The weekend Leeds took over Plymouth: Eddie Gray leading songs and a promotion party in the sun

New York Times

05-05-2025

Eddie Gray took a sip from his pint. An adoring public surrounded the Leeds United legend on the cobbled streets of Plymouth. The noise rose as expectation grew on their faces. The 77-year-old paused, holding the crowd in the palm of his hand. He raised a finger and launched into 'Marching on Together'.
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Give the people what they want. That was Friday night. By Saturday afternoon, Largie Ramazani was following that advice as he launched into a somersault before Home Park's away end, moments after he had lifted the Championship trophy. This weekend, this whole season, has been about giving the people what they want.
Whether it was giving the club's investors the golden ticket they craved, the manager his third Championship title, last year's Wembley wounded their redemption or the supporters their day in the sunshine, everyone got what they wanted.
Leeds is about to have the 2020 summer the city never got. The weekend invasion of Britain's Ocean City illustrated this collective pursuit of the highs everyone missed out on five years ago. Ever since the pints and pyrotechnics around Billy Bremner's statue on Easter Monday, Leeds and their fans have lived through a hazy nirvana of shared experiences.
There was the night outside Elland Road, the following Monday inside Elland Road and then this, a sun-kissed race to Plymouth for a bank holiday weekend surrounded by friends, flags and flagons.
Plymouth away with our hero. Ohhhhh Eddie Eddie…!!!!! 💛💙💛💙💛#lufc #eddiegray #leeds #leedsunited #plymouth #football #mot #alaw pic.twitter.com/FptVCpqvlv
— Oli Kristall (@OliKristall) May 2, 2025
It was impossible to ignore the similarities to this day, May 5, 35 years ago, when Leeds last went to the south coast to chase the top flight on the final weekend of the season. On that occasion, the Leeds experience left its mark on Bournemouth, but in turning the town over as well as its football team. Mercifully, the early indications for this weekend are far more promising.
The Athletic spoke to the force incident manager at Devon and Cornwall Police, who said the vast majority have been well behaved. While it was a busy weekend with many more people in the city, and there had been far more incidents than on a normal weekend, there was not a significant amount to report.
Leeds supporters do not need a second invitation to follow their team anywhere on the planet. Ironically, the start of this journey to silverware on the south coast underlined that fanaticism. The location of the team's pre-season training camp in Germany was kept secret at the request of the local police.
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Every fraction of coverage from that camp was inspected for any shred of evidence that would give away the team's location. United fans are respected, inside the club, for their investigative powers. Even the sound of a nearby bell tower in the background of one training video had to be scrubbed for fear of supporters working out which church it was.
There were some clues in the media from the camp, but not enough to guarantee where the team would be. Despite that uncertainty and clear instructions to stay away, a few hardened souls flew from the UK, taking the chance they might catch their heroes in the flesh. They were pitchside for the first of two secret friendlies.
If they were prepared to take a flyer on a German backwater, you can imagine the appetite for a trip to Devon. The sticking point was the ticket allocation. Leeds would be allowed a little over 1,600 supporters inside Home Park. Demand outstripping supply does not really do this problem justice.
Inevitably, there were some fans of virtually relegated Plymouth keen to pass on their tickets in the home end for a tidy profit, but the club tried to deter this as much as possible. The ejection of two Leeds supporters from the home end in the 60th minute showed this was not entirely successful. The dozens of people in the home section asking Leeds players for pictures, long after full time and the trophy lift, was another sign of away fans getting where water couldn't.
Ultimately, thousands descended on Plymouth knowing they would not get anywhere near the stadium. Whether they were making the 12-hour round-trip from West Yorkshire or elsewhere, this was not something any of them wanted to miss. Will Leeds ever lift a trophy again in their lifetime? Nobody knows. This could be the club's last and fans have to suck the marrow from the moment.
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Matthew Brown travelled over from Weymouth with his son Jack. This was their second shortest trip of the season, but they have both put the miles in this season, missing a handful of matches all term.
'We travelled down this morning (Saturday),' he told The Athletic. 'We've passed so many Leeds fans in the service stations, just coming across the south coast from Weymouth, just in the petrol stations, getting a coffee.
'Half of them haven't even got tickets for today. That shows how class the Leeds United fans are. I was speaking to a Plymouth fan earlier and he said he can't believe how many people have travelled down, without tickets, this far. It goes to show how big Leeds United really are.'
Gavin Daddy, one of six in a group of dads and lads from the Hull area, has had his hotel booked since the fixtures were announced last summer. They got lucky when the date remained unchanged, but came without a ticket.
'I was always coming,' he said. 'From the beginning of the season. We booked our hotel as soon as the fixtures came out. We planned it. We do it every year. We were coming down here, no matter what.
'We knew there'd be thousands down here. It's something we planned that far in advance, it's something you prepare for. We set off from Hull at 11am yesterday (Friday) and we got here at sixish.'
The driving just isn't something this breed of fan gives a second thought to. It's an obstacle between them and their religion. A hurdle that's easily cleared on the road to salvation. You do it because you just might catch yourself sharing a pint with the most iconic living human being associated with Leeds United.
'It's to be a part of the atmosphere,' said Daddy. 'This was absolutely ridiculous, manic. Eddie Gray was in here. Angus Kinnear, Andy Gray. It was a fantastic night. This place was absolutely packed out.'
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The place was Plymouth's Barbican, the city's cobbled, historic harbour, awash with pubs and, for this weekend, the flags of the country's Leeds United branches. You had Gray and his nephew Andy, Archie and Harry's father, Kinnear, the club's outgoing chief executive, and Peter Lowy, the billionaire heir who sits on the board, sharing drinks and stories.
'That is the main thing for everyone,' said Oliver Medd, who travelled from Skidby near Hull, also ticketless. 'As good as it was the other night at the Bristol (City) game, it would have been even more special the first time round (in 2020), but you can't complain because it was still unbelievable the other night.
'Like Gav just said, we were always going to come down here, no matter what. Even if we did do a Leeds and fall apart, I still think we'd have come down anyway.
'Last night was just unbelievable. Everyone was in such good spirits, good vibes and then seeing Eddie Gray come out there, that was really special.'
If Friday was the starter, Saturday was the main course. Medd, Daddy and thousands more returned to the Barbican to watch the match on television at pubs. Again, it was all about being together and feeling at least geographically close to what was happening 10 minutes up the road.
It was not a match which will live long in the memory. Sam Byram, the academy graduate possibly playing his final game for the club, faced the ignominy of an own goal as the rest of the team looked like it had been celebrating for 10 days.
But that would not last. In a manner entirely unlike Leeds, they have, quietly, finished this year in phenomenal form. While the league table and Sheffield United's collapse have commanded attention, Daniel Farke's side have gone 10 unbeaten and won their last six on the bounce. Saturday's finale was far more like it.
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They were headed for second place until the 91st minute, when Manor Solomon delivered the high everyone was here for. Solomon, the best player on the park by a mile, dug out the game's best moment. The dribble and placed finish epitomised the Israel international's impact this season. Solomon's summer will be fascinating, with, presumably, a permanent exit from Tottenham Hotspur to somewhere.
Fans and players united at Home Park's eastern end when the final whistle sounded. Farke, bodied by the season and steering this juggernaut over the line, sat on his own in the dugout. He was spent. While he tried to regroup for the rest of the weekend's in-house celebrations, the Plymouth party rolled on.