I'll post this here, as the "They Don't Even Know How Much We Hate Them thread" seems a bit glitchy? I added this there and it just stayed on page 2 :)
I was 7 years old when the 1970Cup final and replay were played. It was my first taste of real heartbreak as a Leeds United supporter. As I remember, both pitches were in dreadful condition and not conducive to good football. Bear in mind this was at a time when we expected to win every match and every trophy available. So, for us to lose any match was a shock and would leave us all pretty speechless. That's how good Leeds were in those days.
The replay especially was just a thuggery competition, and for me, Chelsea realised that they had to drag the match into a kicking contest, as we would wallop them if it was a pure football contest. Gary Sprake conceding that goal in the first match gave them a real shot in the arm, and started the shitty comments about Sprake from every other club's supporters, which really narked me as he was one of my heroes in a team full of Leeds legends.
When that donkey Webb scored, I couldn't believe it, and it was very difficult to come to terms with that result. No doubt I will have cried my eyes out. The picture of Webb scoring the winner on the back page of The Daily Mirror, is imprinted on my brain.
Just hearing the names Osgood, Bonnetti, Webb, Harris, and Hutchinson still inspires incredible hatred inside me.
In those days we didn't have live wall to wall sports coverage. So, the only football matches you would get to see live were the FA Cup Final, I don't even think the League Cup Final was televised then? and you would get to watch the two European competition finals and England's international matches. So, live football was treasured and special.
To give things context though, as much as these two matches inspired a fierce rivalry between us and Chelsea, for me our truly hated rival is Manchester United, no other team comes near that level of feeling.
A couple of months after the FA Cup final and replay I got my second taste of football heartache when our brilliant 1970 World Cup football team was beaten by Germany in the quarter finals. Same feelings, shock, disbelief, disappointment, anger and to some extent the expectation that good things will happen in life was completely shattered. The end of innocence.
You could reflect that the 1970 Cup final was a fair contest, and that we fell for Chelsea's dirty tactics and got sucker punched. In comparison and for context, the loss to Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final was much worse, as we played well and were blatantly robbed by the officials and Beckenbauer and co. My hatred and lack of respect for Beckenbauer goes way beyond any Manchester United, or Chelsea, players, managers and fans.
It would be great to partially set the historical record straight by beating Chelsea on Sunday and then going on to win the Cup. Winning trophies beats winning rivalries for me in every circumstance.