Video special: The day mighty Leeds were humbled by Swansea in the top flight

By Ivan Speck for MailOnline

Hat-trick hero: Bob Latchford

Hat-trick hero: Bob Latchford

Swansea host Leeds on Saturday in their most notable clash since the opening day of the 1981-82 season.

With the old Vetch Field heaving to its 23,489 capacity for the Welsh club's first top-flight match, the hosts tore the visitors apart, winning 5-1 with goals from Jeremy Charles, nephew of John, and ex-Leeds striker Alan Curtis, and a hat-trick from debutant Bob Latchford, who has since slipped out of the limelight to live in Germany.

Swansea finished sixth while Leeds were relegated. IVAN SPECK spoke to those involved.


I remember travelling down on the Friday, looking forward to playing Swansea because it was my hometown and I had never played there before in a competitive game for any other club.

What Tosh (John Toshack) had achieved there coming up the divisions with a nucleus of home-grown players was remarkable.

It was a Roy of the Rovers day for them - a blistering hot Vetch, fanatical home fans and everything went right for them. For the wrong reasons it was nice to be involved in. Curt (Alan Curtis) was on fire. Nobody could get near him. Latchford got all the headlines for his hat-trick but Curt was untouchable.

Our manager, Allan Clarke, was a man with a sore head afterwards. He didn't take kindly to losing, especially as it wasn't the famous Leeds defensively. It was a long and quiet six- or seven-hour journey back.

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It had been a summer of excitement and nervous anticipation looking forward to the first game against one of the giants of British football. We stayed out of Swansea the night before, up the road at Porthcawl, and if anybody ever tells you it was just another game they will be talking out of their backside. It was the biggest game in the club's history.

For all the great players who had come from Swansea or played for Swansea before, they weren't going to have that feeling of being one of the 11 who started the first ever game in the First Division. You couldn't have planned for it to work out how it did. Modern stadiums don't have the atmosphere of the old ramshackle grounds like the Vetch. The atmosphere built as the game went on and, by the end, it was deafening.

The hardest thing was to try and keep people's feet on the ground. Once the Leeds game was over, it was a case of enjoy it while you can, but we had to travel to Brighton on Monday afternoon, so there wasn't an awful lot of time to wallow in the glory of it.


I remember feeling particularly bad that day. I had started with something in pre-season and it was progressively getting worse.

After the Everton game the Wednesday after, I was diagnosed with appendicitis and had my appendix out about four days later. But I can't really claim it was appendicitis that accounted for us losing 5-1 - or the fact that it was Swansea, not us, who were playing in an all-white kit.

On the day we just didn't turn up. They were by far the better team. They had got promoted and they had some very good players. We marked man to man and, until I moved to Nottingham Forest, Bob Latchford always gave me some massive problems. At Forest we marked more zonally and I played better against him than I ever had before.

Jeremy Charles scores Swansea's opening goal past goalkeeper John Lukic

Perfect 10: Jeremy Charles scores Swansea's opening goal past goalkeeper John Lukic


Leeds had a good spell before halftime. Arthur Graham had a header which Dai Davies tipped on to the post. They could have gone in at 2-1 and it could have been so different.

But then Bob got his hat-trick. He was always in the right place, a fantastic finisher. If you flashed the ball across the box, he instinctively knew where to go. Once we got it to 4-1 there was no way Leeds were going to come back. It was too fatiguing on a boiling hot day, absolutely scorching.

For my goal, I picked the ball up in front of the North Bank. Trevor Cherry pushed me inside on to my left foot but I managed to back him up to the edge of the area. Then I dropped my shoulder, took it back on to my right and just smashed it into the top corner past John Lukic. I was desperate to score and it just materialised. It's the one goal everyone wants to talk about. My two sons keep telling me I should grow up and move on because I've traded on it for years.

After the match, I gave an interview and said that, if the gates had been open, nobody would have caught me. I'd have been halfway down the Mumbles Road never to be seen again. It was the first season of three points for a win and that game set the tone. If we could beat Leeds, we felt we could give anybody a game.


There's nothing I would want to remember from the game.


Watch Leeds humbled by Swansea video