kushiro

League Match No. 42 / 42 Saturday May 2nd 1925 Leicester City v Stockport County The reviews of our promotion campaign all highlighted two key moments back in the autumn which turned things around after a shaky start. One was Johnny Duncan's return to his favourite inside-right position, the other was manager Peter Hodge handing him the captaincy. He was the man of the season. And he would be the man of this final day. Our regular XI was back together again, and also making a welcome return was our scoring touch. Early on, Chandler made a 'thrilling effort to go through on his own' before being blocked, then after half an hour we took the lead. Adcock played a simple ball to Duncan who 'trapped it, sidestepped keeper Molyneux and sent it into the net amid great cheering'. Six minutes later Channy set off again. 'Running strongly from midfield, he slipped past all opposition and, maintaining perfect control over the ball, scored with a wonderful left-foot drive from 20 yards'. After 63 minutes, 'Duncan put the game beyond doubt, finishing off a Wadsworth - Chandler move with a left-foot shot'. Then ten minutes from time, 'delightful work between Carr and Adcock' led to Carr adding a fourth. After so much tension and grinding out of results in recent weeks, it was a relaxed afternoon. We rediscovered our fluency and played like the best team in the Division. But then just before the end and our confirmation as champions, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Duncan tried a shot in the area and fell under the challenge of a Stockport defender. His right arm took the weight of his fall, and he lay still on the ground. Concerned teammates gathered around and he was carried off, 'clearly in great pain', and taken straight to the Royal Infirmary. He had 'dislocated both bones in his elbow' and doctors placed him under general anaesthetic. The final whistle blew, and the celebrations could begin. Once again the crowd surged onto the pitch, but as Channy admitted later, 'we felt a little miserable that Johnny wasn't there with us'. The band played 'See The Conquering Hero Comes', then the players appeared on the balcony at the front of the Main Stand to renewed cheers, just as doctors were piecing our captain's shattered arm back together. Standing next to Channy is Lord Mayor Herbert Simpson When Duncan came round later, nurses were amazed by his first words. 'George, over here!', he mumbled as he slowly came to his senses. He was still in the thick of the action, expecting a pass from George Carr. When he left hospital later that evening there was a large crowd there to greet him. As the Mercury reported, 'the City captain then headed for a nursing home to see Mrs. John Duncan and their little baby girl, who will be told in due course that she came into the world when her father was leading the City proudly on to the Championship'. Somehow, events at Filbert Street were not the biggest news in Leicestershire sport that day. The national papers were full of the exploits of County batsman Jack King, who had recently turned 54. Today was the opening day of the cricket season, and Leicestershire started against Sussex at Hove. We batted first and after losing early wickets, Jack came to the crease and calmed things down. Four hours later he had reached his century. He was the oldest man ever to score a first class century - apart from W.G. Grace. Jack was already fourteen years old when Leicester Fosse were formed back in 1884. Four decades on, we finally had our first trophy, which would be presented the following Friday at the De Montfort Hall. As Kernel in the Football Post, reflecting on the season, put it, 'the hosiery town had its best team in the whole of its history, and its achievements in League and Cup gained for the club a place in the football world hitherto undreamt of'.

'VAR only ours' - United (That's an anagram)

All those blokes called 'Johnson' at the birth of Leicester Fosse make it a bit confusing. The benefactor of the club in the early years, Joseph Johnson, was a boot and shoe manufacturer, and not directly related to the Joseph Johnson who owned the department store that @davieG mentions above (we've been messaging each other about it). The Fosse guy had five sons, and four of them played for the club in the early years. Even the normally infallible Of Fossils and Foxes had trouble keeping track - in the first two editions of the book they said Simon Johnson, who played for us a little later, was one of those brothers. In later editions they corrected it (see the alphabetical players section). That same Simon Johnson, commonly known as 'Jimmy', is about to enter this story.

This is pretty entertaining: https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/110491-bench-vardy/

Friendly match Thursday April 30th 1925 Leicester City v Airdrieonians This was our only friendly game of the season. Here's the report from the Mercury: Those people who saw in the visit of the Airdrieonians to Leicester the chance of seeing a great exhibition of association football were right. Round about 18,000 had the good sense to go to Filbert Street and all of them will be very glad that they went. The Leicestershire Cricket Club who are to receive the proceeds of the match will benefit handsomely. Leicester city won by three goals to one but it is one of the peculiarities of football that the score does not necessarily represent therRun of play. If Airdrie were beaten they had a full share of the honours and a very full amount of what bad luck was going. Their first misfortune was to lose the services of Willie Russell, Scottish international inside-right, who, midway through the first half was the victim of an accident that left him with a dislocated nose, the result of inadvertently running into Hooper's boot as he was stooping in the goal mouth. After being seen by a doctor he was taken to the Royal Infirmary for treatment and was able to rejoin his colleagues in the dressing room, cheerful but a little uncomfortable with his nose bandaged. This incident apart the match was a great success. All the scoring took place in the first 23 minutes. George Carr scored in four minutes when he met a centre from Duncan and gave Ewart no chance at all. Three minutes later Duncan netted following a center from Wadsworth, the goalkeeper appearing to get his fingers to the ball. Russell netted in the course of some exciting exchanges close in, Airdrie being rather surprised to find the referee disallowing a goal, and the Scotsman had real bad luck afterwards, the home defense being well beaten in a skirmish with Godderidge drawn out of position. The case looked hopeless when the inside right shot. Adam Black however, standing on the line, pulled the ball down with his hands. The penalty availed the visitors nothing, Somerville shooting straight at Godderidge. Airdrie cut down the lead after a determined right wing attack, the ball being crossed to the opposite flank when's a shot from McPhail succeeded, the ball being probably over the line before Summerville added another touch. Quickly afterwards came Leicester's third goal, Chandler forcing an opening after Carr had shot into the ruck. ******** Love that line 'inadvertently running into Hooper's boot'. A bit like this: The Mercury also had this cartoon showing Leicestershire's George Geary running the line: Ewart Astill was linesman on the other side. The crowd of 18,000 was more than most Second Division teams attracted for League games, and they'd all be back in two days time to see if we could round off the season with the points to make us champions. On the Friday, the Leicester Chronicle included this 'souvenir print': And on the same day, this letter appeared in the Mercury: Could that be Joseph Johnson? He was a Fosse player in the very early days, and son of the club's great benefactor, Joseph Johnson Sr., whose niece Annie, as the story goes, suggested a site by the canal as the prefect place for a football ground when the club were made homeless in the early 1890s.

The linesmen for the game will be Ewart Astill and George Geary - the two legends of Leicestershire County Cricket between the wars. Report on the game coming up tomorrow.

It's time to reveal the PFA team of the year. Or at least, its equivalent. The organization wasn't called the PFA in those days, it was the 'Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union'. And they didn't ask their members to vote for the best players of the season. That only began five decades later. But it's fun to imagine who might have been selected. Not PFA, just IMHO. With Leicester City universally recognised as the outstanding team in the Second Division, you'd expect them to dominate, and though not quite matching the EIGHT West Ham players selected in 1980/81, there are five of our men in the line-up, a total that matches Tottenham in 1977/78 when Glenn Hoddle, Peter Taylor (yes him) and a Scottish forward called John Duncan (no relation) made the XI. Here's the team: Hugh Adcock only narrowly missed making it six Leicester men. If he'd kept up his early season form he'd have been a shoe-in. And two future Leicester signings were also close - Barnsley's Ernie Hine and Man U's Arthur Lochhead - both inside lefts. Other familiar names who missed out were our old friends Fairy Fairclough and Paddy Mills, Channy edging them out for the centre forward slot. Leicester's Jack Bamber and Harry Wadsworth are in partnership on the left hand side in that line up, and they had been teammates in the Liverpool squad that won the League in 1923: Neither actually won a medal, though. Bamber made only four appearances, Wadsworth just three. The man in that 'PFA' line-up whose place is beyond dispute is Johnny Duncan. Had that other body, the Football Writers' Associaiton, been in existence then, he may have been the first player from outside the top flight to win their player of the year award (it's happened only once in reality - Stanley Matthews with Stoke City in 1963). Having followed reports in the national and local press of every Leicester game this season, it's clear that Duncan's standing really was that high. The only player who may have challenged him is Billy Gillespie, who had just led Sheffield United to victory at Wembley (and who Athletic News' top reporter Ivan Sharpe had recently likened to Duncan). Speaking of that Wembley victory, some of you may have noticed that wikipedia were also in '100 year anniversary' mood this weekend. This was their top page: And there's a lot more to say before this 100 year celebration ends, starting with the state of the game in the East Midlands. We always think of our local rivals as Derby and Forest. But with us clinching promotion, Derby failing to join us, and Forest relegated from Division One, there would be a unique local rivalry in the top flight the following season. 1925/26 would be the only campaign where the East Midlands' banner in the top flight was carried by Leicester City and Notts County. This cartoon in the Football Post shows Derby's Ram being consoled by the Forest guy: 'Never mind, old chap, you'll be playing us next season'. Our final League game of the season is just five days away, but before that, Willie Orr's Airdire will be at Filbert Street for that friendly game to raise funds for Leicestershire County Cricket Club. And this is where I have to correct something. I said the Scottish League title had been in Airdrie's hands as their superior goal average would mean they'd finish above Rangers if they won their last two games. In the end they blew it, but in fact had the two clubs finished level, goal average would not have come into play. There would have been a play-off for the title - a 'rubber', as it was called in Scotland. This was cleared up after a disussion on the Rangers fans forum: History Buffs Please Help Me Out | FollowFollow.com The Leicester City board were hoping for a bumper gate on Thursday evening. This was the ad in the local press:

League Match No. 41 / 42 Saturday April 25th Leicester City v Bradford City Filbert Street had never witnessed any kind of end of season celebration. On the one occasion we had gone up, back in 1908, promotion was sealed on the road with a last day win at Stoke. Now, 40 years after the formation of the club, the chance had finally arrived. The Leicester squad had actually been away from the city for over a week. They stayed at Saltburn-by-the-Sea for last week's game at South Shields, and from there had gone straight to Rockside Hydro in Matlock: Visits to luxury spa resorts were common in those days, though some looked on the whole business with a cynical eye. Before an important match, players are taken to a hydropathic establishment far, far distant from any public house. This is called "training". That's Arnold Bennett, from his great satirical novel The Card. Not that our squad needed to be kept away from the drink. They were teetotallers almost to a man. You could take them to Matlock or La Manga and know there'd be no trouble. The great lark of this season may have looked like a fire extinguisher prank, but in fact it was only Arthur Chandler covered in snow thanks to Johnny Duncan leaving the skylight open all night. Bradford City, our visitors today, were the club that went up with us in 1908. As champions, they received the Second Division Shield, and then stayed in Division One for several seasons, lifting the FA Cup while they were there. By contrast, we had gone straight back down and, of course, had never got our hands on any silverware. In the days leading up to the game there was important news on and off the pitch. Manchester United played their game in hand on Wednesday evening, and found Southampton just as tough an opponent as we had the week before. A 1-1 draw at Old Trafford left the table looking like this: Then on Friday came a momentous announcement from Football Association HQ. At the forthcoming International Board meeting, they would support a change in the offside law. With the FA dominating that body, the die was cast. The most fundamental rule change of the twentieth century would come into operation at the start of the following season. No longer would there have to be three opposition players behind a forward when the ball was played. Now you'd be onside if there were just two. (By the way, there was another organisation trying to wrest control of the world game away from the Board at the time - they were called 'FIFA'). The healing Matlock waters had helped restore Pat Carrigan to fitness, and he was back at centre half, allowing George Carr to return to the forward line. Billy Newton and Harry Hooper were still not ready though, so Norman Watson and Reg Osborne stayed in. Bradford had sold their best player, outside left Arthur Rigby, to Blackburn Rovers earlier this week, but they did have 35 year old Peter Logan in the side, a veteran of that 1911 FA Cup win. Peter Logan These were the line-ups: That ref was actually a substitute. George Watson of Nottingham was the original choice, but he had been called away to another assignment - the FA Cup Final at Wembley. In what is surely a unique career switch, he later became manager of Nottingham Forest (what would Steve Cooper and his dad Keith make of that?) From the start of the game, 'Bradford's goal was subject to a heavy bombardment', and we had a chance to take the lead after eleven minutes. Johnny Duncan was tripped in the area, and Mr. Bunnell had an easy decision. After Adam Black's penalty miss in the last home game he was reluctant to take another, but nobody seemed willing to take his place. Finally his full back partner Reg Osborne stepped forward. Once again, the kick was at the Filbert Street end, and to the disbelief of 25,000 people, Osborne staged an action replay, shooting wide of the post, as Black had done against Southampton. 'He kicked both the ground and the ball' reported Athletic News, 'and it was evident that the importance of the occasion unnerved him'. After that we kept up the barrage, and Bradford keeper Jimmy McLaren 'distinguished himself on several occasions', the best moment being when he 'tipped a magnificent long range drive from Carrigan over the bar'. We had ourselves to blame too, though - 'those wonderful first time drives which have so swollen the goal bags of Chandler and Duncan were not coming off today'. It was still goalless at the break, and Football Post told us that 'at half time a very thoughtful pigeon refused to fly away with the score, while the band tried to assuage the tenseness of the atmosphere by playing 'Horsey Keep Your Tail Up'. The track was a portent of things to come. Bradford were still playing 'the kind of game that relies on keeping the other fellow out', but we kept creating chances, and Carr headed onto the cross bar from a corner. Then on 67 minutes, all the tension was released. 'The ball came out to Watson who lobbed it back into a crowded goalmouth. Carr was quick to react - he jumped and headed it past McLaren, amidst tumultuous cheering. The crowd signified its frantic delight by throwing hats into the air and executing movements somewhat akin to a mixture of the Highland fling and the foxtrot. Carr, the hero, was dancing up the field like one of those big white circus horses doing high-step physical jerks, with the other players racing after him'. After that we had a scare when Peter Logan 'ought to have equalized but missed his kick'. That was Bradford's last chance, and at the final whistle the celebrations could begin. Elsewhere, Manchester United beat Port Vale 4-0 at Old Trafford, but Derby could only manage a goalless draw at Highfield Road, a result that not only ended their promotion chances, but also sealed Coventry's relegation. This was the top three: You can see that Derby still had a mathematical chance, but it would have needed United's previously stingy defence to collapse hopelessly at Barnsley on the final day, to the tune of five or six. After our extraordinary winter goalscoring spree of 43 in 11 games, the change of seasons had brought a change of mood, and we had scored just seven in ten. It was our strong defence, conceding just four goals in those ten games, that allowed us to gather the 13 points which carried us over the line. Still, our goals total of 86 remained the highest in the whole Football League. Did the players allow themselves a rare tipple after the game? Supporters wouldn't have been holding back, and the centre of Leicester would have been lively that night. There's no record of how the celebrations went, but a pub sing-along soundtrack would include the following: 1) It Aint Gonna Rain No Mo' - a song that still sounds modern 100 years later. Perfect for a promotion celebration with its 'sun coming out' theme. It had an ironic airing on the Spion Kop during a downpour in February. 2) We Won't Go Home Till Morning - older fans would have resurrected this one. When the players celebrated at the Grand Hotel after that win at Stoke in 1908, fans were outside singing it till the early hours. 3) Cock Of The North - popular on the terraces at many clubs in that era, though we don't know if a Leicester version had got off the ground yet (Oh we're the barmy Leicester army, la, la, la, la, la, la). Let's imagine it had. (anyone remember the old Scottish bagpipes player busking by the Clock Tower who used that as a staple?) 4) The Leicester War Cry - heard repeatedly during this season's Cup run. If only we knew what it sounded like. 5) Horsey Keep Your Tail Up - the big hit of the mid-20s that the band had struck up at Filbert Street earlier that day, chiming nicely with George Carr's goal celebration. Another good promotion song, with that 'uplifting' theme. Passing through Leicester that evening were another band of euphoric football supporters, on their way home from seeing Sheffield United beat Cardiff City at Wembley. Our conquerors in the quarter-final hadn't quite managed to bring the trophy to Wales for the first time, beaten by Freddie Tunstall's goal. People in Leicester could see action from Wembley at the City Cinema in the Market Place in the following days: It was also the decisive day in the League title race. Reigning champions and leaders Huddersfield won 4-1 at Preston while their closest challengers West Brom could only draw 1-1 at home to Bury. That pretty much sealed it. Manager Herbert Chapman would soon quit Leeds Road and accept an offer from Arsenal. The first thing he did in his new job was visit Charles Buchan's sports shop in Sunderland and tell him 'I'm taking you to Highbury'. The only thing left to resolve at Filbert Street was whether we would go up in first or second place. If we could beat Stockport on the final day we would finally get our hands on a trophy.

Relegation confirmation. One more entry in the Hall of Shame: April 17th 1909 Leicester Fosse 3 Manchester United 2, but Chelsea's 3-1 win at Newcastle and Forest's point at Preston mean we're down. Remaining games: 3 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it took to get back: 12 May 4th 1935 Portsmouth 1 Leicester City 1. We needed to win and hope Middlesbrough lost at home to Chelsea (they drew 2-2). Remaining games: 0 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 10 Seasons it took to get back: 2 April 29th 1939 Chelsea's point in a 1-1 draw at Preston seals our fate on a day we weren't playing. Remaining games: 1 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 2 Seasons it took to get back: 8 April 30th 1955 Huddersfield 3 Leicester City 1, combined with Cardiff winning 3-2 at home to Wolves. Remaining games: 1 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it took to get back: 2 May 17th 1969 Manchester United 3 Leicester City 2. We needed to win to stay up and send Coventry down. Remaining games: 0 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 12 Seasons it took to get back: 2 April 15th 1978 Leicester City 1 Birmingham City 4. Remaining games: 3 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 7 Seasons it took to get back: 2 April 25th 1981 Leicester City 1 Birmingham City 0, but Brighton's 2-1 win at Sunderland means we're down. Remaining games: 1 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it took to get back: 2 May 9th 1987 Oxford United 0 Leicester City 0, combined with Charlton's 2-1 home win v QPR means we can't even make the relegation play-off place. Remaining games: 0 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 4 Seasons it took to get back: 7 April 14th 1995 Everton 2 Newcastle United 0 - means we're down without playing. Remaining games: 5 (four teams went down that season) Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it took to get back: 1 April 6th 2002 Leicester City 0 Manchester United 1. Remaining games: 4 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 6 Seasons it took to get back: 1 May 1st 2004 Charlton Athletic 2 Leicester City 2, combined with Manchester City's 1-0 home win v Newcastle means you know what. Remaining games: 2 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it took to get back: 10 May 28th 2023 Leicester City 2 West Ham 1, but Everton beat Bournemouth 1-0. Remaining games: 0 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 9 Seasons it took to get back: 1 April 20th 2025 Leicester City 0 Liverpool 1 Remaining games: 5 Seasons we'd been in the top flight: 1 Seasons it will take to get back: Lord knows

Too right. I took this photo from inside the Liberty building in 2001 and had no idea how long it had been there or which regime it was targeting. John Elsom's crew? Terry Shipman's? There were quite a few candidates. (love how the last letter's missing)

League Match No. 40 / 42 Saturday April 18th 1925 South Shields v Leicester City And so we set off on one final journey. After a triumphant tour of Second Division venues, Horsley Hill was our last trip of the season - and also the longest. Not that it was quite as arduous as portrayed in this Football Post cartoon. The Leicester Gent's uphill climb pointed to our recent struggle to recapture our best form rather than the topography of the North East. Horsley Hill was nearing the end of its footballing life. In five years' time, South Shields would move ten miles inland to Redheugh Park and be renamed 'Gateshead FC'. Their old ground would be converted into a greyhound stadium, as seen in this photo from the 1930s: The Leicester squad had spent two nights at Saltburn-by-the-Sea preparing for the game. We had been very lucky with injuries this season, but for the first time we were forced into a major reshuffle with two of our half-back line, Pat Carrigan and Billy Newton, unfit. George Carr switched from the forward line to play centre half, Buchanan Sharp taking his inside left position, while Norman Watson came in on the right. Harry Hooper was also missing - officially 'rested' - with Reg Osborne coming in at left back. At outside left for South Shields was Sandy Trotter - the man we'd sold last summer. It was an awful day, the stormy weather keeping the attendance down to about 6,000, a big disappointment for the home directors, who had made 'special preparations' for the huge crowd they expected to turn out to see the team of the season. The home side's kit was the same as ours - blue shirts, white shorts and black socks - so we were playing in red. Johnny Duncan won the toss and South Shields kicked off with the wind and rain in their faces. With that advantage, it took us just four minutes to take the lead. 'The ball had been passed from left to right and Adcock closed in with a fine sprint to deliver a square pass right across the goalmouth which Chandler almost converted. Ridley kicked away but Jack Bamber rushed up and shot hard and low from 18 yards, the ball travelling just inside the post'. The lead didn't last long. After eighteen minutes, 'the curse of the ex' struck yet again and Trotter's cross set up Jack Oxberry to nod in a simple equaliser. Hugh Adcock had a chance to restore our lead from right in front of goal but missed the ball completely, the rapidly deteriorating conditions not helping. Trotter and Oxberry then combined again but this time Godderidge saved the header. It was 1-1 at the break as the downpour continued, and the second half was merely 'a test of stamina' as players waded through the mud. Neither side could create any clear chances and the game petered out. It finished all square - our fourth draw in a row, and once again the players had an anxious wait. Other results would determine whether it was a point dropped or a point gained. What was remarkable about our rivals' games that day was that in both of them, it was a Filbert Street favourite who took centre stage - one from the past and one from the future. Manchester United were at Valley Parade, and in a tight game, a single moment of brilliance proved decisive. United's Tom Smith had played for Leicester for four years after the war. He was the older brother of Sep Smith (for whom the phrase 'Filbert Street favourite' would be inadequate). Tom wasn't a prolific marksman, but today he scored the most important goal of his career. This was how Athletic News described it: 'A heavily-built, big-limbed fellow with a rolling gait, he went steadily ahead, and soon it was realised that no-one could catch him. McLaren was tempted to dash out of goal, but as he did, Smith, keeping a cool head, drove the ball past him and into the net. It was an electric shock, and what that goal may mean to United time alone can tell'. Tom Smith, in the striped Leicester shirt of the early 1920s. Derby were at home to Stoke, who needed the points desperately at the other end of the table. It was 1-1 late in the game when this happened: Twelve fateful minutes from the end, the Derby defenders stood petrified, Johnson and Davies being left to amble through from a skirmish. The latter took the chance to spread consternation and joy. That Harry Davies goal clinched a shock away victory, but Stoke's real hero was their the 32 year-old Scottish international keeper. 'Kenny Campbell was inspired. The keen eye and agility of Scotland's past keeper are unimpaired. High and low, right and left, he dominated the breach' (Athletic News again). 'As fine a display of goalkeeping as you could wish to see. Keen powers of anticipation, an eagle eye, wonderful agility and a positive genius for getting out of tight corners were all his' (Staffordshire Sentinel). Campbell's form would earn him a move to Leicester later this year, and he would take over from Bert Godderidge as our regular keeper. Kenny Campbell Those results left the table like this: Had goal difference been in operation, Derby would have been second, but goal average rewarded United's more defensive approach, and Derby's prospects looked grim. Ever since the opening day of the season, when they beat Hull City 4-0, they had occupied one of the top two positions. Now, with just two to play, they dropped below the line for the first time. Leicester fans could look at that table and, with home games to come against Bradford City and Stockport County, feel that we were almost there. It was a pretty miserable time for our other East Midlands rivals. Nottingham Forest's relegation from Division One had been confirmed in the week. The Football Post, based in that city, thought they'd bounce straight back, but in fact it would take more than three decades. We had a peek into Leicester's future with Kenny Campbell above, and the situation in Scotland gives us another one. Willie Orr's Airdrie had finished second in the League in the previous two seasons, but now they were set to go one better. They beat Hibernian 2-0 today, and with Rangers only drawing at Motherwell, it was now in Airdrie's hands. With their superior goal average, they knew that if they won their last two games, they would be champions. But this was where the dream died. Four days later they could only draw 1-1 at home to Dundee, and on the last day Rangers clinched the title. That was as close as 'the Diamonds' ever got to winning the League. The following season they were second yet again, though never in real contention, and it was then that Willie Orr moved to Filbert Street. He would lead us through a Golden Age, our best position in those years being, of course, second. Airdrie did win the Scottish Cup in 1924 - their only major trophy. You can see the team here, with Willie Orr on the left: The three players highlighted formed arguably the greatest inside-forward line of any British club between the wars. They are, from left to right: Willie Russell The inside right chosen ahead of Johnny Duncan for the recent Scotland-England game. Scored the two goals that won the Scottish Cup last season. Hughie Gallacher Centre forward who would soon join Newcastle United and lead them to the Division One title. Scored 24 goals in 20 appearances for Scotland. Some would say he should be even higher in this list of Newcastle's greatest ever players: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-the-10-best-newcastle-players-ever Bob McPhail Inside left who later joined Rangers and became the second highest goalscorer in Scottish League history, behind only Jimmy McGrory. Leicester fans would soon have the chance to see these stars in action. Airdrie were heading our way for a friendly on Thursday April 30th, sandwiched between our two remaining League games. Depending on events next weekend, that could be quite a party night at Filbert Street.

League Match No. 39 / 42 Tuesday April 14th 1925 Leicester City v Southampton The hero of the previous day, Southampton keeper Tommy Allen, had to stand down for the return fixture. It was no surprise. His slender frame had felt the full force of a challenge from Arthur Chandler, and he had been carried off in a daze. But Leicester's forwards got a surprise when they saw his replacement. Harry Yeomans was even taller - at 6ft 4 he may have been the tallest keeper in the whole Football League at the time. The game was Adam Black's benefit match. After five years at the club, he would receive a fixed sum from the day's takings. It was the 162nd League appearance of a career total that would eventually rise to 528 - still the all-time record for a Leicester player. It would be another frustrating afternoon. As the Mercury reported, 'City could never completely master either the elusive ball on dry ground or the concentrated visiting defence, which crowded near goal with much spoiling effect'. Prominent in that Saints defence was full back Michael Keeping, a man whose name is probably new to you - though he would have a distinguished career, culminating in a spell as Real Madrid manager in the late 1940s. Arthur Chandler was taking no prisoners again. Having incapacitated Tommy Allen at The Dell, he now had his eyes on Harry Yeomans. As the keeper collected a cross, Channy 'tried to bundle him into the net' (a tactic which was considered fair play in those days). Yeomans was proving an able deputy, saving from Harry Wadsworth and Chandler, while George Carr put a good chance wide. Saints were creating chances too, with counter attacks that were 'prettily executed'. They were awarded a free kick in a dangerous position when Pat Carrigan brought down winger Tommy Broad. Arthur Dominy took it and Bert Godderidge had to make a smart stop. It looked like being another shut-out, and there were signs of impatience in the crowd - almost unheard of this season. But then with just three minutes to go, the big moment arrived when a Saints player handled in the box. The Leicester players appealed, but the referee was unsure. As players of both sides crowded around him, he chose to consult a linesman. This was inconclsive, and he walked across to speak to the linesman on the other side. Finally he made his decision, and pointed to the spot. Waiting all this time was Adam Black, who knew he'd have responsibility for a spot kick. He now came forward, picked up the ball, and looked up to see Harry Yeomans facing him in the goal at the Filbert Street end. He had taken penalties before, but never had the keeper seemed so huge, and never had the target looked so small. He knew exactly what was at stake as he stepped up - and pulled his shot wide of the post. The noise of 25,000 groans could probably be heard in the centre of town. The final whistle blew shortly afterwards. The contrast between the December and April holidays was startling. In the festive season we'd beaten Port Vale 7-0 and 2-1, then hammered Manchester United 3-0 in our most impressive display of the season. But after the Twelve Goals of Christmas, we'd now served up three Easter Eggs - 0, 0, 0. In its own way, however, the Easter programme had been just as remarkable as the festive period. In each of those 0-0 draws there had been a 'penalty' incident in the closing minutes. On Saturday, Derby's 'Fairy' Fairclough saw his spot kick saved by Bert Godderidge. At The Dell on Monday, to general disbelief, the referee had ruled that Hough had fouled Chandler outside the box, and Johnny Duncan had struck the resulting free kick against the crossbar. Now Adam Black completed the sequence. Fortunately, Derby had also been firing blanks. It's surely the only time in Football League history that the leading pair have gone through the Easter programme without a single goal between them. At least we'd added to our points total in each game. The Rams had suffered that defeat at South Shields on Good Friday, while Manchester United's five point Easter haul had put them right back in the hunt: We also need to take a look at the other end of the Division Two table. This was how the bottom four stood: Those clubs would have a big influence on the outcome of the promotion race. Derby County's last three games would be against Stoke, Coventry and Blackpool, while the other member of the bottom four, Barnsley, would face Manchester United on the last day. Our remaining games were all against sides in mid-table. After the Southampton game, it seems our old friend 'Scrutator' of the Evening Mail took a trip into town. In his report the following day, he had this to say: Unkind criticism and unfair suggestions permeated the city of Leicester last night. Granted Leicester failed and were off-colour. That is no reason why players, directors and officials should be vilified indiscriminately. It really does seem that the place is losing its fair name for sportsmanship. A brave conclusion to draw based on a chat with a few blokes having a post-match pint in the pub. Alongside the frustration, optimism was still in the air, as reflected in this cartoon in the Leicester Chronicle:

League Match No.38 / 42 Monday April 13th 1925 Southampton v Leicester City The timing was fantastic. Ewart Astill was one of Leicestershire County Cricket's all-time greats, and also a massive City fan. He had just spent six months playing and coaching in South Africa. When he set sail for Cape Town back in late September, we were lying 12th in Division Two. Now as he arrived back in England, we were top of the League. When his ship docked at Southampton on this Easter Monday morning, he learned that Leicester were playing at The Dell that very afternoon. No prizes for guessing how he spent the next few hours. Ewart Astill The Dell was squeezed into a tiny parallelogram of space between two roads: The circle on themap shows one of those classic old football ground oddities. It's the club secretary's house - which you can see below, right up against the west touchline. Just like those other unique features we encountered three weeks ago at Fratton Park (remember the clock tower and the balcony?), that house would very soon be swept away in an Archibald Leitch modernization plan. Look at the keeper in that photo - Southampton's Tommy Allen. That lanky frame made him the butt of his teammates' jokes. In the bath after a game, they would cry out: "Look out, the plug's pulled. We don't want to lose Tommy down the drain". You could say he was the Saints' first 'Peter Crouch'. But that slender figure would be the central character in today's game. The Leicester squad had spent Saturday and Sunday night at a hotel in Southsea, having set off for the south coast straight after the Derby match on Saturday. 700 supporters had come down on a special train on the morning of the game. We had no injury worries, so Ewart Astill had the chance to see our full strength line-up in action - the eleven men whose deeds had captured the imagination of football lovers everywhere: Had the winds of fate been blowing slightly differently this might have been a Cup Final rehearsal. Saints' loss to Sheffield United in the semi-final was as freakish as our defeat at Cardiff in the last eight. Unlike Leicester, however, Southampton's League form had been mediocre. They were down in 15th place. The play in the first half reflected the clubs' positions in the table. We were totally dominant, and it was only a series of fine saves from Tommy Allen that stopped us taking the lead. Godderidge had very little to do at the other end and it was goalless at the break. The second half was more even, with Arthur Dominy and Fred Price going close for the home side, and Allen once more keeping out all Leicester's efforts. Then just as on Saturday, the game turned on a controversial incident in the last ten minutes. Chandler was racing towards goal when full back Ted Hough brought him down. This was how 'Scrutator' in the Evening Mail described it: 'It was clear from the press seats that he was well over the line. Chandler told us afterwards he was three feet inside the area. What the referee was thinking we shall never know but he awarded a free kick practically on the line. There was a long row of defenders between Duncan, who took it, and the goal. His shot cleared their heads and struck the cross bar'. 'Leicester then staged a tremendous rally but missed two glorious chances of securing victory. Duncan, with only Allen to beat, lifted the ball over. Then right on time Chandler was clear again and Allen ran out to intervene. As they collided the ball rolled towards the goal line but Bert Shelley got back to hook it out of danger'. Allen was badly hurt in that incident and had to be carried off the field at the final whistle, the crowd giving the hero of the day a huge ovation. 0-0 it finished, and after waiting anxiously for news of Derby and Man U, 'there was relief for the players when they heard that both the other games had also finished goalless'. Derby failed to score against South Shields for the second time in three days, while United were probably satisfied with a point at Chelsea. More important for Saints fans was the condition of Tommy Allen. Could he recover in time for their next game? That was coming up the very next day - at Filbert Street.

This guy is so articulate, talking about mental health:

League Match No. 37 Saturday April 11th 1925 Leicester City v Derby County And so the big one arrived - first v second, Royal Blues v Rams. Anticipation had been building all week. At the Palace Theatre, the famous Jack Hylton was appearing with his Metro-Gnomes jazz band. Hylton was the man who, five years later, would record the most popular UK version of a new hit from America called ‘When You’re Smiling’. Supporting him on the nightly variety bill at the Palace were ‘Bert Hughes and Co.’, staging a comical ‘basketball on bicycles’ contest. The two teams were named ‘Leicester City’ and ‘Derby County’, and the audience were taking the game quite seriously, cheering loudly when ‘Leicester’ scored, as though it were a real football match’. It was Easter weekend, with all teams facing three games in four days, some Friday to Monday, others Saturday to Tuesday. Our rivals had both been in action on Good Friday. Manchester United beat Stockport County 2-0 at Old Trafford, while Derby had to travel all the way to South Shields in the North East. With the Leicester game just twenty four hours away, they decided to rest several key players, including ‘Fairy’ Fairclough, their leading scorer. The decision backfired, and they came away from the Horsley Hill ground with nothing, the home side winning 1-0. That left the table like this: It seemed like the whole of Derby was heading to Leicester on Saturday morning. For several days the Derby papers had been full of adverts for bus, train and charabanc travel to the game. One report said that 'no less than 7,000 privilege tickets have been issued by the L.M.S. Railway to their Derby employees'. The total number of away fans at the game was estimated to be around 11,000 - and that meant that many City fans missed out. 'It was a wholesome lesson to many local last-minute men', reported the Evening Mail. 'Gates were closed nearly an hour before kick-off, and throughout the afternoon a crowd surged round the ground and learned of the progress of the game from those seated on the walls'. 'The telegraph poles at the Filbert Street end resembled sticks terribly overcrowded with monkeys. One youth swarmed up a water spout in front of a house and perched on the upstairs window sill, until police intervention brought him down. The boundary walls were an extra attraction, but the broken glass placed on top meant that many pairs of trousers would be in need of repair.' It was a record attendance for a League game at the ground. 'In addition to the season ticket holders, 34, 000 paid for admission, which would represent a total attendance of about 37,000, though many more gained admittance during a big rush on the turnstiles just before they were closed'. When the game kicked off, play was 'brimful of excitement'. Reports of the action are full of half chances and wild challenges, but the only clear opportunity of the first half came after ten minutes when George Carr somehow shot wide from right in front of goal. Events off the field received as much attention as the play itself: 'During the game there was an alarming incident when two men sustained injuries that necessitated their removal to the Royal Infirmary. A large number of men had sought accommodation on the roof of the refreshment hut on the Popular Side. Suddenly the roof collapsed and the men were precipitated in a heap on the floor. Arthur Holbart of Taylor Street and John Dwyer of Chatham Street both suffered arm injuries and were taken to hospital'. At half-time there was another attempt to storm the gates, and the start of the second half was delayed for several minutes as 'the police and the referee by persuasive methods moved back the crowd which at one end of the ground had encroached on the touchline'. When play resumed, we were looking the stronger side, and 'Olney made a brilliant save, turning a beauty from Chandler round the post'. Johnny Duncan then had two chances, one shot saved, and a header just wide. Then with just a few minutes to go the key moments of the contest arrived: Derby played the ball forward, and Fairclough harassed Black, who missed his kick. Storer was left running on with only the keeper to beat. 'Billy Newton could not tackle. A trip was his only chance. Would he descend to foul means? No need to reflect twice. In the atmosphere prevailing, the temptation was too great. Newton whipped Storer's legs from beneath him and the referee pointed to the spot'. 'Fairclough it was who took the penalty. He sent his shot hard to the corner of the net but Godderidge threw himself at the ball and saved in masterly fashion. Several of the crowd ran from their place to congratulate him'. Chandler then had a chance to win it right at the end but shot over the bar. When the final whistle blew, 'Godderidge was carried shoulder high by his admirers'. These were the four combatants in the game's key sequence: Athletic News' top writer Ivan Sharpe was at the game, and he called it 'Ninety minutes of frantic football before a frantic crowd'. He thought Leicester were the better side overall, and admired 'the suggestion of balance and excellence conveyed by their play'. Johnny Duncan he described as 'the Gillespie of the Second Division leaders' - a reference to Sheffield United's legendary inside forward, Irishman Billy Gillespie, who had just led them to Wembley. Meanwhile at Old Trafford, Manchester United beat South Shields 1-0. Their defeat at the Baseball Ground a week earlier seemed to have been decisive, but now with four points in twenty four hours they were right back in it: United's goal was scored by Arthur Lochhead. He was their Eric Cantona this season. Without those '1-0 - Lochhead' results they'd have been out the race. Crowd trouble was also making the news this week - and it broke out at a schoolboys match. The team that had knocked Leicester Boys out of the English Schools Shield, West Ham, had then been beaten by Birmingham, and the West Midland boys next traveled to Merthyr for a quarter final tie. The match finished 1-1, but thanks to the 'too eloquent partisanship of the Welsh followers', the ground was closed to school football for the rest of the season. They would forfeit home advantage if they won the replay - though it didn't come to that. Birmingham got through, and then lost to Brighton in the semi final. The Final was held at the Goldstone Ground in June, with the home side losing to Sheffield - making it a Cup Double for the Yorkshire city (but we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves). Two weeks before the Wembley Cup Final, the Scottish FA Cup reached a climax at Hampden Park, with Celtic beating Dundee 2-1. Future Leicester boss Dave Halliday had recovered from his ordeal at the hands of his own supporters following the semi-final, and his Dundee side took an early lead. Then Patsy Gallacher scored one of the most famous goals in the history of the competition. After jinking past four defenders, the ball got stuck between his feet, but he 'somersaulted' over the keeper and into the net, taking the ball with him. It wasn't a somersault that was occupying the thoughts of Derby County fans. It was a leapfrog - the one they would have made over Leicester City had they scored that late penalty. How crucial would Fairclough's miss prove to be? Things would become clearer soon enough. There was a full programme of fixtures scheduled for Easter Monday.

I'd definitely apply, yeah. It might be that 'young' bit that ruled me out though.

League Match No. 36 Saturday April 4th 1925 Blackpool v Leicester City Next time you visit Blackpool (we could be playing them next season) take the opportunity to visit Leicester Road, a short walk from the Tower. It's not just the street name that'll give you a peculiar feeling. It's also the ghosts of the past. For it was on that site that we played our very first game in the town. In February 1897, Leicester Fosse lost 3-0 to Blackpool at the Raikes Hall ground, which was the most exotic venue in the League at the time. The Raikes Hall Pleasure Grounds had an aquarium, a lake, a monkey hall, an opera house and a host of other facilities to entertain the public. In the picture below you can see the back of the stand at the football ground. That building on the right housed 'a replica of Niagara Falls': The next shot was taken from the top of the Tower. You can see the lake, the stand and the pitch: At the turn of the century, the Pleasure Grounds closed and the land was sold off for housing. Several new streets came into existence - Leicester Road, Lincoln Road, Leamington Road, Leeds Road, Liverpool Road and Longton Road (what the 'L' was going on?) By the time of this match in 1925, Blackpool had been at their new home, Bloomfield Road, for more than two decades, though it was only the previous season that they'd adopted the famous tangerine jerseys. The Leicester party traveled up on the Friday, and no doubt a few supporters took the same journey and made a weekend of it. Blackpool were the last team to beat us in the League - way back on November 29th. Since then, an unbeaten run of 18 games had brought promotion within reach. Peter Hodge decided to give Hugh Adcock a rest for this trip. He hadn't been at his best in recent games, struggling to redsicover the scintillating form of the Newcastle cup tie. Norman Watson came in on the right wing. We started the game on the front foot, and after Chandler shot just wide, we took the lead. Wadsworth put in a cross which Johnny Duncan and keeper Len Crompton both went up for. Duncan's head got there before the keeper's fist and the ball floated in to the net. Watson was having a fine game on the wing, and as at Molineux on Monday, Black and Hooper were proving hard to beat at the back. Despite a lot of home pressure, we still led at the break. Then came the controversial moment that turned the game. 'Jack Meredith had broken away and was making straight for goal when Jack Bamber, one of the cleanest and most accomplished half-backs in the game, overhauled him in the only possible way and charged him off the ball. So far as anybody could see it was perfectly fair and legitimate, but Meredith, who appeared to have his eye on the gallery, gave quite a spectacular melodramatic fall, and the general but erroneous impression was that he had been brutally dealt with. He lay inert and still as though badly hurt whilst the crowd clamoured for vengeance. The referee pointed to the spot, whereupon Meredith sprang up and rejoined the game'. That's how the Leicester Evening Mail's 'Scrutator' saw the incident, and 'Albion' in the Mercury concurred, calling it 'an extremely mild infringement'. It should be added, though, that the neutral Athletic News cast no doubt on the ref's decision, saying simply that Meredith had been 'brought down in the area', Blackpool's England forward Harry Bedford took the penalty, and though Godderidge got his hands to the ball, it squirmed over the line. Leicester 'were not quite the same well-balanced force after this', and ten minutes from time, we conceded again. Godderidge decided to chase a ball out to the corner flag but lost possession to Georgie Mee (Bertie's older brother). He crossed, and both Bedford and Bert White had shots blocked, 'providing the greatest thrill of the match', but the ball now fell to Meredith, who knocked it past the floundering Godderidge. Georgie Mee 2-1 was how it finished, Blackpool becoming the only team to do the double over us this season. Their two victories bookended our 18 game unbeaten run. The big match of the day was second v third, Derby v Man U. Previewing the game, the Evening Mail claimed that 'If Leicester do go up, they would naturally prefer that Derby should accompany them'. Whether East Midlands rivalry was totally different back then, or the writer was simply out of touch with supporters' feelings, is unclear. The key moment at the Baseball Ground came after just eight minutes. 'Derby's Harold Wightman lifted the ball high towards goal, and nobody expected to see the effort meet with success, but Alf Steward misjudged it and it sailed over his head into the net'. After that, 'United should have rescued the game but 'missed three open goals'. So Derby moved level with us on points, though our goal average was far superior, 2.71 to 2.19: And so that four month unbeaten run in the League was over. If you compare it with similar sequences in the second tier over the years, it stands out as our most impressive statistically. You can see below how most of those runs came at just the right time - as the season approached its climax. Note that 2023/24 stands out in two ways - Enzo Maresca's side had two separate spells of near-invincibility, and they were both much earlier in the campaign: Meanwhile at Hampden Park today, Scotland beat England 2-0 in that game Duncan and Chandler missed out on. Leading the line for Scotland were the Airdrie pair of Willie Russell (in Duncan's inside right position), and centre forward Hughie Gallacher, who got both the goals. This was Airdrie's Golden Age, and the achievements of manager Willie Orr were not going unrecognised by the Leicester City directors. In the Scotland - England series overall, the Scots now had 21 wins to England's 14. It would be another 60 years before England caught up and then went ahead. Finally, you couldn't keep Harold Lineker out of the news. After the exploits with Leicester Boys and the 'pick your own' rumpus on the market, he was announced today as one of the winners in the painting contest at his school, St. George's. What might he have chosen for his subject? Perhaps his hero Hugh Adcock, flying down the wing at Filbert Street. Or the new War Memorial on Viccy Park, due to be officially unveiled in a couple of months. Or maybe his father George, allowing customers to choose whichever bananas they wanted. The romantically inclined may prefer to imagine that it was another familiar figure on the market that he portrayed, for it was likely around this time, as his father told him he had to help out full time (rather than take up an offer from Leeds United), that he first met the daughter of Fred Hoare, a fellow fruit and veg seller. Her name was Alice. She would fall for this young man with both sporting and artistic talents, and they would be married eight years later.

'I owned the dressing room'. This guy is still my all time favourite Leicester manager:

League Match No. 35 Monday March 30th 1925 Kick off 5.10 pm Wolverhampton Wanderers v Leicester City A week after announcing plans to extend the Main Stand at Filbert Street, we visited a club whose whole ground was being transformed. Wolves had approached Archibald Leitch and asked him to bring Molineux into the 20th century. His plan would change this: Into one of the most atmospheric arenas of English football: Leitch has featured almost as much as Johnny Duncan and Arthur Chandler in this story. This was the eleventh of his grounds we'd been to this season. But redevelopment work had recently been interrupted when the town was hit by gale force winds of such power that a brick wall and the roof of the Molineux Road Stand were blown into the street. This was the scene local residents woke up to on Sunday January 4th: One man had a very lucky escape. Wolverhampton Corporation employee Arthur Jones was passing the ground at the time and 'narrowly avoided being hit by the press box' (which you can see in the picture, lying in the middle of the street). . That side of the ground was closed for several weeks, but it had just re-opened when we arrived for this Monday evening game. What now impressed the Leicester Evening Mail's 'Scrutator' was 'the enormous bank behind the goal - perhaps the finest of its kind in the country'. The roof of that end had yet to be added, and in that state it was somehow even more imposing. When Hull City played here in the first game after the gale, it wasn't the empty Molineux Road side that distracted them, but that massive South Bank terrace, producing 'a curious feeling when running towards it'. We were at full strength again, but in the first half it seemed that our players too were a little dazed by the surroundings. Our forward line couldn't get going at all, and the home side were on top. Wolves' inside-right J.P. O'Connor had their best effort, sending in a shot from the edge of the area that struck 'the bottom part of the crossbar' and bounced down on the line. They had several other attempts, none of which troubled Bert Godderidge. After a goalless first half, we finally put a decent move together around the hour mark. George Carr found Chandler, who raced down the middle and beat keeper Noel George with 'a magnificent shot'. It was our first, and only real chance of the game. After that Wolves continued to dominate play, but their attack was 'much cry and little wool'. With Adam Black and Harry Hooper outstanding at the back, we hung on for a precious win. The Mercury put out a special Monday evening edition which hit the streets just after 7 o'clock. 'One Goal Suffices Again' was the headline. That was now four times in a row we'd scored just a single goal, but with our defensive solidity we'd still taken seven points out of eight. After the fireworks earlier in the season, March had been the month for grinding out results - exactly like 2016. With seven to play, we'd finally got some daylight between ourselves and our rivals: In our last eighteen games we had won fourteen, drawn four and lost none. The Leicester Chronicle had this take on the game at Wolves: Meanwhile, our defeat in the FA Cup quarter-final had opened up an opportunity for another member of the Leicester football community. R.T. Bradshaw played for Coalville Albion FC before the war, and later turned to officiating. Today he was chosen as one of the two linesmen for the FA Cup Final. Finally, in the Mercury today under the headline 'Leicester Market Sensation', this report appeared: A stallholder who had adopted new methods of salesmanship has created a sensation in Leicester Market Place. He has solved the problem of eliminating the frequent complaints of customers that large and luscious fruits are displayed on the front of the stall and inferior quality put into the bag. "Oranges eight for sixpence! PICK YOUR OWN!", he roars. Other stallholders are indignant and are considering the advisability of joining together in protest. Sadly, the report did not name the stallholder guilty of adopting this scandalous 'customer first' policy. Who could it possibly be? Any ideas?

League Match No. 34 Saturday March 28th Leicester City v Hull City With the club in a healthy financial position, and with ambitions of First Division football next season, plans were announced this week for an extension of the Main Stand. As you can see in the little picture above, the original stand covered only about two-thirds of the length of the pitch. Now, as the Mercury reported, 'Plans are being being prepared for the addition of three bays to the present structure, two at the Spion Kop end and one at the other. This will provide about 2,000 additional seats, bringing the total to about 6,000'. The new sections correspond roughly to what would later be known as the 'Wing Stands'. Today's fixture against Hull City looked to have 'goals' written all over it. Paddy Mills, third in the top scorers' list, would be up against Arthur Chandler and Johnny Duncan, the men ahead of him. Sadly for the visitors, Mills had to pull out on the morning of the game with illness, so we wouldn't have to face the man whose goals gave Hull victory in the reverse fixture in November. Mills had played at Filbert Street before, but his absence today meant It would be another 58 years before a member of this footballing family played on the ground again - that was in 1983 when 19 year-old Nigel Pearson, Paddy's great nephew, turned out for Shrewsbury (and couldn't stop a rampaging Gary Lineker scoring twice in a 3-2 win for Leicester). When the game kicked off, it was Mills' replacement George Martin who came closest to scoring, his header only kept out by Godderdidge's fine save at the foot of a post. There wasn't much goalmouth action in the early stages, and all 'Scrutator' in the Leicester Mail could write was that 'a spell of midfield play was quite interesting on account of the pretty footwork that was witnessed'. As the Hull Daily Mail reported, 'Chandler was not the man who scored a hat-trick in the Cup replay against Hull last month. He was under the thumb of the Hull captain. Mick O'Brien was the master this time, to such an extent that the Leicester supporters, who cheered him at first, changed their attitude when they realised how much their old player was keeping the home men in subjection'. After 38 minutes we took the lead. Wadsworth's corner found George Carr and 'he headed a very pretty goal'. Chandler then hit the bar, and from the rebound, Carr 'could have walked the ball in but he was too eager and lifted the ball right over the Spion Kop roof and out of the ground'. Duncan then 'treated the crowd to a fine exposition of trickery', but after beating four opponents the final pass was intercepted. The closest we came to adding to our lead in the second half was a Duncan header that hit the post. Hull never created a clear chance for an equalizer, and it finished 1-0. 'It was a game that lacked that measure of science usually associated with Filbert Street' said the Football Post, while the Hull Daily Mail said, 'A very lively party of Hull supporters had the satisfaction of seeing the Tigers giving the winners the closest run they have had for League points at home this year.' The two points took us back to the top, as Derby could only draw 0-0 at Stockport, while Man U v Blackpool also finished goalless. That left us in a very handy position with eight to play: Meanwhile in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Meadow Lane, Cardiff City faced Blackburn. At the start, Rovers fans were singing 'Cock of the North' (you know the tune - 'Oh we're the barmy Leicester army, la la la la la la'). But then Cardiff scored three times in fifteen minutes, and their fans taunted Rovers with 'Who killed Cock Robin?' Blackburn managed only a late consolation, so Cardiff were there - the first Welsh team in the Final. Leicester fans were left to reflect on what they might have done to that weak Blackburn side. The other Semi-Final was Southampton v Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge, and it was a disaster for Saints right back Tom Parker. Leicester players down the years have had a few howlers in semis - like Ian Wilson's own goal in 1982 and Ian King's missed penalty in 1961. Tom Parker had both of those nightmare moments in the same game. In these great pictures from the Daily Mirror you can see his own goal that put United ahead, then his penalty that would have made up for it - had it not been saved: Sheffield United ended up winning 2-1. Following Cardiff's win, their striker Joe Nicholson was injured trying to escape from a throng of fans outside Meadow Lane. He climbed onto the canvas roof of a taxi only to fall through and suffer a cut to his knee. But that was nothing compared to the gauntlet future Leicester boss Dave Halliday had to run after his goal for Dundee helped them reach the Scottish Cup Final. This was how the caper was reported in the Dundee Courier: On account of his height, Halliday was easily spotted and enthusiastic admirers pounced upon him almost immediately he emerged from the station. Eager hands raised him aloft and the triumphant crowd moved up Union Street. Halliday was then able to get down from his somewhat perilous perch, then the police took a hand. More than half a dozen blue coated figures joined hands to stem the crowd and Halliday saw his opportunity. He streaked off for safety up Tally Street with the pack in full flight. He quickly cut along Overgate but for him it was a tactical error and almost led to his undoing. About 10 yards from High Street an enthusiast spotted him and strongly tackled. Halliday pushed him off and it must have been a quaint site for the usual throng in Reform Street to see the dark blue center forward swing round into that thoroughfare at a fast pace, hat in hand. There he went all out and an extra spurt was sufficient for him to gain his freedom. Ultimately the crowd gave up the pursuit in the region of the Post Office. It was quite an eventful weekend all round. Leicestershire's rugby team beat Gloucestershire 14-6 to win the County Championship for the first and only time. It's the longest standing competition run by the RFU, and though the team was called 'Leicestershire', it was basically a Leicester Tigers XV. It led to this fine cartoon in the Mercury, anticipating the sporting statue installed near the Clock Tower in 1997: The caption reads 'Johnny Duncan capt. Leicester City: "What a pair of handsome ornaments we should make", with the words 'First Division" written on his bag. We found out this week that Duncan would be free to play for us at Blackpool next Saturday. The teams for the Scotland v England game were announced, and it was disappointment for our skipper - and Arthur Chandler too. Both had featured in the trial matches, but both were overlooked. So it didn't happen then and it hasn't happened since - Leicester players on opposing sides in the Auld Enemy clash. Meanwhile in London it was Boat Race day on the Thames, and this was the scene as the Oxford crew realised their boat was sinking. They gave up and had to be rescued, allowing Cambridge to cruise home. And with Oxford struggling on the Thames, let's spare a thought for Nottingham Forest, who were sinking rapidly into the River Trent. Their league form was the exact opposite of ours. Our last League defeat was before Christmas, around the time Forest recorded their last victory. They were adrift at the bottom of Division One, nine points from safety. They were technically one place ahead of us in the Football League, but they were destined for relegation and several decades in the lower divisions. Nottingham really was on the slide. County had been top of Division One in November, but their form since then had been nearly as bad as their neighbour, and they had fallen back into mid-table. The footballing depression hanging over the city must have been the reason for the pitiful attendance at the Cardiff - Blackburn semi-final. The 20,000 crowd was made up mostly of Welshmen and Lancastrians. Hardly any locals could be bothered, and the FA were paying close attention. Up to this point Nottingham had always been a popular choice as a neutral venue, as you can see from this remarkable map. It shows the FOUR grounds in the space of half a square mile that had staged an FA Cup semi-final - Meadow Lane, The City Ground, Trent Bridge and the already built-over Town Ground: But with the apathy shown by the public this year, Nottingham would never again be chosen as one of the two semi-final venues (though the City Ground would stage a couple of SF replays, including Leicester v Sheffield United in 1961). Overall, quite a weekend. And we only had two days to wait for the action to resume. A massive game was coming up on Monday - a trip to Molineux.

League Match No.33 Saturday March 21st 1925 Portsmouth v Leicester City Top of the League, unbeaten in fifteen games, ten to play. This was our first League visit to Fratton Park, the ground that had a unique feature - a pavilion and clock tower in the corner That balcony must have been a great place to watch a match from: Sadly, that charming pavilion would be torn down at the end of this season to make way for Archibald Leitch's new Main Stand, with its trademark criss-cross steelwork feature. Here it is under construction in the summer of 1925: As well as the Pompey Chimes, the chant on the Fratton Park terraces in those days was 'To Be A Farmer's Boy', sung for Willie Haines, their centre forward who was top scorer in Division Three South the previous season. Their chairman was Bob Blyth, the uncle of Bill Shankly. He was the first former player to become chairman of a Football League club. We were back to full strength, with Johnny Duncan and Jack Bamber returning. As at Oldham on Tuesday night, we were playing in red shirts. The Portsmouth Evening News said that: 'The visit of Leicester City this afternoon is of exceptional interest because the Midlanders have been boomed recently as 'the wonder team of the season'. It took that team just nine minuts to take the lead - 'from the right, Adcock played the ball to Chandler. He met it, swerved round Clifford into position for a shot and found the net with a well-placed effort'. That was his 30th League goal of the season. Pompey fans would have been fearing a repeat of the 4-0 defeat at Filbert Street, but fifteen minutes later they were level. Haines had a shot that was pushed out by Godderidge, but Willie Beedie was there to push home the rebound. Leicester defenders were convinced there had been a handball, but despite lengthy protests, the goal stood. Straight after that Godderidge made a double save to keep us level, the second one 'a splendid one-handed parry, turning Mackie's close range shot over the crossbar when a goal seemed certain'. Then at the other end Pompey keeper Alex Kane made an equally impressive stop from Chandler. 1-1 was the half-time score. With Duncan back we had recovered our fluidity, and we pressed hard for a winner. The Evening Mail told us that 'The Portsmouth backs came in for a deal of good-natured chaff from the spectators, who shouted "windy!" - an accusaton of having got the wind up'. At the other end, farmer's boy Haines wasn't getting much of a look in, as 'Carrigan never left him'. Duncan it was who came closest to a second goal, his shot coming back off the bar. In the end, though, we had to settle for a point. The unbeaten sequence stretched to sixteen but the seven game winning run was over. Elsewhere, second played fourth at the Baseball Ground in a game Chelsea knew they had to win to have any chance of getting back in the promotion race. Derby''s England international Harry Storer returned after three months out, and he was the main character in an extraordinary game. Storer was injured early on with a heavy blow to the ribs, but the tradition in the days before substitutes was to struggle on, and he switched out to the wing, just a passenger for the rest of the game. At least, that's what the Chelsea defenders thought. Early in the second half with the game goalless, a clearance found him unmarked out on the left. From 25 yards he summoned up the energy to fire in a right foot shot - 'one of those perfect shots now seldom seen' - which flew into the corner of the net. 'The effort proved too much for him and he collapsed on the pitch, having to be carried off by ambulance men'. Derby's ten men held out desperately for the rest of the game and 1-0 was the final score. Chelsea's challenge was surely over, but with Leicester only drawing, Storer's heroics took Derby back to the top. Manchester United stayed right in touch, winning 1-0 at Hull with another crucial Arthur Lochhead goal. Port Vale's 4-2 win over Clapton Orient took them up to fifth (which is still the highest the club has ever finished in the Football League. ) Wilf Kirkham, who would become the club's all-time leading scorer, got a hat-trick to put him on the division's top scorers' list, which was still dominated by Leicester: It was a historic day in Scotland with the opening of the new Murrayfield Stadium: 60,000 people, the biggest cowd ever to watch a game of rugby union, gathered to see Scotland beat England for the first time since 1912, completing the Grand Slam in the process. In the round ball game, the Scotland v England fixture was just two weeks away. In the coming days Johnny Duncan would find out if his performance in the trial had got him into the line-up.

League Match No. 32 Tuesday March 17th 1925 Oldham Athletic v Leicester City As some readers have no doubt reflected, the season whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated has turned into the absolute mirror-image of the present campaign. The only thing left in the 2024/25 season is the final indignity of being overtaken by Southampton and being consigned to the position that would truly reflect the quality of our performances on and off the field. Back in 1925, the reverse was the case. Only one team in Division Two had captured the imagination of the whole country, banging in goals for fun and playing scintillating football wherever we went. All that remained was for our position in the table to catch up with our reputation. As the team set off for Oldham, they finally had the chance to reach the summit. When the game kicked off, however, it looked like 'the curse' was going to strike again. Twice already this season a former Leicester player had come back to haunt us. Following Hull's Mick O'Brien and South Shields' Sandy Trotter, it was George Douglas' turn to make us wish we'd never got rid of him. George had an eventful career. He won two England Amateur caps before the war, then in 1919 he scored the first ever goal for the club called 'Leicester City'' (for the full details see his profile in Of Fossils And Foxes). Now at 31 he was playing outside right for Oldham. In the first half at Boundary Park, the home side were making all the chances, and without Johnny Duncan, we were lacking our usual fluency. George Douglas was doing all he could to end our four month unbeaten run in the League. Early on, he had 'a great shot that flew just over the bar', then he was 'troublesome again, setting up Reg Watson, who shot poorly'. Soon after that Douglas was the provider again, but once more Leicester were fortunate that Watson couldn't find the target. 'If Oldham had converted half the chances they created in the first half', said Scrutator in the Evening Mail, 'they would have won comfortably. George Douglas was their most brilliant and dangerous forward. But their finishing was wretched'. It was scoreless at the break, with our forward line having hardly had a look in. 'We had witnessed none of those beautiful combined movements, for which City are justly famous this season'. Then at the start of the second half, a defensive mistake suddenly left Chandler clear in front of goal, and he put us in front with our first real chance. That seemed to knock the stuffing out of Oldham, and we controlled the rest of the game. There were chances for Buchanan Sharp, Duncan's replacement, and for Channy again, but there were no further goals. We had scraped a 1-0 win, but that was enough. The two points put us top of the table for the first time: Most of the Manchester United players and directors were at Boundary Park to see their promotion rivals in action. 'They are more afraid of Leicester than of Derby', wrote 'Scrutator', who had a chance to speak to the United party. 200 miles north, Johnny Duncan was having a frustrating time at the Scottish trial. 'He showed clever touches', reported the Daily Record, 'but was unfortunate enough to be in a match in which most of the participants were doing little more than swinging out time'. That view of the game was shared by the Edinburgh Evening News, which told us that 'the play was never fast, and never in the faintest degree exciting'. It was a remarkable contrast with the Scottish League XI's performance at the weekend, and that wasn't good news for Duncan. Manager Peter Hodge, watching in the stand at Shawfield, would have been doubly anxious. He had come all this way to see a game in which his star player was struggling to do himself justice. And this after he had so selflessly put country before club. 'If we've not got a result at Oldham', he'd have been thinking, 'I'm going to look a right eejit'. Meanwhile in Leicester it was 'back to school on Monday' for Harold Lineker after the defeat at West Ham, and his football career would go no further. His father would soon have him working full time on the stall on Leicester Market. Many years later he would reflect on what might have been. 'He did have the chance to turn professional', Colin Malam wrote after talking to Harold for his biography of grandson Gary. 'But there was no money in it in those days, and his father wanted him to work in the family business. So that was it. He never really had the chance'. It seems Harold didn't have to work Saturday afternoons, though. He was already a Filbert Street season ticket holder, and with the win at Oldham, he was even more hopeful that we'd soon be up where we belonged - in the First Division.

This is how we fared over the first 31 games of the season: Now, with our midweek game in hand at Oldham coming up, we had the chance to make the final step and leapfrog Derby County at the top of Division Two. We'd be traveling to Boundary Park, however, without our captain and our manager. Johnny Duncan was heading for Shawfield, home of Clyde FC, where the Scottish international trial was scheduled for the same night. We could have refused to release Duncan, saying we needed him for such an important League game. Other clubs had done just that. But Leicester didn't. In fact, manager Peter Hodge was so proud of his skipper getting the chance for international recognition that he decided to travel up to Scotland with him. News of Duncan's exploits at Leicester preceded him. This is what the press north of the border had to say before the game: The selectors have been told again and again - and never more than last weekend - that they must play Duncan, the ex-Raith Rover who is credited with "making" the Leicester City team. At the moment it is a close-run thing between Duncan and Willie Russell. (Edinburgh Evening News) One man who has a big chance is Johnny Duncan, the Leicester inside-right. "Tokey" isn't traveling to Shawfield simply to get the trip home. The old Raith Rover is coming north to show he is the great forward the English critics say he is. (Daily Record) With Duncan at the trial, Buchanan Sharp was drafted in to play right half at Oldham. How would we fare without our talisman? Would we regret not putting club before country? Might it even prove crucial in the race for promotion? We'll find out tomorrow.

League Match No. 31 Saturday March 14th 1925 Leicester City v Fulham Harvey Darvill had been quickly forgotten. When these two clubs met in November, the Fulham centre forward was involved in a heavy collision with our keeper George Hebden, and two weeks later Darvill died from the internal injuries he sustained. Despite that, there was no commemoration before today's game, nor any mention of his name in the newspapers this weekend, either in Leicester or London. 1925 was very different from 2025 (and who can say which is better). Darvill's position in the Fulham line up had been taken by George Edmonds, while Hebden, who lost his place his place following the events at Craven Cottage, was now turning out regularly for our Reserves. Bert Godderidge had stepped in and established himself as our first team keeper (recall that Hebden had to attend the coroner's inquest in London, giving Godderidge his chance). That game in November had finished 2-2, but today there was only one team in it. 'Fulham started to defend in the first minute and continued to defend to the last', reported the Daily Express, a view the Daily Chronicle backed up: 'In the first minute the Fulham goal was on the point of collapse, and for practically the whole game, Fulham keeper Fred Whalley and his colleagues were kept in a similar state of suspense'. It took us twenty minutes to make the breakthrough. 'Chandler and Duncan - those two minds with but a single thought - between them obtained the first goal. Chandler brought the ball forward, but seeing his teammate in a better position, passed it on. Duncan ran in and from fifteen yards shot a glorious goal high into the far corner of the net'. (Daily Chronicle) 'Ten minutes from the interval came an even better goal. Chandler found his way blocked by two opponents but neatly lifted the ball over both their heads. Duncan, with splendid anticipation, ran forwards at the same time and as Whalley came out to meet him, he lobbed the ball over the custodian into the net'. (Daily Chronicle) People in the centre of town snapping up the Mercury's 4.30 edition saw this headline above the first half report: It took us just five minutes of the second half to extend the lead. 'A pass from the right found Duncan twenty five yards out. He had to overcome a challenge when he was running into a shooting position but was not shaken off the ball and scored his third in the coolest style'. (Mercury) Fulham were playing the 'one-back game' - where one of the full backs pushes up in an attempt to catch a forward offside (this was still possible under the old rule - which changed at the end of this season). Their trap worked occasionally, but still we made chances, one of which saw Chandler hit the bar with his best effort of the afternoon. It was Hugh Adcock who added a fourth after 75 minutes. 'The inside men drew the defenders, and the ball came wide to the outside right, who beat Whalley comfortably'. (Football Post) 4-0 was the final score, and there was good news from elsewhere. Leaders Derby were at The Dell to face the side that had beaten Liverpool a week earlier to give the Second Division a representative in the FA Cup Semi-Finals. Southampton kept up that form today with a 1-0 victory that left the Rams just two points ahead of us, having played two games more. Meanwhile, Man U and Chelsea were both winning to stay in touch with the top two: Our four goals took our total to 79 in the League, 90 in total - with Chandler on 34 and Duncan 31. The 'two minds with a single thought' were monopolising the leading scorers' list. Duncan's three goals today completed a remarkable sequence. In our last ten home games, there had been five hat-tricks. If the tradition of keeping the match ball had been in place then, there wouldn't have been any balls left at Filbert Street. (This is where I need your help. I haven't been able to find out when the tradition of keeping the match ball after a hat-trick started. Google, wikipedia, AI - they all draw a blank. Any bright ideas?) Let's reflect a bit more on that crazy stat. Since the Walkers became the King Power 14 years ago, there have been five Leicester hat-tricks at the stadium. In the heady days of winter in 1925, home fans witnessed the same number of hat-tricks in the space of just eleven weeks. Duncan's latest treble came at just the right time. In midweek he would be playing in the Scottish trial match that would help the selectors choose the line up for the England game at Hampden. It's hard to imagine that any of his rivals for the inside right position were playing at the same consistent level of excellence - but in fact, as we were beating Fulham, those selectors were at Goodison Park to see the Scottish League play the Football League. And the performance of the Scottish forward line that day had reporters reaching for the superlatives. 'For those who watch English football week after week, the Scottish forward play was a revelation', said Athletic News, 'They were the superior ball players, their closer, cleverer combination a contrast with the sweeping and aggressive methods of the English forwards. Nothing so attractive as the incisive play of Morton and Cairns, the brilliant Rangers left wing pair, or Gallacher and Russell, the centre-forward and inside-right of Airdrieonians, has been witnessed south of the border this season. In fact, it is doubtful whether forward play of this standard has been seen since the England - Scotland game in 1920'. Willie Russell, playing in Duncan's position, scored two of their three goals. Sadly for the Scots, their defence wasn't up to the same standard, conceding four times to give the Football League XI a narrow victory. Having seen the Airdire pair perform so well in tandem, could the selectors overlook them for the full international side? Duncan would have to be at his very best in the trial game to force his way into the side. Meanwhile, in London that Saturday morning another Cup dream was dying. After the goalless draw at Filbert Street on Tuesday, Leicester Boys traveled to Upton Park for their replay with West Ham. The Mercury reported that 'the best moment of the first half came when a grand effort by Lineker led to Hill netting, but it was ruled offside'. It was a tight game, and the decisive moment came eleven minutes from the end when 'English scored a great goal for West Ham'. Leicester then 'tried hard for an equalising goal but the fates were against them'. In the 1940s and 1960s, the Leicester Boys' side would taste glory in this competition, but for this side the journey was over. A week after Leicester City's FA Cup defeat, the Football Post refelcted on the momentous events at Ninian Park. It's a striking passage, worth reproducing at length: 'The inexplicable and mysterious whimsicalities of the Football Gods are so amazing at times as to make us gasp in astonishment. But I have never witnessed a precedent for what happened on Saturday, and I doubt if I or any others present will ever live to see its counterpart again. Your fiction writers have many times woven a fantastic climax to their sporting novelettes by the aid of a particularly vivid imagination, but here was truth much stranger than fiction. Thirty seconds remained when there was enacted the most sensational football miracle. Duncan and his colleagues were attacking when Bill Hardy sent the ball to the other end, where Black was forced by Beadles to give away that fateful corner. Davies had eight seconds in which to gather the ball, place it and take the kick. The spectacle of the players lined up in the goalmouth was watched with an intense excitement, and the flight of the ball was eagerly followed by thousands of eyes as it soared from the corner flag to drop in front of goal. Then like a bolt from the blue came the capricious breeze that swept it into the net, to the great astonishment of Davies and his colleagues and to the bewilderment of the City players. For a second or two, a sea of faces were silent and dumbfounded, but this gave way to a tremendous shout of ecstatic joy, which must have resounded through every street of Cardiff and down the valleys beyond. It was a bitter pill for John Duncan to swallow, and after the match I listened to his fears that the reverse, so undeserved and so extraordinarily uncanny after a long sequence of success, might undermine the morality of the men who splendidly support him on and off the field. Such fears, I am convinced, have no being except in the captain's own mind, which was full to overflowing with a great disappointment, and even the captain must have gained some relief and consolation from the splendid reception the team received upon their arrival at Leicester the same night. The shouts and the cheering which the Royal Blues supporters gave them was just that spoonful of luscious jam which removes the nasty taste of a bitter pill from the mouth. Even reverses have their consolation, and the team may take heart, proud in the knowledge that they have penned the most illustrious page in the history of the club so far, a page that teems with splendid deeds performed and glorious victories gained'.