admitted there were early season incidents of barracking, but noted that the club and Supporters' Club came out against them, and emphasised that: 'Comparatively recent times have seen protests issued against the barracking at Middlesbrough, Bradford City, Manchester United and Sheffield United grounds amongst others'. Elland Road, they insisted, was no worse than anywhere else.
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The Leeds United Supporters' Club were quite well advanced in organising the ranks of soccer enthusiasts, hosting a meeting in Leeds to form 'The Northern Federation of Supporters' Clubs':
The delegates met in Leeds at the invitation of Mr. R. Falkingham, secretary of the Leeds United Supporters' Club, who sponsored the organisation, and who at the meeting was elected secretary of the new Federation. Clubs as far apart as Stoke City and Hull City were represented, and West Riding clubs represented included Huddersfield Town, Bradford City, Bradford Park Avenue, Barnsley, and, of course, Leeds United. The Federation will meet regularly to discuss methods of raising funds for Association clubs and organising support generally.
The Supporters' Club letter to the Mercury concluded with a similar, 'Rally Round' exhortation as Alderman Clarke was making a few weeks later:
In conclusion, I would say to the Leeds crowd, roll up and support the lads in the fine effort they are making to restore Leeds to its proper sphere in the football world, and at the same time remove any doubts as to your standing, regarding knowledge of the finer points of the game, and sincerity towards our team.
Some apparently unrelated contributions to the Mercury, however, bring into doubt whether the city of Leeds had a lack of enthusiasm for soccer, or the problem was a general lack of enthusiasm for anything. In the same week as 'That Leeds United Crowd' was being criticised, Maxwell Schofield wrote asking, 'Where are the theatre lovers?'
The apathy of Leeds towards the theatre is becoming so pronounced that on Monday night Mr. Smith (at the newly reopened Civic Playhouse) warned his audience that unless support were improved there was danger that the venture which started in Leeds and spread to Bradford would have to be withdrawn from Leeds and carried on in Bradford only.
...
Leeds has long been known among theatrical managers as a town where audiences "sit on their hands," and the present position of the theatre in Leeds is striking evidence of the fact. Why Leeds should be so poor in its appreciation and support of the most popular and communal of arts is very difficult to understand, especially when the growth of dramatic appreciation all over the country is considered.
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First and foremost the seats in the Playhouse are free, and that alone must be considered to have some appeal even to the moron in matters of art ... Leeds must be even worse in its philistinism than anybody even suspected.
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Leeds has a dying artistic soul, and before it is entirely extinct the city must make an effort to prove itself fit to stand among the rest of the cities of England, but it will be a great effort.
And according to the Mercury editorial page's resident poet, 'Mercurious', apathy in Leeds was even extending to the dead:
THE SLUMP IN GHOSTS
It is stated that, despite recent howling gales and other favourable conditions, ghosts have not recently been seen at historic old Yorkshire houses such as Templenewsam.
Through haunted homes the ghosts have roared,
With wild and bleak aggression.
Yet, spooks, I'm told, are sadly bored,
And feeling the depression!
No moaning ghost,
No groaning ghost,
Finds business worth renewing;
The howling ghost,
The prowling ghost,
Decides there's nothing doing!
Alderman Clarke didn't want ghosts to 'Rally Round United', but real people. Real people, though, were writing to the Yorkshire Evening Post to underline what he was up against.
Sir — In response to Alderman Clarke's appeal, I visited Elland Road last Saturday and, without being prejudiced against Leeds United, I am frankly disgusted with the weak display offered. — Yours, etc
AN EX-UNITED SUPPORTER, Leeds
And that had been a game United won, the 1-0 victory over Bristol City, in which Tom Cochrane starred on the Leeds wing. That match, the first after the 'Rally Round' call, had actually attracted a lower gate than the previous home match, down from 14,562 to 10,677. Defeat away to Oldham didn't help, but 13,748 did turn out to see Leeds retake 1st place from Wolves by beating 4th placed Bury 1-0. The Daily Herald's report did not suggest a classic. 'Many must have left the ground wondering what will happen to either club should promotion be gained, because the standard of play was so low ... the ball (was) usually at the head and seldom at the foot. It was crude work from teams reckoned so formidable.' Wolves had lost the league lead by losing 2-1 at Stoke while having Bill Barraclough ordered off for a foul, not serious on its own but he and other Wolves players had been warned for 'a number of unsporting actions'. Now one point behind them, Wolves were the Peacocks' next opponents. ⭑彡