Leicester, The Lord and The Mob - Chapter 1

If you watched the TV series 'The English Game' you'll know all about the central role of Arthur Kinnaird in the development of the game. One story that hasn't been told before is the remarkable way Kinnaird's story ties in with the history of Leicester City and the FA Cup. It's a story in three chapters, and I hope I can post the three parts here in time for our Cup tie at the weekend.

Chapter 1

It's July 31st 1890, and as the FA Council meet at their new HQ in Chancery Lane, there are several items on the agenda. First they have to approve applications from several teams that wish to join the Association, one from a team called 'Leicester Fosse'. Their application is accepted, along with 12 others. In the following day's newspapers, people across the country would have read about our club for the first time, although depending on where they lived, the impression would have been very different. In the Nottingham Evening Post the club was referred to as 'Fosse (Leicester), in the Birmingham Daily Post we were called 'Lester Fosse', while readers of the Sheffield Evening Telegraph were told there were two different teams, 'Leicester' and 'Fosse'. 

These 12 new teams were also entered into the FA Cup for the first time. The draw for the qualifying round was due to take place six weeks later, by which time the FA Council would have a very different character, for another item on the agenda that day was the resignation of the president, Major Marindin (the bad guy in the TV series who plots to get Blackburn Rovers thrown out of the Cup). Who would replace Marindin? There was one obvious candidate - the current treasurer, Lord Kinnaird, the man who played in nine Cup Finals and whose progressive outlook helped prevent a ruinous split between amateurs and professionals.  The vote, like the FA Cup draw, would have to wait for the next meeting.

September 1st.  Back at Chancery Lane, the draw for the qualifying round of the FA Cup takes place. In 'Number Four Division' of qualifying (the East Midlands section), Leicester Fosse are drawn at home to Burton Wanderers. So there will be an FA Cup tie in the town for the first time, at the Mill Lane ground to which the Fosse had moved just a year earlier.  When the draw is over, the meeting moves on to the election of the new president, and as expected, Lord Kinnaird is the man chosen. He would hold the post until the day he died, 33 years later.

An historic day, then, for the Lord and the Fosse. 

October 4th.    FA Cup Qualifying First Round. The current holders are Blackburn Rovers, who'd beaten The Wednesday 6-0 in April to take the trophy for the fourth time. If they win it again this season, Jimmy Forrest will equal Lord Kinnaird's record of five winners' medals.  Rovers have just moved to Ewood Park, a ground that a few weeks later would be smashed to pieces in a riot far worse than the minor scuffle at their previous ground that was depicted in The English Game (the one used as a pretext for Marindin to throw them out of the Cup).

At Mill Lane, Leicester's hopes of progress are dashed. Burton Wanderers win 2-0, and Leicester supporters feel that crushing sense of disappointment that would be repeated more than 100 times before we finally won the trophy. Three weeks later, Leicester fans would have been wondering how on earth this lot managed to win at Mill Lane. Burton Wanderers' game in the next round was at Loughborough, where they lost 8-0. Reporters in those days didn't mince words - the Burton keeper 'was not to be relied upon in the least' , while 'a palpable weakness in the Burton team was their inability to shoot correctly'.

But you want to know about the Ewood Park riot, right?

On Christmas Day, Rovers were due to play a friendly against local rivals Darwen (yes, the same fixture that led to the scuffles a decade earlier). There was an icy pitch, and Rovers decided not to risk their first team players with crucial games coming up (they'd been drawn away to Middlesbrough Ironopolis in the First Round Proper of the FA Cup). Darwen walked out and saw they'd be facing a second XI. They decided to walk straight back to the dressing room and send out their own reserves too. The crowd didn't like it one bit, and asked for their money back. When this was refused, a full scale riot ensued. As the players and officials cowered inside the club offices:

Stones from the partly finished cycling track were used to break windows, any moveable articles in the grandstand were taken and smashed, the goalposts broken and the club flag torn up.

Merry Christmas!

There were no real repercussions for Rovers, and after winning at Middlesbrough, they went all the way to the Final where they beat Notts County 4-1 to give Jimmy Forrest that fifth medal. The man whose record he equaled, Lord Kinnaird, presented it to him.

Leicester Fosse invited beaten finalists Notts County to Mill Lane for a friendly a month later, when 'far and away the largest crowd seen on the ground' saw a 2-2 draw. Fosse's days at Mill Lane were numbered, however. The ground would never host another FA Cup game. The radical Leicester Corporation, in its drive to provide sanitary conditions for all its residents, had the land earmaked for new housing. The following season, after a few games at Grace Road, Fosse themselves found a new home, close to Walnut Street. Unlike Ewood Park, the first season at this new ground would not be witness to mass rioting. But don't think for a moment that in 19th century Leicester there there was no reason for the authorities to worry about mass urban unrest related to football. Far from it - as we will see in Chapter 2 of Leicester, the Lord and the Mob.