Trevor John Cherry, born 23 January 1948, Huddersfield, England.
PART ONE
Trevor Cherry joined the ground staff at Huddersfield Town in July 1963, at the age of fifteen. He signed as a full-time professional in 1965, and before that year was out he had made his first-team debut at seventeen, entering a side then competing in the Second Division and discovering at once that senior football required sharper thought, stronger challenges and the confidence to make decisions without waiting for somebody else to guide him. He could operate in the middle of the defence or at full-back, and that range soon became one of his greatest strengths because managers could move him according to the opponent, the condition of the pitch or the players available, yet his basic approach remained the same: win the ball, look up and use it sensibly.
Huddersfield had been English champions three times in succession during the 1920s, but the club that Cherry entered in the middle of the 1960s was living on tighter means and trying to find a route back to the First Division, and Leeds Road, with its great bank of terracing and its crowd close to the action, was a place where effort was noticed just as quickly as a careless pass. Under Tom Johnston and then Ian Greaves, the Terriers gradually assembled a hard and capable team, with shot stopper Terry Poole, defenders such as Roy Ellam, Bob McNab and Geoff Hutt, midfielder Jimmy Nicholson and forwards including Frank Worthington and Jimmy Lawson among the men around Cherry during his years of development, and playing beside experienced professionals taught him when to step forward, when to remain in position and when the simplest clearance was worth more than an ambitious pass.
Besides being reliable in several defensive positions, he carried the ball well enough to help Town move out of their own half rather than merely survive there, and his left foot gave the side useful balance, although he was never a decorative player who demanded possession simply to be admired. During 1967–68 Huddersfield finished fourteenth in the Second Division, and they improved to sixth in 1968–69 as Greaves´ work began to take effect, but promotion remained beyond them and the experience of missing out helped shape the more controlled football that followed. Cherry was still only twenty-one when the 1969–70 season began, yet he had already acquired the assurance of a much older defender, and the club that had introduced him as a teenager was now ready to trust him in a serious promotion challenge.
Huddersfield’s push in 1969–70 was built upon defensive order, patience and a growing conviction that they could handle the pressure at the top of the table, and Cherry fitted the plan because he could defend closely without losing his head, move across the back line when cover was required and supply the first measured pass when possession had been regained. Huddersfield lost only eight of their forty-two League matches, conceded twenty-eight goals and finished with fifty-seven points, one ahead of Blackpool, thereby taking the Second Division championship and returning to the top flight after an absence of fourteen years, while Cherry appeared regularly enough to make his part in the achievement unmistakable.
It was not a promotion won through one spectacular burst or one celebrated afternoon, for Huddersfield stayed organised across the winter and continued collecting points as the strain increased, and that consistency reflected Greaves’s management as well as the discipline of defenders who understood that a goalless draw away from home could matter every bit as much as an eye-catching victory at Leeds Road. For Cherry, the championship carried a special satisfaction because this was his hometown club and he had progressed from the ground staff to the First Division without needing to leave Huddersfield, but the promotion also introduced a much harsher examination, with England’s strongest forwards waiting and every small positional error most likely to be punished.
The step up did not expose him, however, because his reading of play and physical courage allowed him to compete against more accomplished opponents, and Town’s first season back ended in a respectable fifteenth place, comfortably clear of relegation and apparently equipped to establish themselves. That promise did not last, for Huddersfield struggled badly in the 1971–72 campaign, winning only six League matches and finishing at the bottom of the First Division, and although Cherry continued to play with commitment, one defender could not repair every weakness in a side which scored only twenty-seven goals and collected fourteen fewer points than the nearest safe club.
Relegation ended Town’s two-year stay among the leading teams and forced difficult decisions, while across West Yorkshire Don Revie was considering the future of a Leeds United side that had won trophies, challenged repeatedly for the championship and developed into one of the most powerful teams in Europe, but whose senior figures could not continue for ever. Jack Charlton was approaching the end of his active playing days, Terry Cooper had suffered a badly broken leg during a 3-0win against Stoke City at Victoria Ground on 8 April 1972, and Revie needed a defender who understood top-flight football, accepted hard work and could fit into several positions without upsetting the side’s established structure.
Cherry had impressed him, and in the summer of 1972 Leeds paid Huddersfield £100,000 for Cherry and his Town colleague Roy Ellam, bringing the twenty-four-year-old across the county after he had accumulated 188 senior appearances in all competitions for his hometown club. The transfer placed Cherry inside a dressing room containing Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter, Johnny Giles, Peter Lorimer, Paul Madeley, Allan Clarke and Mick Jones, and reputations of that size could have overwhelmed a new arrival, but Cherry possessed the temperament to listen, compete and make himself useful from the beginning.
PART TWO
Trevor Cherry entered Don Revie’s team principally at left-back because Cooper’s broken leg had created an immediate vacancy, although his ability to play centrally meant that he was also viewed as a possible long-term successor to Charlton, and during 1972–73 he made thirty-eight League appearances as Leeds again fought on several fronts. Adapting to the club involved more than learning a position, because Revie prepared matches in exact detail and expected every player to know the habits of his direct opponent, while Leeds defended as a connected unit and demanded that the full-backs support attacks without leaving careless gaps behind them, but Cherry responded by keeping his football direct, alert and dependable.
His first season led to Wembley and the FA Cup final against Division Two Sunderland on 5 May 1973, when Leeds were overwhelming favourites to retain the trophy they had won against Arsenal twelve months earlier, yet Ian Porterfield scored after thirty-one minutes and goalkeeper Jim Montgomery produced a remarkable double save from Trevor Cherry and Peter Lorimer as Sunderland held on for a 1–0 victory. Cherry’s diving header appeared certain to bring Leeds level until Montgomery recovered from blocking it and somehow reached Lorimer’s follow-up, and the defender could scarcely have struck his effort more firmly, but that was little comfort when Bob Stokoe’s side completed one of the competition’s greatest final surprises. Leeds also lost the European Cup Winners’ Cup final to AC Milan eleven days later, although Cherry was not in the starting side, and his first year at Elland Road therefore brought experience, regular football and two painful near misses rather than a medal.
Disappointment sharpened Leeds rather than weakening them, and the 1973–74 League campaign began with a 3–1 victory over Everton before gathering a force that no other club could immediately stop, as Revie’s men went through their opening twenty-nine matches without defeat and established the record unbeaten start that carried them towards the championship. Cherry played thirty-eight times in the League, mostly on the left side of the defence, and although the established stars attracted much of the attention, his balance and dependability mattered because Cooper was still working back towards full fitness and the side needed continuity during a run in which every opponent treated Leeds as the match they most wanted to win.
They could pass teams apart through Giles, Bremner and Lorimer, and Clarke or Jones could finish the moves, but the foundation remained a defence prepared to compete for every loose ball, with David Harvey in goal and Madeley, Hunter, Gordon McQueen, Paul Reaney and Cherry providing Revie with different combinations. The unbeaten sequence finally ended with a 3–2 loss at Stoke City on 23 February 1974, Cherry’s twenty-sixth birthday, but Leeds had built enough authority to survive a late wobble, and when Liverpool lost at home to Arsenal on 24 April the championship was secured before Leeds completed their fixtures. They finished five points clear under the two-points-for-a-win system, having lost only four times in forty-two matches, and for Cherry the medal represented much more than fortunate timing, because he had played virtually the whole season and had proved that he belonged inside one of England’s finest teams.
Revie left to become England manager during the summer of 1974, and Brian Clough’s extraordinary forty-four-day spell brought unrest, poor results and arguments before Jimmy Armfield arrived to restore order, while Cherry’s own 1974–75 season was interrupted by injury and never developed with the steady rhythm of the championship year. Leeds finished only ninth in the League, but Europe gave the older side one last chance to win the European Cup, and after eliminating Zürich, Újpest Dózsa and Anderlecht they met Barcelona in a semi-final carrying all the tension that such an occasion deserved. Cherry was asked to deal with Johan Cruyff whose movement, balance and imagination had made him the outstanding European player of the period, and the task demanded concentration rather than reckless aggression because the Dutchman could escape a challenge before it appeared to have been made.
The Peacocks won the first leg 2–1 at Elland Road on 9 April 1975 through goals from Billy Bremner and Allan Clarke, with Juan Manuel Asensi replying for Barcelona, and Cherry’s close attention restricted Cruyff’s influence, while the second leg at the Nou Camp on 23 April finished 1–1 after Peter Lorimer scored first and Manuel Clares equalised. That 3–2 aggregate victory put Leeds into the final against Bayern Munich, but Cherry had been suspended for domestic matches after being sent off at Manchester City and Armfield selected a settled defence for Paris, leaving him among the substitutes when the Yorkshire outfit lost 2–0 amid bitter arguments over refereeing decisions.
By then Charlton had retired and Bremner was nearing his own departure, so Cherry’s place at Leeds was changing from that of a versatile newcomer to one of the players expected to carry the club through the difficult years after Revie’s great side had begun to break apart. He won his first England cap under Revie on 24 March 1976, appearing in a 2–1 victory over Wales at Wrexham in the British Home Championship, and that selection recognised several seasons of consistent club football rather than a brief spell of fashionable form. When Bremner left Elland Road for Hull City later in 1976, Cherry became Leeds captain, an appointment that showed how completely he had earned the confidence of the dressing room, because the armband at that club carried the weight of Bremner’s leadership and the continuing expectations of supporters who had become accustomed to challenging for major honours.
Armfield’s younger Leeds side could still produce attractive football through men such as Tony Currie, Brian Flynn, Arthur Graham and Joe Jordan, while Cherry, Hunter, McQueen, Reaney and Harvey supplied experience, and the team finished fifth in 1975–76, tenth in 1976–77 and ninth in 1977–78. Those positions did not match the relentless standards of the early 1970s, but they were not evidence of a club collapsing overnight either, for Leeds remained difficult to beat and capable of defeating anybody, with Cherry moving between left-back and central defence while continuing to lead without turning every instruction into a public display.
PART THREE
International football brought a different examination, and Cherry’s evening against Argentina at Wembley on 13 May 1977 became remembered less for the 1–1 result than for a violent exchange with Daniel Bertoni, which followed Cherry’s late tackle from behind and Bertoni’s punch to his mouth. Cherry lost two teeth, both players were dismissed, and he became the first England player sent off in a senior international friendly, an unwanted entry in the record books that did not fairly describe the wider pattern of his twenty-seven appearances, yet could not be omitted from any honest account of them.
England’s failure to qualify for the 1978 World Cup added to the frustration of the period, with Italy taking the qualifying place on goal difference after both nations finished level on ten points, although Cherry remained involved under Ron Greenwood and became useful because he could fill either full-back position or play in the centre when required. At club level, Leeds were now changing managers and personnel with increasing frequency, as Armfield left in 1978 and Jock Stein stayed for only forty-four days before becoming Scotland manager, after which Jimmy Adamson took charge and guided the side to fifth place in 1978–79.
Cherry remained captain and made his contribution amid that instability, while the emergence of younger players altered the balance of the team and placed a greater demand upon the older men to hold its shape. Leeds could no longer assume that another championship challenge was around the corner, but Cherry continued to treat every match as work requiring full attention, and supporters valued him because his standards did not depend upon whether a medal was waiting in May.
England finally qualified for a major tournament when they secured a place at the 1980 European Championship in Italy, and Cherry, now thirty-two, was chosen in Greenwood’s twenty-two-man squad after taking part in the qualifying campaign. Before the finals England toured Australia, and on 31 May 1980 he captained his country for the only time as Greenwood’s side beat Australia 2–1 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with Glenn Hoddle and Paul Mariner scoring the goals, an honour that placed a man who had once swept the terraces and carried out ground-staff duties at Leeds Road at the head of the national team.
The European Championship itself proved less satisfying, for England drew 1–1 with Belgium and suffered a 1–0 defat to Italy, leaving their hopes almost finished before the final group match against Spain in Naples on 18 June, when Cherry came on as a substitute for Kenny Sansom during a 2–1 victory secured by goals from Trevor Brooking and Tony Woodcock. It was his only appearance in the tournament and his twenty-seventh and final England cap, and because he had never scored internationally, the bare figures can appear modest beside those of players who occupied one fixed position for many years, but his value lay in reliability across the defence and in the trust successive managers placed in him. He had represented England between 1976 and 1980, had captained the country and had reached a major finals, and although the team’s wider results during those years were uneven, his selection was earned through the same adaptability that had first taken him into Huddersfield Town’s senior side.
The closing seasons at Leeds became increasingly difficult as the club’s decline gathered speed, although Cherry’s own contribution was recognised when supporters voted him Player of the Year for 1980–81, a season in which Allan Clarke replaced Adamson as manager and Leeds finished ninth. Clarke had been Cherry’s teammate in the championship side and understood the standards Elland Road expected, but the attacking strength of earlier years had disappeared, goals were scarce and the pressure grew heavier as the team slipped into trouble during 1981–82. Cherry, now thirty-four, was still playing regularly and carrying the captaincy, but experience alone could not solve a shortage of goals or prevent the nervousness that spread through a side facing relegation, and Leeds went into their final match at West Bromwich Albion on 15 May 1982 needing a victory while also depending upon other results.
They lost 2–0 at The Hawthorns, with Cyrille Regis and Peter Eastoe scoring, and the defeat confirmed relegation to the Second Division only eight years after Cherry had helped Leeds become champions of England. He stayed for the beginning of the 1982–83 season and spent roughly three months playing in the Second Division, showing loyalty to a club for which he had made 486 appearances in all competitions and scored thirty-three goals, including 399 League appearances and twenty-four League goals. His time at Elland Road had contained the 1974 championship, the 1973 FA Cup final, the 1975 European Cup run, the captaincy and nearly a decade of service, but it ended without ceremony as Leeds tried to rebuild and Cherry accepted an opportunity only a short distance away.
PART FOUR
Bradford City appointed him player-manager in November 1982 after Roy McFarland left controversially for Derby County, and Cherry brought former Leeds colleague Terry Yorath in as his assistant, thereby exchanging a struggling Second Division side for a club trying to establish itself in the Third Division after promotion. The first weeks were hard, as Bradford waited more than two months for a victory under the new management team, but Cherry and Yorath steadied the players and eventually guided them to twelfth place, while the manager continued appearing in defence and learned that selecting a team was only a small part of running a lower-division club.
Bradford City entered liquidation during the summer of 1983 and faced the possibility of disappearing, yet Stafford Heginbotham and Jack Tordoff formed a new company that allowed City to continue, although financial survival required the sale of leading scorer Bobby Campbell to Derby and forced Cherry to operate with little room for expensive mistakes. The 1983–84 season began poorly, with only one victory in the first fifteen League games, but Campbell’s later return transformed the attack and Bradford climbed away from danger before finishing seventh, helped by a club-record sequence of ten consecutive League victories.
Bradford City carried that progress into 1984–85, and with Campbell scoring heavily, Yorath directing play, Peter Jackson developing in defence and young Stuart McCall supplying energy in midfield, Cherry produced a side that combined experience, organisation and attacking power without spending money the club did not possess. City rose to the top of the Third Division and stayed there through the decisive months, while Cherry reduced his playing duties but remained ready when injuries or circumstances demanded, and his final appearance came at Valley Parade on Monday, 6 May 1985, when Bradford beat Bolton Wanderers 2–0 to secure the championship.
It should have stood as the perfect last match for a thirty-seven-year-old player-manager: a clean sheet, promotion, a divisional title and the completion of work that had begun amid financial crisis, while Cherry’s management was recognised with the Third Division Manager of the Season award. Five days later, on 11 May, Bradford were due to receive the championship trophy after their final League game against Lincoln City, and the afternoon began in celebration before fire broke out in the old wooden main stand shortly before half-time. Flames swept through the structure with terrible speed, fifty-six people were killed and hundreds were injured, and football immediately became unimportant beside the scale of loss suffered by families and by the wider Bradford community.
Management after the Valley Parade fire required much more than preparing footballers to win matches, because Bradford had been promoted to the Second Division but had lost their home, their familiar routines and members of the community who had followed the club week after week. During 1985–86 City played designated home fixtures at Odsal Stadium in Bradford, Elland Road in Leeds and Leeds Road in Huddersfield, and each ground carried a different surface and atmosphere, while the players travelled through a season in which almost every opponent and every crowd was conscious of what had happened. Cherry held the side together and guided Bradford to thirteenth place, a solid finish for a promoted club living without a settled home, and the achievement showed patient management rather than a sudden tactical trick, because training, travel and the emotional demands upon players and staff had to be handled for months.
The exile continued into 1986–87 while Valley Parade was rebuilt at a cost of about £2.6 million, and Bradford finally returned there on Boxing Day 1986 for a match against Derby County, an occasion that joined relief with remembrance as League football came back to the ground after nineteen months. Yet only ten days after that return, in January 1987, Cherry was dismissed with the team struggling near the lower end of the table, and the decision shocked supporters who believed his work through insolvency, promotion, disaster and displacement had earned him greater patience. Demonstrations followed, but the board did not reverse its decision, and Terry Dolan succeeded him.
Cherry did not rush into another managerial post, and after leaving Bradford he stepped away from professional football for a number of years, choosing business life in Huddersfield rather than joining the usual procession of former players moving from one short appointment to another. He ran a promotions and hospitality company, worked in the waste-paper trade and operated a five-a-side football centre, and those activities suited the practical character that had carried him from Huddersfield Town’s ground staff to the captaincy of Leeds United and England. Football never disappeared entirely, however, because his connection with the West Yorkshire clubs remained strong, and in 2004 he became involved in an attempt to invest in Leeds United when the club was facing severe financial difficulties, although the bid did not lead to control.
The University of Huddersfield awarded him an honorary degree in November 2005, recognising both his sporting achievements and his place in the local community, while Leeds supporters had already voted him the club’s thirtieth-greatest player in a poll held in 2000. Such recognition mattered because Cherry’s best work had often supported more celebrated men: he filled the position Cooper’s injury had left open, accepted the responsibility that followed Bremner’s departure and marked Cruyff while others supplied the goals, but teammates and regular supporters understood the worth of a defender who could be trusted in almost any part of the back line.