Source: Daily_Mail
EXCLUSIVE: How Leeds had them all for breakfast in the FA Cup in 1972...
Beans on toast. As Jack Charlton surveyed this photograph and ransacked his memory bank for stories of Billy Bremner, Leeds United and the FA Cup, the first three words were not about what it had been like to win the grand old trophy in 1972 against Arsenal - the day before the picture was taken - but about Bremner's preferred choice of breakfast. [LNB]'Beans on toast,' Charlton said. 'No matter where we were, on a Saturday morning Billy used to get it delivered on a tray in bed. He never used to get up with me and go down for breakfast. That's probably what he's just had delivered there, beans on toast.'[LNB] It would be a while before the conversation switched to the previous afternoon, to the one and only FA Cup win in Leeds history, because Charlton was swiftly on to the cigarette in Bremner's left hand. [LNB] Room-mates: Bremner (right) and Charlton the morning after the 1972 FA Cup final[LNB]From there he flowed back into shimmering days that two friends shared in a workplace that absorbed them and the entire country.[LNB] 'I loved Billy. Billy was me pal,' Charlton said, staring through the window of his Northumberland kitchen. [LNB]The 12th anniversary of Bremner's death passed in December. He was54. Not long after, Charlton made a speech at a dinner in London inwhich he set aside his notes and spoke only of Bremner. [LNB]Tears ran as Charlton, not a man known for sentimentality, spoke of a friendship that defined two lives. [LNB]'Oh, he liked his cigs,' Charlton said of Bremner. 'Well, we bothdid. Smoking in them days was not as bad - the only places we weren'tallowed to smoke was on the train to games or on the team bus. [LNB] Earning his Spurs: Mackay collars a young Bremner in 1966[LNB][LNB]'Nowadays if you smoke, everyone looks at you in strange ways, butnot then. Billy smoked, I smoked, a few of the lads did. I smokedduring the close season but not when the season started.[LNB] 'We roomed together for years and years. I was at Leeds when Billywas a groundstaff boy. 'Billy would come babysitting for me and Pat. Welived near each other. There was a pub in the middle. We'd meet there. [LNB]'People reported us for that. Don Revie called me and Billy in oneday and said, "Are you two drinking on a Thursday night?" 'We said,"No, we go to the pub, but it's domino night on Thursday." We'd dothat. We might have a pint of shandy, and only one. It was our local.[LNB]'Don said, "Well, I'm getting phone calls saying you were both drunkas newts." 'But we never were. We knew the rules. My uncle, JackMilburn - not Jackie Milburn - Jack Milburn, who played for Leeds. Hehad a club in Leeds, a working men's club. He used to say to me, "Youdivven't want to get drinking whisky or bottles of beer, they're badfor you. But a pint of ordinary beer - ale - that's good for you." Sohe put me on to that. [LNB] Replay: Charlton smokes on a cigarette as he and the rest of the Leeds side watch a re-run of the 1972 FA Cup Final win over Arsenal [LNB][LNB]'But Billy, he was a Scotsman, and they're always on to something.''If I was driving I'd only have one, but Billy . . . there was onesummer night when I got back from Mexico, in '70, the World Cup, andI'd been given a bottle of whatever it is they drink in Mexico. [LNB]'I had a bar in the house and I was stood on one side of it andBilly on the other. Billy said, "I'll try one of them." 'He had two orthree. Then he jumped in the car to drive home and reversed straightinto a wall, flattened it. Hell of a player, Billy.' [LNB]Jack Charlton wasn't too shoddy himself. Now 74, and last known forhis managerial deeds with the Republic of Ireland in the Eighties andNineties, Charlton was some player in his day. [LNB]He won the World Cup in 1966, he was voted Footballer of the Year in1967. The year before, Charlton's brother Bobby had won it, the yearafter, George Best. But there was other great company, and in Leedswhite. [LNB] Success: Bremner and Charlton join in the celebrations as Leeds parade the FA Cup at Wembley[LNB][LNB]Bobby Collins was Footballer of the Year in 1965, Bremner in 1970.Leeds acquired a reputation under Revie then for nastiness, one notforgotten, but they should be remembered for excellence, too. [LNB]Another Footballer of the Year - in 1969 - was Dave Mackay andTottenham's Cup replay at Leeds tonight will forever mean a reprintingof the famous 1966 picture of Mackay letting the young Bremner know whowas the harder. [LNB]'They're both Scotsmen!' exclaimed Charlton. 'It was in every newspaper, that picture. I didn't think we were a dirty team, we had two or three players who went near things and we all suffered for that. [LNB] Spurs tie could be Cup cracker but Leeds boss Simon Grayson is more worried about HartlepoolTHE LIST: Sportsmail's top 50 golden oldies to have graced British football Nos 10-1Tottenham 2 Leeds 2: Hero Beckford makes Spurs pay in late penalty dramaGraham Poll: Spurs are upset but no mistake...it was definitely a penalty[LNB]'Bobby Collins is Scottish too. I can only remember Don signingthree or four players, he bought Bobby Collins from Everton. Bobby wasa magic signing, he'd kill his mother for a result.[LNB] 'He could bend balls, dip balls, little tiny feet; the ball was bigger than him, but he'd score goals from 35 yards. [LNB]'Don bought him, Mick Jones and Allan Clarke, and Gilesy. But notlots and lots. 'Bobby Collins, we got a reputation from him and Gilesy.The rest of us weren't half as bad as those two. They'd admit it.' [LNB]The mercurial John Giles might dispute that. But he would need toargue with the combative Charlton, who is as entitled as any man totalk about Leeds. [LNB]Charlton joined the club as a 15 year-old in 1950. He signedprofessionally on his 17th birthday and stayed at Elland Road until1973. He made 773 appearances - Leeds' all-time record, one more thanBremner. [LNB]Charlton did not say a thing about his medal tally, only that in those 773 appearances he was never substituted. [LNB]What he did add was that the photograph of him and Bremner came 24hours after winning the FA Cup and 24 hours before the last league gameof the season, at Wolves. [LNB] Replay: Beckford celebrates scoring a late penalty to take Spurs back to Elland Road in the fourth round of the FA Cup [LNB][LNB]Leeds needed a point to win the Double. They lost 2-1. How the club would like to be so close in 2010.[LNB] 'I want them to get out of this,' Charlton said. 'Leeds is too biga city to have a third division club. I want them back in the PremierLeague. 'I don't know how long the crowd will tolerate this.When I played there the capacity was about 48,000, and it was sold out every week. [LNB]'If Newcastle score a goal I'm on my feet. If Leeds United score,I'm on my feet. If Man United score, I sit down. 'Alec (Ferguson) is aterrific manager - to keep them at that level for so long - but I wouldlike Leeds to join them. I want Leeds back.'[LNB] [LNB]
