Allan John Clarke (born July 31 1946 in Short Heath, Willenhall, Staffordshire) was one of English football's greatest goalscorers who shot to fame in the much-admired and
feared Leeds United team of the 1970s.
Early career
Clarke started his career at Walsall and made his debut aged 16, then moved to
Fulham. Such was his early promise that Leicester
City then paid £150,000 for Clarke in 1968 when he had yet to play at the highest level. He spent just one season at
Leicester City, reaching his apex in an appearance in the 1969 FA Cup Final which Leicester City
lost 1-0 to Manchester City through a Neil
Young goal. Weeks later, he was on his way to Leeds United when Don Revie offered
£165,000 to Leicester City, and so began one of the deadliest goalscoring careers in English football.
Heyday
Clarke peaked at Elland Road and he scored 26 goals in his first season (and earned the predatory nickname "Sniffer", which stuck throughout his career) as Leeds United chased a dream "treble" of
League championship, FA Cup and European Cup though ultimately they won nothing. Clarke hit the post in the FA Cup Final at
Wembley (with strike partner Mick
Jones following up to score the rebound) and then went on a mazy run through several Chelsea defenders in the replay to set up a goal for Jones again, but Leeds United still lost. The title
had already gone to Everton on the last day of the season, and the European Cup campaign
ended with defeat to Celtic in the semi-final.
International recognition
The summer of 1970 gave Clarke an opportunity to take some consolation from an eventful but ultimately fruitless club season -
he was called up for England's 1970 World Cup squad in Mexico, despite being uncapped, and made his début for
his country against Czechoslovakia in the heat and pressure of a
World Cup first round match. Clarke scored the only goal of the match from the penalty spot.
European success
Clarke became an England regular thereafter and was in the Leeds United side which won its second Fairs Cup in 1971 - scoring in the final against Juventus - while again
missing out on the League Championship in the last week of the season and losing to lowly Colchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup (after which he was told by club medics that
he was suffering from pleurisy). But in 1972, his place in Leeds United's folklore would
arrive.
His most famous goal
Leeds United reached the FA Cup Final again in the competition's centenary year and at
Wembley they faced Arsenal, the Cup holders. In a tight and largely unexciting game, Clarke
threw himself at a Jones cross midway through the second half, and the diving header nestled into the corner of the net. He had
hit the crossbar with another diving header earlier in the game. Leeds United won 1-0 and Clarke finally had a FA Cup winner's
medal. Naturally for Leeds United, there still had to be some sourness to temper the sweet, and they lost the League title and
the chance of emulating Arsenal's "double" when they lost to Wolverhampton
Wanderers two days after winning the FA Cup.
1973 - a bad year
Clarke played again at Wembley - and lost - when Leeds United were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup Final. Later that year, he was in the England team which needed to beat
Poland at Wembley to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. A goal down, England
were awarded a penalty from which Clarke coolly scored, but he was among many England players thwarted by the charmed and
brilliant Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. A 1-1 draw was not enough and England did
not go to the '74 World Cup.
Domestic winner, European loser
Clarke was again Leeds United's top scorer as he finally earned a league title medal in 1974 as
Leeds United sauntered to the crown on a record run of 29 opening matches without defeat. The following year he won his 19th and
final England cap - he scored a healthy ten goals during his international career - and helped Leeds United to the
European Cup Final.
Leeds United lost the match to Bayern Munich 2-0 and were denied a clear penalty
when Clarke was hacked down by Franz Beckenbauer in the penalty area. This was the
last time the great 1960s and 1970s Leeds United generation would be in contention for an honour in the game. The Revie side
started to break up - their manager had left in 1974 for the England job - and Clarke himself left the club in 1978 after 351 appearances and 151 goals, with a knee injury curtailing his ability to play at top-flight level.
His last major act in a Leeds United shirt was to score in the 1977 FA Cup Semi-Final, but the game
ended 2-1 to Manchester United.
Management and beyond
He went to Barnsley as player-manager in June 1978 and under him they won promotion in
1979, an impressive enough achievement for Leeds United to ask their most famous goalscorer to come
back as manager in September 1980. This proved a bad move, as sadly, Clarke also became remembered
by Leeds United fans as the man who took the club to relegation in 1982. He had another less
successful spell at Barnsley between July 1985 and November 1989 when
he was dismissed with the club third from bottom of the league, and also at Scunthorpe
United from 1982 to August 1984 when he resigned. He was very
briefly Lincoln City manager for six months but he was sacked on 30 November 1990. That was his last managerial job in football.
Clarke has pursued business interests in more recent years through being a travelling salesman for MTS Nationwide, a firm
based at Wakefield, West Yorkshire. He has, however,
remained an outspoken critic of the game, and like all the Leeds United players of the Revie era, has remained fiercely
protective of the reputation of both the manager and the club. He has become crippled by arthritic knees in recent years.
Clarke was the second of five brothers to play the professional game - four of whom played for Walsall across three decades. Frank was the only Clarke brother not
to represent Walsall, playing for Shrewsbury Town, Queens Park Rangers, Ipswich Town and
Carlisle United; Derek played for Walsall,
Oxford United and Orient;
Kelvin played for Walsall; and the youngest sibling, Wayne
Clarke, played for Walsall towards the end of his career after very successful spells with Wolverhampton Wanderers,
Birmingham City and Everton (where he won the League championship in 1987). He also represented England at schoolboy level.
After managing the local football club, Clarke now lives in the Scunthorpe area.
Honours
As a player
References
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