" 'Ton up plus' by Peter Lorimer, Leeds United.

Leeds United pay me to score goals for them. Well, nothing gives me a bigger thrill than hitting the net. As I have done so well over one hundred times as a Leeds player, you can see I have had a lot of pleasure from my football. I suppose most people think of me as the fellow with the big shot. I have scored as many goals from six yards as I have from thirty - yet fans always seem to remember the big bombers.

According to a competition run a year or two back, I have the hardest measured shot in the game - having registered a right foot wallop of 74.9 m.p.h At the trial I had only managed a 70 m.p.h. best. But, on the day of the competition, I knew I was hitting the ball well. My best efforts beat such well-known the hot shots as David Herd, then with Manchester United, and Tommy Gemmell of Celtic.

Of course, I love to score, with a thirty yard bomb hit right on the button, but I'll take a goal anyway it comes. And I'll be especially keen to stick one in with my head. In all my time as a senior I have scored only one goal that way. It happened against Crystal Palace a couple of seasons ago. I reckoned I scored another with my head against Southampton, but my mates wouldn't have it. They thought so little of my heading work they had bet me I wouldn't score one with the head all season. When the scorer went in against Southampton they came up with the excuse I had knuckled the ball in and the goal shouldn't count. I didn't get another with my head, so I wouldn't pay at the end of the season - and neither would they. Indeed, my heading is something of a club joke. I keep working at it, but I'm not quite in the Mick Jones class yet.

Strangely enough, the goal that most people remember me scoring was disallowed. It happened in an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Villa Park. I came on as substitute in the dying minutes - with Chelsea leading one nil. Before I had even got warmed up properly we were given a free kick on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area. Johnny Giles tapped the free-kick to me and I let fire with the right peg. It flew through the Chelsea defensive wall and beat keeper Peter Bonetti all ends up.

It seemed a good goal, but the referee called us back because he reckoned he had not blown for a 'free' to be taken - or that the Chelsea wall had moved and was not ten yards from the ball when the kick was made.We never really found out the reason - because there was pandemonium out on the pitch with every Leeds player wanting to know why the goal was ruled out. But it was disallowed and Chelsea went on to Wembley. It wasn't much consolation that Spurs beat them in the final.

Goals tend to fade in memory over the years, but one does linger pleasurably in the mind. It was scored for Scotland against England in a youth international. The game went on at Ibrox Park, home of the famous Glasgow Rangers, and I remember the pitch was very heavy. Late in the game I got the ball in my own half of the field. I took on the three English defenders and managed to get past them. I passed the ball to the left and kept on running. When it came back I just had enough strength left to swing my boot. The shot was right. It beat the English keeper from twenty yards out. It was, I'm safe to say, the goal that made me a senior. Later that year I signed for Leeds and went South.

I may have over one hundred goals , I score when the chance crops up. I pack a wallop, but we can always miss them. One chance that went astray still gives me the shudders just to think about. We were playing Sunderland at Hull in a second replay of an FA Cup tie. All three games were very close, nervous affairs, with chances few and far between. Suddenly, I got a ball crossed to me when I was practically standing on the Sunderland goal line. I should have gobbled it, but, incredibly, I screwed a header past the post. I couldn't believe it. I just wanted the ground to open up and suck me down.

But you seldom stay down too long in football. The heart breaks and disappointments can be forgotten in one glorious day when everything clicks. It happened to me one particular day in the game against Burnley at Elland Road. I got possession about thirty yards out - with two defenders blocking the path to goal. I flicked the ball up over the heads of the first man. As the second came in at me I caught the ball on my knee and nudged the ball over his head as well. Then, around twenty yards out, I went round the Burnley man and hit a shot on the volley before the ball had touched the ground. It went like a rocket for a goal I won't forget in a hurry.

On reflection, a lot of my goals have been scored around the twenty yards range. I always fancy my chance to score against any keeper in the world if I catch one right from that distance. He may see the ball in flight, but, by the time he gets across the pace has beaten him. But, as a schoolboy back in Dundee, I probably scored more goals by chipping the ball. I was was a big lad for my age. And a lot of school teams had a very small goalies.

The best move was to lob the ball just under the bar and the poor wee fellows couldn't do a thing about it! Unfortunately, there aren't many First Division keepers around who will fall for the lob. So I will have to keep belting in the big shots. And who knows - I might even manage a header or two to keep my team mates quiet.

Mention of my team-mates brings the chance to say how much I appreciate their help. The guy who scores the goals get the headlines. But if he is short of support from the men around him he might as well stay in the dressing room. With Leeds I am surrounded by players who will be run their studs off to give me a shooting chance. I reckon I owe these blokes a few goals.

Not that I'm the only forward at Elland Road who hits the net. We have tip-top fellows like Allan Clarke and Mick Jones hunting around the box. Plus my great friend Eddie Gray. Eddie once scored the sort of goal I would love to knock in. Strangely enough, it was also against Burnley. He took on and beat five defenders in ten yards before slipping the ball home. I haven't got the fantastic close control Eddie showed then, so I don't often try to beat more than one opponent at the time. And that is the secret of the professional game. Play to your strengths. Eddie can dribble and I can shoot.

Here's hoping we both pick-up a healthy share of goals this season. As I said at the start - there's nothing in football like the thrill of seeing the ball tucked in the back of the net."

From, "The Topical Times Football Book 1971-72". D.C.Thomson and Co., Ltd : London .

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