I came here for the Leicester game on Friday, and just like those away fans who make a long weekend of it, you can't get rid of me. But I hope you enjoy this new angle on last week's story.
You'll recall that Don Revie lost so much blood on the journey back from Plymouth to Leicester in 1949 that he almost lost his life. In response to this, a poster on here called
@ChepstowGreen said 'I bet Revie remembered that every time he came back to Plymouth'.
'That's an interesting point', I thought. 'I wonder just how many times he
did go back?'.
Well, though Revie was only 21 when he played for Leicester that time, he only came back twice more in his playing career. And both times, it turns out, were major turning points for him.
The first time was less than a year after that Plymouth v Leicester game. Revie had been transfered to Hull City, and he made the long journey to Home Park on January 21st with his side sitting third in Division Two, while Argyle were one off the bottom. Depsite that, Argyle would have had a spring in their step as the previous Saturday they'd pulled off the shock result of the season - winning 4-2 at promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday, which led to this wonderful headline in the the Sheffield results paper:
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That cartoon refered to the Argyle kit as looking like 'a mouldy version of Arsenal', which is a bit rich for a paper that literally has the word 'Green' in huge letters on its masthead.
But the Argyle revival was short-lived. Revie played in his normal inside forward position as Hull won 3-1 at Home Park. That defeat saw Argyle fall back to the bottom of Division Two (and relegation would follow at the end of the season). The win took Hull into second in the table, and their player manager, the legendary Raich Carter, must have been pretty confident they could make it into the top flight for the first time ever.
But that victory was their high point. They went on a truly awful run, not winning again until April, and falling completely out of the race for promotion. It would be more than 50 years before they finally made it to the top flight.
Revie, a big fish in a small pond, quit Hull soon after to join Manchester City, and he would spend several seasons playing at a level that didn't involve long trips to the south-west.
His second return visit was more than ten years later, Plymouth v Leeds, March 4th 1961. Revie was now 33, and was considering the next stage of his career. He had approached Bournemouth about becoming their player-manager, and the club's representatives decided to go and watch him play in Leeds' next fixture. That happened to be the game at Home Park.
Revie was one of 12 players who traveled down with the Leeds squad, and here you can see the line-ups in the programme, with 'Revie or Smith' listed at number 8 (thanks so much greensonscreen):
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In the end, Revie's trip was all for nothing, as was the journey of those Bournemouth representatives, because he was the unlucky one. The match finished 0-0, a result left Argyle 8th in the table, and Leeds two places lower. United were heading nowhere, and the following week, their manager Jack Taylor resigned.
The Revie-Bournemouth connection was still alive, and Revie asked Leeds director Harry Reynolds for a reference. He was happy to oblige, and sat down to write a glowing letter of recommendation, outiling all his qualities as a person, as a player, and as a potential manager. And then the penny dropped. Why on earth are we letting this man leave Elland Road? He is the perfect candidate to replace Jack Taylor
When I posted the original Revie story on a Leeds United forum last week, one comment was 'Lord only knows what would have become of Leeds if he hadn't survived that taxi ride'. It was after his final trip to Home Park as a player that his destiny was decided.