1964 saw a revolution in British television with the launch of BBC2 in April. The channel was to be home to more serious and diverse programming and to that end they launched a weekly football highlights show to be shown on Saturday evenings after that day’s fixtures. It was to be called Match of the Day, and of course is still going strong some 50 plus years later.

Leeds United’s first appearance on the programme would come on the 19th September 1964. The Whites, newly promoted to the top flight, had made an excellent start to the season and sat in 2nd place in the table before their visit to Stamford Bridge, where they would take on the leaders of the First Division, Chelsea.

Despite the good start to the season, the previous week had been quite a tumultuous one at Elland Road. Disappointed by his latest contract offer, manager Don Revie had applied for the Sunderland job which had been vacant since Alan Brown had departed for Sheffield Wednesday. The Wearside club at the time were a much bigger club than Leeds and had more financial power. It was felt Revie had used the vacancy to increase the offer from Leeds and it worked. Just when it seemed that he was on the brink of walking out on the club, an increased offer of a 5 year contract at £4500 a year was agreed and Revie remained in charge.

He took the side down to London to take on the league leaders who had made an unbeaten start to the season. It was to be the first of many meetings between the two sides over the coming years which would see Chelsea and Leeds become bitter rivals, both on the pitch and on the terraces. Chelsea were managed by Tommy Docherty and he had put together a youthful side, with two future Leeds United managers controlling the midfield, George Graham and Terry Venables.

Leeds lined up with many of the side that had won promotion the following season and was well on the way to becoming a regular line up. Jimmy Greenhoff came into the side for this game at right half, with Billy Bremner pushing further forward. Jim Storrie led the line with support from Johnny Giles and Albert Johanneson.

“What better match could we pick today” said Kenneth Wolstenholme in his introduction to camera, words that would come to haunt him by the end of the programme as the top two sides in the country produced a dull encounter that was more artisan than artistic and did little to counter the reputation of Leeds as a fairly negative and industrious team.

The action started at the pivotal point of the match in the 27th minute, with Eddie McCreadie clattering into Giles in midfield. It was immediately recognized as a bad injury for the Leeds man and a stretcher was called for. So bad was the injury that Don Revie himself came onto the field to check on his man, with Wolstenholme speculating “this looks like it could be a broken leg.”

With no substitutions in those days, Leeds were left to play the remaining hour with just 10 men on a glorious late summer afternoon which would sap energy from the legs. Leeds tried to strike immediately, Bobby Collins firing the free kick given for the challenge on Giles just over the crossbar.

It would take Chelsea just five minutes to make the man advantage count. A ball into the Leeds area was allowed to bounce around and as Bremner hesitated to clear his lines, Venables nipped in to rifle the ball into the roof of the net, prompting Wolstenholme to state it was “a lovely goal.”

The venerable BBC commentator wasn’t the only voice we could hear, with his microphone occasionally picking up the sound of the crowd sat around him. When referee Bill Clements gave Leeds a free kick for obstruction against Barry Bridges, one punter could quite clearly be heard berating the official with the cry of “You bald headed git. What’s the matter with ya!!”  Unlike today, there were no apologies for any bad language we have heard, the swinging sixties obviously being much more enlightened times.

The Stamford Bridge pitch looked bone hard as the ball was often bouncing around out of control, and was causing problems for players on both sides. Again Leeds failed to cleanly clear a ball bobbling around inside their area allowing Graham to poke the ball towards Venables. The young Chelsea skipper managed to get a shot away but straight at Sprake who fumbled the initial shot and received a whack from a Chelsea player as he dove to gather the loose ball.

Leeds attacks were infrequent, but often featured the pace and skill of Albert Johanneson. Just before the break the Leeds winger intercepted a ball on halfway and raced towards goal, but once he reached the penalty area his composure left him and his effort was a weak cross cum shot that skidded along the ground, too far in front of his team mates and too far wide of the goal to cause Chelsea any great consternation,.

Half time saw some analysis of the first half from recently retired Tottenham and Northern Ireland great Danny Blanchflower. His assessment was that the game was being played between “two well drilled teams giving nothing away” and hoped for a little more in the second half.

He was to be disappointed as the game continued in the same vein with packed defences and two teams seemingly unable to create any real opportunities. Leeds were of course badly hampered by the absence of Giles and as Wolstenholme observed “Chelsea have played eight games and not been beaten by 11 men so Leeds have been given quite a task.” He did report however that Giles had “badly strained knee ligaments and not a break fortunately” something that would perhaps be the reverse these days.

The game was devoid of any real goalmouth action. Leeds had a half chance when Greenhoff over hit a through ball that Peter Bonetti in the Chelsea goal spilled as he slid in to gather. The ball fell straight into the path of Bremner on the right hand side of the area but he rushed his shot and hit it harmlessly wide of the goal. The referee gave a corner and from that, Leeds created an opening for Greenhoff 25 yards out bis his shot was a tame one and rolled straight through to Bonetti.

The Chelsea keeper was tested a little more moments later when Bobby Collins tried his luck from distance and forced him into a sprawling save, but Leeds were being restricted to efforts from distance and the more incisive play was coming from Chelsea. Sprake as worked by a header from Murray after good work on the left from Bobby Knox and the Chelsea left winger had another effort from the corner of the penalty area, hitting a vicious strike straight into the midriff of the Leeds keeper.

With about 15 minutes to go Chelsea doubled their lead and Leeds contributed massively to their own downfall. Uncharacteristically it was the Leeds skipper, Collins, who made the fatal error, miscontrolling the ball on the edge of his own box and allowing the ball to run towards Graham. He poked the ball back to John Hollins and his first time shot seemed to spin off Sprake and trundled into the net. “That was a gift to Chelsea from Bobby Collins” was how Wolstenholme summed up the goal.

Any chances Leeds had of getting back into the game were severely hampered moments later when Greenhoff had to be carried off injured as well, leaving Leeds with just nine men. Although he would return to the field, it was as a a passenger. Chelsea were in complete command and they almost scored a spectacular third when Graham executed a superb scissor kick volley from the edge of the area that whistled just over the bar. It was the best piece of skill in the game and prompted Wolstenholme to “give that the Oscar for this match.”

All that remained was for the niggle, that would become a feature of these games over the coming years, to begin with Ron “Chopper” Harris earning his name by going through Bremner on halfway, quickly followed by the fiery Scot responding in kind moments later with a feet first challenge into the midriff of the Chelsea man.

At the final whistle Wolstenholme and Blanchflower discussed the game. The commentator described it as “Unfortunately not an over exciting game” with Blanchflower concluding that “They are both very young teams and perhaps it was the tension that provided us with such a dull spectacle.” He also concluded that “Johanneson, the coloured boy at outside left is a very exciting player” and that he didn’t think “Leeds are good enough to be at the top, but I think they will have a reasonable season.”

Blanchflower would have thought he had been proved right in the immediate aftermath of this match. Leeds won just one of the next four in the league to drop to 11th in the table, but then caught fire and by the time of their next appearance on television would be in the thick of the title race.