The one and only Johnny Giles was chatting to Ger Gilroy in his regular spot on Newstalk's 'Off The Ball' on Thursday night, and he revealed that the tactic of wasting time by holding the ball at the opposition's corner flag was invented by the great Leeds United side that he was a part of.
After a discussion about crowd trouble sparked by the ugly scenes in London Stadium between West Ham and Chelsea fans on Tuesday, Giles told of how stuff like that simply didn't happen back in his day.
He told a fascinating story about one time when tension in the crowd threatened to spill over at an away trip to Everton, as Leeds had been branded as a dirty side, and other teams would play up to that reputation to measure their toughness.
Giles suggested that some aspects of the reputation held against that Leeds side was deserved, and admitted that they used gamesmanship to their favour on more than one occasion, including a new trick that was seen as "ungentlemanly" at the time, but is now a standard aspect of football.
Maybe some of it [criticism] was deserved, some of it wasn't.
For example, Leeds were probably the first team to hold the ball in the corner when we were winning. That was seen as gamesmanship, that's "dirty Leeds" that.
Jack Charlton was the first to go under the bar [and challenge the goalkeeper] for free-kicks and corner-kicks, because Eddie Gray could swing them under the bar. That was supposed to be "wrong", it wasn't gentlemanly.
All the teams started to do it, all the teams now play for the time they get in the corner flag, we were probably the first to do it. Then everybody started doing it.
Indeed, to this day, every team does it. Of course Big Jack would get a mention as well.
Giles and his Leeds United teammates in the Sixties may have invented it... But Jonny Walters perfected it.
We simply couldn't let this story go without sharing one of our favourite ever Irish football clips from that memorable night at home to Germany.
Thank you John Giles, Eddie Gray, Billy Bremner & Co., that tactic has proven absolutely vital to Ireland down the years.
So next time you see someone holding the ball in the corner, or someone pressuring the goalkeeper at a set-piece, you can tell anyone around you that John Giles and the boys did it first.
You can listen to Giles on 'Off The Ball' in full over on Newstalk.ie
