Leicester, The Lord and The Mob - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lord Kinnaird passed away on January 30th, 1923. His funeral took place on Friday February 1st, and the following day. black armbands were worn by players at all football games. Leicester City lost 1-0 at home to Cardiff City. That it was an FA Cup tie is very appropriate for this story, but to provide a more satisfactory climax to this sequence of remarkable coincidences, we need something a bit more spectacular - and that's exactly what historical events provided us with.

February 16th  1997. Exactly 150 years on from Arthur Kinnaird's birth and the last Leicester Shrove Tuesday game. Leicester are playing in the 5th Round of the FA Cup at home to Chelsea. It ends 2-2 so there has to be a replay at Stamford Bridge, and there has to be one more contribution from our Lord...

When Arthur died in 1923, the title 'Lord Kinnaird' passed on to his son, and then later to his grandson. But that was the end of the line. Graham Kinnaird was the father of four daughters, but his only son died aged just 4, so when Graham died on February 27th 1997, the title 'Lord Kinnaird' was no more. There was very little mention in the media of the event. The papers that day were full of another story. On every back page, and several inside pages too, was the fury of Martin O'Neill, whose dream of bringing a first ever major trophy to Leicester had been taken away in scandalous circumstances by referee Mike Reed's penalty decision at Chelsea the previous night.

Mike Reed himself was giving his side of the story that day, and telling the press about his ordeal after the match:

Here's the detail:

Mike Reed got off lightly. There's a powerful echo of 1847 in the events he describes, but had the spirit of 150 years earlier truly reawakened that night, Leicester fans would have gathered en masse and headed for his house (Danny Baker was actually fired by the BBC the next day for suggesting something similar on Radio 5). 

Just in case you need a reminder: