| Talk 60's 70's Football at Yahoo! Groups sixtiesandseventiessoccer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Gary Sprake |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bob 70-71 |
It's
strange really that, even though my position was goalie,
Gary was never the goalie I pretended to be as a boy. Why
not ? Too much is made of small things ... like being a
bit of a clown and famously throwing the ball into his
own net, that wasn't the reason. Indeed, Gary was a Welsh
International, and Leeds United mainstay for years. To
this day Gary is Leeds most played goalkeeper. I've heard
old Leeds players blame Gary for being the weak link that
prevented the team getting more honours. Nah ! He's the
scapegoat they blame because he's down in Birmingham and
out of earshot. The reason could be that it was David
Harvey that played the 1972 Cup Final, and took over the
no.1 spot, so I only saw the few declining years. But the
real reason is that England had Gordon Banks, Peter
Shilton and Ray Clemmence and I pretended to be an
England goalkeeper ... of course!
|
| Team | Source | Signed | Season | Games | Subs | Goals |
| Leeds United | Apprentice | 05.62 | 61-72 | 381 | 0 | 0 |
| Birmingham City | Transfer | 10.73 | 73-74 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Total : 397 / 0 | 397 | 0 | 0 |
Appearances
for Wales :
| Level | Games | Goals |
| Under-23 | 5 | 0 |
| Full | 37 | 0 |
Further links on the site...
See Where are they now ?
See Gary's mention in the song 'Denis Law and Ali McGraw'
See Gary's advert for 1971 Gola boots
See Books
Return to
Leeds
United
See the latest Soccer headlines at www.bobdunning.net