Having been retired since 2016, Chris Kirkland enjoyed a professional career that spanned almost 20 years, signing his first senior contract withCoventry City in 1998. Making his debut the following year, Kirkland quickly became regarded as one of England’s brightest goalkeeping prospects.
In 2001,Liverpool made the decision to sign Kirkland, who had impressed the Reds during his time with Coventry. Signed to be the understudy of Jerzy Dudek, Kirkland never went on to becoming a consistent part of theLiverpool first team as the club expected, instead struggling massively with injury problems.
After spending time away from Anfield on loan withWest Brom andWigan Athletic, Kirkland joined the latter permanently in 2006, where he finally found fitness and as a result, consistency. Kirkland was perhaps at his best with Wigan where, across his first four seasons, he played regularly to help the club maintain their Premier League status.
Kirkland joinedSheffield Wednesday in 2012, where he would make almost a century of league appearances before having brief stints with Preston and Bury ahead of his retirement. In 2020, speaking on the Under The Cosh podcast, Kirkland reflected on a well-remembered incident during his time with the Owls.
Chris Kirkland Assaulted by a Leeds Fan
In 2012, Wednesday hostedLeeds United at Hillsborough in aChampionship clash. The hosts took an early lead, only for the Whites to equalise with about a quarter of the game remaining. Soon after Leeds levelled the score, however, Kirkland was attacked on the pitch by an on-rushing Leeds fan. He said:
“To this day, I’d never seen the lad until he was there [next to Kirkland]. I was gutted because the goal went in – we were 1-0 up and it was the 77th minute when they equalised. When you let a goal in as a keeper, you’re deflated. If anyone touches you, you’ll go.”[The fan] caught me [with his palm] but it hit my nose. I didn’t know what had happened and then I fell down, I’ve heard all the stuff behind the goal and everything like that. You come round and think, ‘Did that really just happen?’ It was shock. (For) the last 13 minutes, I just wanted to get off the pitch.“
Kirkland Confronts Neil Warnock
Managing Leeds at the time was the veteranNeil Warnock, who spent just over a year in charge of the Whites between 2012 and 2013. As Kirkland himself remembered, the now-76-year-old was quick to comment on the incident, which naturally dominated headlines in the aftermath of the match.
“After the game, he [Warnock] said something in the press, [that I have] gone down far too easy and it’s going to make the Leeds fans look terrible. I was in that much shock and I was upset, really upset, so I went into the dressing room and said a few words to him. He was in his white pants, just out of the shower. I said, ‘What are you f****** saying? You’re always the same, always f****** saying things.’ I gave him a shove and he went flying over the tables.
“All of a sudden, I had about 25 Leeds staff and players just coming for me. I was in there with the (Sheffield Wednesday) Chief Executive, Paul Aldridge. Quickly, the police from the tunnel came and I got dragged out. I’m glad I did it. He’s done things like that in the past, he says things. He rang me a couple of days after and apologised.”
Death Threats from Leeds Supporters
Following the game, Kirkland was the recipient of mass amounts of abuse from Leeds fans, with Wednesday set to visit Elland Road just months after the incident for their second league encounter of the season. As Kirkland himself said, the match proved to be a “nightmare,” given that Leeds supporters had not forgotten what unfolded at Hillsborough.
“That was tough, but going back to Elland Road was a nightmare. I think it was three months after, I looked for it after the game. I was getting death threats leading up to it, saying if you play at Elland Road, we’re going to kill you, kill your family. I had letters through the door, they had to put guards on the hotel room the night before the game, we stayed in Leeds and I thought, ‘big mistake, we shouldn’t be doing that.’
“As I’ve gone out to warm up at Elland Road, there were about four policemen that came over and said, ‘Look, we’ve received death threats today at the game about you, so we’re going to have to put armed police on each of your posts.’ This was before my warm-up and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t really want that,’ they said, ‘Listen, we can’t not do it, there’s been threats made against you.’”
Undercover Officers at Elland Road
Police presences at football matches are scarcely uncommon, but given the level of threats that Kirkland had received ahead of his side’s game at Elland Road, the goalkeeper was the recipient of heightened protection. It was to such a level that undercover officers were placed close to the goal for Kirkland’s safety.
“They’ve (the Police) said they’re undercover, so you won’t notice them, but they are there for you, dressed as normal people. For the whole 90 minutes, I got abused. We got told, if a ball goes behind the goal, don’t go and get it. Let the ball get thrown back to you or let one of the other players get it.”
Kirkland continued in his reflection and when asked what he felt Leeds fans thought he had done, the retired goalkeeper commented on how tribal football can sometimes be, saying:
“He was one of their own. [The man who struck Kirkland] got locked up, he got sent down for six months. It’s football fans sometimes, isn’t it? Leeds is a hostile place anyway. There were 6,000 (Leeds fans) at Hillsborough, having 35,000 of them on top of you? I couldn’t wait to get out of the ground.”I got told never to go back to Leeds again, that if I stepped foot in Leeds again, I wouldn’t make it out of Leeds…It wasn’t a nice experience. The club [Sheffield Wednesday] went to court on my behalf. The whole game was evil…It was on a Friday night, the first game at Hillsborough. It should never have been on a Friday night, they were all drunk. It was just a toxic atmosphere…I’m glad I’ve not had to go back (to Leeds) since, thankfully.”
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