Leighton James might only have played 57 games for us but to hear of his passing late on Friday night at the age of 71 was still desperately sad. By the time he joined us in 1983, he’d been long established as “Super Taff”, the Ryan Giggs of his generation.
Born in Loughor near Swansea, he joined Burnley as a bit bairn in 1970, and racked up 180 games for them before moving to Derby in 1975, and it was there that we as Sunderland fans got to know him. In a game at a typically clarty Baseball Ground in late 1976, he worked up Joe Bolton so much by shielding the ball at the corner flag that Joe simply hoofed him up in the air. When he repeated the trick a minute later, Billy Hughes had to pick up Joe and carry him to a place of safety from a sending off and Leighton not only got booked, but scored the game’s only goal.
That was Leighton, you hated him playing against you, but loved him in your side, and from Derby he moved to QPR before going back to Turf Moor for a couple of years and then heading home to Swansea for three seasons. Then it was to Roker on a free in January 1983, to add experience to our struggling side. In his eighteen games in his first season at Roker, he managed a couple of goals as he cajoled performances out of the likes of youthful protégée Ally McCoist and fellow veteran Frank Worthington with a drop of the shoulder that wrong-footed many a fullback. It’s fair to say that by the time he arrived on Wearside at just shy of his thirtieth birthday he’d calmed down a bit and was less the workie-ticket of old and much more a clever wide man willing to pass on the benefit of his experience to young ‘uns like Paul Atkinson.
Cleverly managed by Alan Durham who obviously saw what Leighton could bring to our side when we needed it, and while we might have only finished 16th, some of the clever stuff he and Frank produced was pure entertainment. Off the pitch, he was a popular neighbour in Whitburn, where. Like Jamesy, they also like their cricket. Our mid-table finish the following campaign, with Leighton as penalty taker when injury forced Gary Rowell out of the side, brought both his goals that season, then he was off to Bury just before the 1984-85 season began, but not until after he’d scored his 100th league goal with us.
Spells at Newport, as player-coach, and another one at Burnley followed before he finally hung up his boots and moved into management at a string of clubs, Gainsborough Trinity, Morecambe, Netherfield, Ilkeston, Accrington Stanley, Llaneli (twice), Garden Village, Halsingden, Aberaman, and Haverfordwest. As a Swansea fan working as a pundit, he once commented that he’d like Barnsley to beat Cardiff in the FA Cup in 2008 and was subsequently banned from the Beeb for a while, prompting Cardiff fan Leigh Bailey to record the song “Leighton James don’t like us”. Away from football, Leighton was a better than decent cricketer, loved his rugby (Welsh, you see), and was voted Lollipop Man of the Year in 2007 in Swansea, where he watched the roads outside his nephew’s school. He suffered a stroke last November, and apparently never fully recovered from that before he sadly passed away.
For us, 57 games and four goals. In total, 645 games and 124 goals, with another 10 goals in 54 games for Wales. A proper entertainer, and a sad loss. R.I.P. Super Taff.
