Leeds United have a whole host of legendary former players to choose from, the list of players given to the matchday programme to interview was mightily impressive indeed. But we decided to go for a one-club man who played on the wing and later managed the club, Eddie Gray.

You made your debut as a 17-year-old on New Year’s Day 1966, what are your memories of the game?
I didn’t feel that nervous, I was reasonably confident in my ability. You feel a little bit nervous but no nerves that are going to stop me performing.

We won against Sheffield Wednesday; it was a good win for the club, a tough game. I managed to score which made it better It was just so that my younger brother Frank had come to stay with me for the weekend and a few years later I watched Frank score on his debut for Leeds.

Within two years you were collecting your first winners medals with the League Cup, Fairs Cup in 1968 and in 1969 you claimed the League Championship?
They were great experiences as a young player, they were the club’s first major trophies which was important because Don Revie was trying to build something at the football club. It started in the early 1960s when I arrived at the club and it was nice to see it come to fruition when the club became a powerful force in English football.

It was a great feeling to win the league, there was a lot of good teams around at that particular time and to win the league championships was a great experience. Obviously we had our disappointments along the way but all in all it was a successful time for the club.

That goal you scored against Burnley has been rated as one of the best in the club’s history; do the fans still remind you of that?
Yes they do, I scored another goal that day which gave me immense satisfaction from the point of view of how I executed it. But the goal that the fans talk about was something that I could do naturally.

You almost completed an unprecedented treble in 1970 but it turned out that you missed out on all three fronts.
It was more unfortunate than disappointing but you are better playing in games like that than not at all. That’s always the way I’ve looked at football anyway, you were better challenging and being in Cup Finals and challenging for league trophies and European trophies than not being involved at all. It is disappointing at the time but the status of the football club was getting stronger all the time, it was nice to bounce back and keep winning trophies, that was the most important thing.

I think there was 136,000 at Hampden for the European Cup semi against Celtic, it was a tremendous occasion, a great game of football between two top class sides. Celtic had won the European Cup in 1967 and they probably should have won it the year they beat us in the semis but Feyenoord beat them, but Feyenoord were on the up as well.

It was a memorable occasion but a huge disappointment to get beat, I used to follow Celtic as a boy, they were my club, I always used to look for their results and to play them in that semi-final was a great thrill.

When Don Revie left the club Leeds went into decline but you stuck with them through those years.
The club were still hovering about the top positions in the league for a few years but nothing like the success that we used to have. The club never bounced back until Howard Wilkinson took control. I had a go at management when the club got relegated. I had a lot of decent young players but like all things you have got to be successful in football. Howard joined the club after Billy Bremner had left and he was successful, the club started to spend a little bit of money again. There was some top class footballers at the club, you only need to look at the midfield then with Strachan, Batty, McAllister and Speed, that was as good as any midfield that had played for a long time.

You also left a legacy of your own as your brought some fantastic young players through the youth set-up during your time there.
I brought some terrific young players through the football club It was just disappointing that in the circumstances the football club had to sell those players. If it wasn’t for having those players and being able to generate some money through them, the likes of Kewell, Smith, Woodgate, Robinson and even the younger ones like Milner and Lennon, they would have probably been in huge trouble, they were in a lot of trouble as it was but it would have been huge. It was nice to work with these players and it is nice to see them all going on and fulfilling the potential they showed.

Last Three Games With Leeds United At Deepdale
6th November 2004
PNE 2-4 Leeds
Cresswell scores twice for North End but it is Healy who has the last laugh as he returns to haunt his old club with a brace.

4th October 1966
PNE 1-1 Leeds
Bill Cranston grabs the goal for North End as the two sides are forced into a replay in this League Cup encounter.

3rd March 1964
PNE 2-0 Leeds
Goals from Wilson and Ashworth secure the win in front of almost 36,000 at Deepdale but Leeds go on to gain promotion as the Lilywhites finish third.