In the first blog of this series we looked at how Gerry Francis came to Elland Road. In this edition we’ll look at his playing career at Elland Road.
Though he took some time to adjust from the fast, hard baked pitches of South Africa to the slow muddy heaps of England Francis went on to make 52 appearances for Leeds scoring 9 goals before scoring 4 goals in 16 games for York City. Not a long career in Yorkshire by any means but his time as a Leeds player was very stop start due to selection policies and injuries.
Francis made his debut and history vs Birmingham in November 1957 when he became the 1st black South African to play in Division 1. He won praise in the YEP match report on Monday the 2nd, making a good impression against a full back that appears to have been “uncompromising”
Despite such a promising debut Francis was dropped the next week when George Meek returned from a bout of flu and it was nearly 2 years before Francis made another first team appearance. Such gaps like this were a feature of Francis’ time at Leeds, the lack of playing time after making his debut is blamed by Francis on a racist undercurrent from the “top men” at the club who he feels were instructing Raich Carter, the Leeds manager at the time.
Whatever the reasons Francis was certainly liked by some sections of the fanbase, here he is mentioned in fan letters to the YEP on Thursday 7th November 1958. His performances for the 2nd XI were being noticed.
By the start of the 1959-60 season United had gone through 3 managers since Francis’ arrival, Raich Carter, Bill Lambton and Bob Roxborough so it had been a turbulent time at the club. The arrival of Jack Taylor changed things and Francis played 40 times under Taylor over 22 months.
When he did get recalled his 2nd game was on the 9th September 1959, Leeds were still in Division 1 but the 6-0 drubbing at Old Trafford was a sign to come for a difficult relegation season. Francis was again dropped and didn’t return to the team until a month later when he finally started to retain his spot and began to feature on a regular basis for Leeds.
His 3rd game for Leeds vs Everton on the 10th October 1959 brought high praise for Francis. The report in the YEP on the 3-3 draw at Elland Road on a “firm” pitch. His pace and intelligence highlighted; the reporter felt sure Francis deserved to stay in the team because of a “as fine a cross drive as I have ever seen” to open his scoring account for the club.
His performance against Everton also impressed the caricaturist at the YEP and along with the match report a caricature including the terrible pun A Spring ’box of tricks’ appears.
Francis display certainly seems to have been the highlight of the day, the same report opens with the line “Thanks heavens there were six goals to decorate an ill-starred and ugly game”, goes on to heavily criticise Leeds “halves” (midfield) and also mentions that the attendance was poor at 19,000, the lowest of the day for Division 1. How times change.
The next game at Blackpool saw more praise for Francis who scored again for Leeds in another 3-3 draw. “His quick and intelligent attacking play was all his own work”
Francis became a regular starter during the 1959-60 season in Division 1 but suffered a series of injuries before settling well in the team throughout the 1960-61 season in Division 2. Here we see more praise, “United’s best forward” from the YEP on Monday the 17th of October 1960 for his performance in a 2-1 win vs Plymouth at Elland Road. (Newspaper match reports were not always published on the weekend at this time)
So, Francis seems to have been playing well and receiving praise despite Leeds enduring a wretched 1960-61 season. The start of the 1961-62 season under new boss Don Revie was just as bad and Leeds languished at the foot of division 2 in early season.
After a 0-4 loss at Bristol Rovers on the 23rd September Revie said “It is no good playing football up to the penalty box and then not finishing” in an article reporting that certain players had been told to report to Farnley park on the morning of the 25th with further spell at Elland Road in the afternoon.
We think that Francis was one of the players which seems harsh as once again Francis came in for praise from the YEP in the match report for this game, clearly laying the blame for missed chances on his teammates.
The next weekend saw Francis’ final appearance for the Leeds first team, a 1-2 home loss to Preston. The match report from the game makes for grim reading including a spectator climbing into the director’s box to say a few “incensed words”. Ironically, Don Revie wasn’t even in attendance at the Preston game as he was still playing occasionally and turned out for the reserves in a game vs Liverpool that day.
The YEP reported on Monday the 2nd that with the shooting practice deemed a failure 3 players including Francis were to be dropped to the reserves, Revie and the board were getting desperate and Francis’ time at Elland Road was at an end.
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