bur the game with Palace proved far more challenging.

By half time at Selhurst Park, Leeds were two goals down as a revitalised Palace side, inspired by new signings Don Rogers (Swindon) and Charlie Cooke (Chelsea), tore them apart.

Leeds thought they had taken the lead after four minutes, but Jones' header was disallowed when referee Bob Matthewson ruled that he had fouled Mel Blyth as he climbed above him to meet a cross from Giles.

United looked strong in those early moments, and were further disappointed when Matthewson waved away penalty claims after Palace centre-back Blyth appeared to handle a cross.

By then, though, the Londoners were a goal ahead. Home centre-forward John Craven seemed to have conceded possession to Ellam, recalled for his sixth appearance of the season, but the defender slipped and Craven recovered well to fire home from 20 yards.

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With two minutes of the half remaining, Craven struck again to double the advantage. Cooke launched a swift counter attack to take Palace upfield and Craven was well positioned to turn in Payne's diagonal pass.

Seconds later, an overwrought Hunter exacted some cold eyed revenge when he hacked down Craven. He was fortunate to escape with a booking. Geoffrey Green in the Times: "The one black spot was a disgraceful tackle by Hunter on Craven a moment after the Palace centre-forward had collected his second goal of the afternoon. It earned the Leeds man his fifth booking of the season and he was lucky the sentence was so lenient. He should have been sent off. Football can well do without such thuggery, especially in one who should regard it as a privilege and a responsibility to wear an England shirt."

Hunter later apologised for his indiscretion, saying, "It was done in the heat of the moment. I should not have done it. It was a very silly thing for me to do. I do not like doing things like that, and all I can say is that at that particular period of the game I was het up. We had just lost a second goal. I was sorry as soon as I had done it."

United were rocked on their heels by finding themselves two down, but Don Revie told his players at half time, "Carry on playing like that and you cannot lose."

He was proven right, with Leeds fighting back strongly in the second period to take a point from a 2-2 draw.

They pulled one goal back on the hour after Lorimer struck the ball into the right hand corner of Palace's penalty area. Clarke challenged Taylor for possession and the ball ran loose to Jones who hammered home from 20Johnny Giles secured a point at Palace on 27 November with a splendid goal yards.

United had now found some flow and Cherry was unfortunate to see a header go wide off the upright and after 70 minutes his team were on an equality.

Bates' corner was punched away by Palace keeper Jackson from deep in the heart of a crowded goal area, but when Cooke tried to get it clear Clarke again exhibited great determination in harrying the Scot to recover possession. Having secured the ball in the right hand corner of the Palace penalty area, he laid it back intelligently to Giles just outside the area. The Irishman controlled it instantly and fired a quite splendid goal in off Jackson's right hand post with the diving keeper helpless.

The point left Leeds third in the title race, two points behind leaders Liverpool and one behind Arsenal. A twelve-match unbeaten run left them nicely poised after eighteen games, in with a genuine shout of finally going one better than the runners up spot that had been their lot for three seasons in succession.

Thanks for posting that. Awful game, including the most blatant not-given penalty I've ever seen. But what memories: dear old Ken Wolstenholme commentating and oozing enthusiasm for "this exciting young goalkeeper" (Jacko); the original Molyneux, with the front row of the terraces behind the goal so low that you could only see the boys' faces; most of the adult men wearing hats and ties; boys with their wooden rattles, and a few wearing their peaked school caps. And also the players, not just Palace, but Ron Flowers, pre-Spurs Cyril Knowles, and John Holsgrove - I'd forgotten that he went to Wolves. Yes, I enjoyed that. Any more vintage games?

I make you right on the quality of football. Even Sir Steve said when talking on the review of that season I’ve just watched, we were very good at what we did on our day, but at times we were an average team at best if we didn’t get it right.
But as a fan who didn’t miss a game at Selhurst that season and did quite a few aways, being so high up the table and mixing it with and beating the big boys was good enough for me

sorry here's the link …

[Link]

Jack Bannister played over 100 games for the club.
Like Mel Blyth he was signed from scunthorpe.

Yes I was at that QPR game in 1982 when Clive Allen rang the length of the pitch to wind the Palace fans up, had to get the horses on the pitch to stop a pitch invasion.

Never liked QPR to this day because of that match joins Watford and Brighton of teams I particularly dislike!! COYP