‘The battle of Goodison’ at 50: 1964, Everton and Leeds lose their manners and tempers

• For the first time in a league match a referee walked off the pitch because of violent play.
• Too much money in the game blamed for worsening behaviour, said football authorities.
 
  
      A ‘spine-chilling’ encounter was how Jack Archer, a reporter for The People, describe Everton’s match against Leeds in 1964 - a game that saw a player sent off in the fourth minute following a chest-high tackle, two players felled after a clash of heads and fans warned for spitting at players.
Such was the hostility the referee, in a first for an English league game, marched both teams off the pitch so that the players and fans could cool down. When the enforced ten-minute break ended, a tannoy announcement warned that any further crowd trouble could see the game abandoned.
Although the First Division match was completed - Leeds winning 1-0 - mounted police then had to disperse angry fans from the streets around Goodison.
Even in an era when bloodcurdling tackles and unruly behaviour were common, the level of violence shocked the public. The match led to a period of reflection but not before the national press had its say.
An ‘unhappy day for English football’ was how the Observer’s John Arlott described it.
Brian Crowther, match reporter for the Guardian, went further, blaming the players for their ‘collective irresponsibility’, the fans for their ‘disgusting behaviour’ and the referee for ‘not being firm enough.’

Mr Joe Richards, president of the Football League, reacted rather predictably, saying: ‘Something must be done and we must find out the causes.’ His best theory was that players were ‘getting so much money for points.’
Richards’ comments were probably an attack on the decision to lift the ceiling on players’ wages a few years earlier following a campaign by Jimmy Hill, chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association. That decision still rankled with some in the game.

In the absence of anything like solid evidence to prove better money meant a disregard for the rules, the more objective voices in the game pointed to the competitive nature of both teams as one reason for the fiery encounter.
Certainly both teams had form. Less than a year earlier, an FA Cup fourth round match between the two at Elland Road ended in a fractious 1-1 draw. Writing for the Guardian, Eric Todd noted: ‘Leeds committed the first misdemeanour, and this was followed at regular intervals by fouls of subtle, fragrant, and sometimes cruel variation on both sides.’
By the time the two met again at Goodison in November, Leeds - managed by Don Revie and marshalled on the pitch by dogged competitors like Jack Charlton, Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter - had furthered their reputation as an uncompromising team; this was largely the same team that had been promoted the year before with a terrible disciplinary record. But Leeds could also play attractive football, as this match report showed.

Nonetheless, it was their game against Everton - or the ‘Battle of Goodison’ - that the FA disciplinary committee was interested in when it met on 9 December 1964. The committee suspended Everton’s Sandy Brown for two weeks for his sending off following a punch on Leeds’ John Giles in the fourth minute of the game. The FA also punished Everton for the behaviour of their fans. Leeds came out unscathed.
The FA’s judgement came with a promise that they would take a firmer line with player discipline. They also threatened to close grounds if clubs didn’t tackle ‘rowdy’ behaviour.