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League Match No. 30 Thursday March 12th 1925 Leicester City v Crystal Palace It was a crucial time for Leicester Corporation's housing plans. After Major Winstanley refused to sell his 1,000 acre Braunstone estate, the council sought a compulsory purchase order so they could build 10,000 houses on the site. This week the government gave the plan the go-ahead. 'The Braunstone Estate comprises the whole of Major Winstanley's estate north-east of Coalpit Lane between Narborough Road and Hinckley Road' the Evening Mail explained, and 'it is admirably placed for the needs of the city. It is surrounded by main roads, it is well timbered, and contains a beautiful park which is preserved in the town plan as an open space for all time. The estate is served by two tramway routes (Western Park and Narborough Road) and can be conveniently and scientifically drained and sewered'. This is how the area looked at the time - Hinckley Road rolling across the top, the red line showing Narborough Road, and Filbert Street far right: The green light for the Braunstone plans came just six months after work began on the Saffron Lane Estate - see Match No. 7 above. For Leicester City, it was back to the business of the promotion race - and that cartoon in the Football Post is so good it deserves another outing: Jack Bamber picked up an ankle injury at Cardiff so the versatile Norman Watson, who'd filled in at outside right recently, now came in at left half. At the start, Leicester were totally in control, but couldn't turn the pressure into goals. Then, as the Daily Express told us: Palace obtained one of the luckiest goals that they or any other team have scored. Harry Hooper, who had checked a Palace attack, had plenty of time to clear but passed the ball back to keeper Godderidge. Black tried to make it easier for him to pick the ball up but diverted the ball away from the keeper who, in turning to retrieve the situation, slipped and fell over, leaving Fred Groves, who had followed up, to tap the ball over the line. After the last minute drama on Saturday when Black conceded the corner, our full backs clearly thought the back pass was the safer option. Just before half time we equalized when 'Carrigan sent in a hard, long shot that Bill Harper caught and then cleared - but the referee ruled that a goal had been scored despite the protests of the Palace players'. After the break, 'The Midlanders' victory was assured when the impressive Wadsworth was brought down in the penalty area and Black made no mistake with a low drive. Soon after, Wadsworth gave Chandler a chance and his shot banged the bar, Duncan shooting through on the rebound with a shot that Harper never saw'. 3-1 was the final score. The Evening Mail asked 'O.C.', a 'former footballer', to give his thoughts on the game, and he was refreshingly blunt: I was not privileged to see one of the best displays. I had the feeling that there were slight swellings on some of the team's heads as a result of the admiration that has been poured over them in recent weeks. They seemed to despise their enemies - never a safe thing to do. I cannot say I was impressed by Godderidge in goal. He did not have a great deal to do, but on at least two occasions he displayed shockingly bad judgment. if the backs could be a little less clever in passing back they would be a really fine pair. The first time I saw Black play I realised here is class, and Hooper is a fitting companion. I liked the wing halves enormously, especially Watson. Carrigan is a tremendous worker at centre-half but not the skilled attacker that Mick O'Brien was. However, I think he is a better defender. And now the forwards. I liked John Duncan the best of the whole team. He is a great worker and very clever, but best of all he does not bump the ball about with his head, one of the besetting sins of professional sides. He traps the ball brilliantly and gets moving at once, which is far more useful than butting it into the air. Every move of his is purposeful. Carr was very clever at dribbling but I never saw any advantage come from his showy displays. I wanted to shout at him "Get on with the game!" I think he was the worst offender at despising his enemies. Chandler had an off-day but I would not like to play centre-half against him. He is a goer and quick off the mark. And finally the wingers - Adcock does not have the sheer neatness of foot that Wadsworth shows. The worst of both of them was that they always seemed to think it necessary to stop and trick the opposing half near the corner flag before centring. I was brought up to believe that the square centre on the run before the half can catch you and with the defence generally out of place ought to be the aim of a winger. I recommend to Wadsworth, Adcock and Carr never to give the defence a single unnecassary second in which to recover or take position. From the observation of this maxim, goals come. Wonderful stuff, isn't it? But what would the players have made of all that advice for the forward line? We were hardly short of goals - our current total of 86 in League and Cup was way ahead of any other team in the four divisions. The victory lifted us back into second place in the table, above Manchester United. On Monday, Derby had beaten Barnsley 3-0 at the Baseball Ground, and this was how things now stood: So it was another of those happy Thursday afternoons for Leicester fans. Two days later, Fulham were due at Filbert Street. Our double dream had gone, now we had a dozen games left to win the heart of Miss Promotion.

The last word on the drama in Cardiff: This picture won a gold medal in the arts category at the Paris Olympics in the summer of 1924, just as the International Board were altering the law on scoring direct from a corner kick. The painter was Jean Jacoby from Luxembourg and the title of the work is simply 'corner'. Quite a portent of the drama ahead (and the colours match too).

That song Leicester fans were singing after the final whistle in Cardiff really was one of our own. 'Are We Downhearted?' was co-written by Lawrence Wright, who grew up in the city and used to wheel his piano to Leicester Market where he'd play his own songs then sell the sheet music for a penny. Later he founded Melody Maker and established his own music publishing empire. When he was playing those tunes in the market at the start of the twentieth century it was a struggle to be heard over the cries of the stall holders - people such as Albert Lineker on his fruit and veg stall. Now, three days after the defeat at Ninian Park, Albert's son Harold's big Cup moment arrived. For the first time, Leicester Boys had made it to the First Round Proper of the English Schools Shield, and on this day, Tuesday March 10th, they faced West Ham at Filbert Street. These were the line-ups: West Ham's left half is called Garnett!! (younger readers please google Till Death Us Do Part). Can you tell which one is Harry? (answer at the end of this post) Here's the report from the Evening Mail: Leicester Boys put up a great fight against West Ham. There were ovr 4,000 present as Leicester kicked off towards the Spion Kop. The Londoners had a pronounced advantage in the height and weight of their backs and half-backs. Some pretty footwork was seen in the opening stages, the Leicester lads especially displaying nice combination. West Ham were dangerous when set going but the Leicester backs were playing a great game. West Ham improved in attacking methods before the interval and Garnett hit the post with a long shot. Then Bramley of King Richard Road School headed just wide for Leicester. Half Time: Leicester 0 West Ham 0 In the second half, the home side fought desperately for the lead but several pretty movements broke down in front of the Londoners' goal. The home custodian Breward of Mantle Road School was not called upon until ten minutes from time when he brought off a brilliant save at the foot of the post. All the Leicester lads are to be congratulated on their splendid display. Final Score: 0-0. Did you spot Harry Lineker? A little knowledge of team photo convention between the wars would give you the answer without the appeal to family resemblance. The five on the front row were typically the forward line - in the correct order. So being the outside right in the team, Harry would naturally sit in that position. Compare that picture with this one taken two days later, before Leicester's home game with Crystal Palace: You can see the five forwards seated in formation - Adcock, Duncan, Chandler, Carr and Wadsworth. Note too the similarity of the goalkeeper's cap in the two photos. Bert Godderidge was no doubt the hero of the Boys' keeper Breward. Who knows - that might even be Godderidge's cap that he's wearing - in a 1920s version of 'Kasper - can I have your gloves?' Harry Lineker must have had a special affection for the man in his position, too - Hugh Adcock, the Coalville man who would win England honours in the years ahead. Four days ahead the Boys' would be heading to London for the replay at Upton Park. And before that, Palace would be at Filbert Street for that crucial game. We had to shake off the Cup defeat and get our minds back on promotion. As this wonderful cartoon in the Football Post illustrates, we could now focus all our attention on the League: The attention to detail is impressive (reminiscent of Squires in the Guardian) - look at the FA Cup shaped hat of the woman who jilted him (I wonder if Harry Lineker was ever likened to that shape in the way his grandson would be).

This has been exercising my mind too. I looked at the comparisons at this stage of the season - i.e. after 27 games. Stack up the worst ever and you get this (converted to three points for a win): So at this stage we're not quite the worst ever but you wouldn't bet against us snatching that 'honour' away from Frank McLintock's 77/78 side by the end of the season.

This is what the London papers had to say about the drama in Cardiff: There will be general disappointment at the disappearance from the competition of such a good side as Leicester City, whose brilliant play has raised Second Division stock to a higher standard than for some seasons. Daily Express The Leicester inside trio of Chandler, Duncan and Carr were far more impressive than the whole of the Cardiff forwards, and the Welshmen are fortunate to have a half-back line that includes such men as Keenor and Hardy, and they strove valiantly to thwart the Leicester goal getters. Daily Express If there is one player more sorry for himself than any other it must be Adam Black. It was he who gave away the corner, deliberately I thought, which caused so dramatic a defeat. This was the only thing he did approaching a mistake; in fact, he was the most outstanding player of all. Daily Chronicle Black is a stripling of a full-back with a marvelous intuition of positional play, and his frustration of Davies and Beadles on his wing was, the dramatic climax aside, easily the best feature of the match. Westminster Gazette Well might the Cardiff enthusiasts rejoice - this was a victory so sudden, so unexpected, and so undeserved on the balance of play. The Times. The cartoonists had a lot to say too. This was the Western Mail's take on the clash between Arthur Chandler and Fred Keenor: 'Completely bottled' is a bit of an exaggeration. Channy didn't score, but from the match reports it seems their battle was more like 50-50. This was the Leicester Chronicle on Leicester fans' chant after the game: That was one of the most common call and response refrains of the day - 'Are we downhearted?' 'No!!!' It was popular during the Great War: The Chronicle also had this take on Adam Black conceding that fateful last minute corner: This is what he did: And this is what he should have done: Finally, the most celebrated cartoonist of the age Tom Webster's take on the quarter finals in the Weekly Dispatch:

On the team's long journey back to Leicester, someone would have jumped out at one of the stations along the way to buy a sports paper. In the League today, our three promotion rivals were all in action. News of defeats for two of them would have raised spirits a little. Manchester United lost at Fulham, and that man Paddy Mills' goal gave Hull City victory over Chelsea: That was Chelsea's third defeat in a row, and it now looked like a three-way fight for the two promotion slots. As at Cardiff, the other three FA Cup Quarter-Finals all resulted in victories for the home side. Southampton beat Liverpool 1-0, Sheffield United beat West Brom 2-0 and Blackburn beat Blackpool 1-0.

FA Cup Quarter-Final Saturday March 7th 1925 Cardiff City v Leicester City And so the big day arrived. The club that had never won a trophy was just two games away from the Final, and all Leicester was talking about it. At 8.30 and 8.45 in the morning, special trains set off from Great Central Station, calling at Wigston Glen Parva and Hinckley on the way. On board, 'mascots were everywhere, draped in red and white'. Another special train left the Midland Station (London Road), where 'a hawker was selling red ribbons and miniature FA Cups as fast as he could pin them up'. At the hotel in Penarth, Hugh Adcock passed a morning fitness test so we would be at full strength, while Johnny Duncan received a bouquet of red and white flowers, the card attached reading 'Leicester red, Cardiff blue, Cardiff one, Leicester two'. The Evening Mail reported that 'All Wales came to Cardiff. Miners from the valleys arrived in their thousands, and down the main road came buses, public and private charabancs and taxi cabs full of cheeering and often yelling human beings'. At the ground, Leicester fans were also making themselves heard, 'treating the whole crowd to an exhibition of the famous Leicester war-cry, which sounded sufficiently awesome and unintelligible to have been in the Welsh language itself'. (Wouldn't it be great if we knew more about this. Sadly, the details of the war-cry appear lost to history) This is how the teams lined up, both in the classic 2-3-5 formation: The opening fifteen minutes were very tight, and the most significant incident was Adcock going off for treatment after getting a knock on the ankle - the one Bill Fox had been working on all week. He came back on but 'it was evident he was in pain and could hardly raise any speed'. Despite that setback, Leicester began to take control, 'playing much better football than their opponents', with Duncan at the centre of everything. We had a series of half chances - a Chandler header from a free kick, a George Carr a shot that hit Fred Keenor, a Duncan dribble that nearly opened up the home defence. This was how Reynolds Newspaper' summed up the first half. 'Leicester were so perfectly balanced and their go-ahead tactics so forceful and dangerous that Cardiff had all their work cut out to stop them scoring. There was nothing aggressive in the Leicester style and one was struck with the easy movement of their forwards, who combined beautifully and invariably drew the defence before parting with the ball. We'd been the better side, but it was still goalless at the break. At the start of the second half, Cardiff finally started playing like a top flight side, and Godderidge had to make a fine save from Joe Nicholson. After fifty five minutes, they took the lead. 'A clever pass from Nicholson to Davies saw the winger centre into the goal mouth, where Beadles jumped ... ...and beat Godderidge with a smart header into the net'. It was a prodigious leap from Beadles, and according to Mercury cartoonist RB Davis, a rousing version of 'Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau' (Land Of My Fathers) a few moments earlier had given him the necessary wings: Leicester were level almost immediately, from 'the cleverest move of the match'. 'Wadsworth and Carr, well supported by Bamber, forced an attack and Carr, when challenged, passed square to Chandler. He shot hard and low, and Farquarson did well to push the ball out. Duncan, waiting in position, banged the ball into the net'. Straight after that, 'Chandler again made Farquarson save brilliantly following a similar movement, and so well did Leicester play subsequently that they appeared to have the game in hand'. Cardiff rarely threatened, but then with time running out came 'the Welsh miracle'. Keenor played the ball deep into the Leicester half, and Adam Black, with Nicholson in pursuit, was taking no chances. He blasted the ball into the crowd behind the goal to clear the danger - but in doing so gave the home side one last chance from a corner kick. Willlie Davis took it with his right foot, and as the ball came across it seemed to swerve in towards goal. Godderidge raised a hand to palm it away but it sailed over his head - and into the net. The referee pointed to the halfway line and then instantly blew his whistle to signal the end of the match. In the crowd there was confusion - you couldn't score direct from a corner kick, could you? But hang on - hadn't the rule just been changed? Yes - they changed it at the start of this season. The goal stands! No-one in the 50,000 crowd had ever witnessed such a moment before, but when it sunk in that a legitimate goal had been scored, confusion turned to elation and the scenes were unforgettable - 'the crowd swarmed onto the field in their thousands and the players had great difficulty making their way to the dressing room'. Willie Davies For Leicester, those cruel seconds meant the end of the double dream. The long unbeaten run, stretching back more than three months, was over - in what one report called 'an ultra-sensational manner'. The rule about scoring direct from a corner had indeed been changed just nine months earlier, and in the intervening period, there had been just one instance of it happening - Huddersfield's Billy Smith scoring against Arsenal at Leeds Road in October. It had never happened in an FA Cup match before. In the directors' room after the match, referee Mr Pinckston produced his stopwatch, 'and there it lay, with the minute hand on 45 and the second hand on 60, exactly as he stopped it when the ball hit the net'. The winning goal had come from the last kick, in the last second of the 45 minutes. Willie Davis told reporters, 'Perhaps no-one will believe me, but I tried to score. It was a thousand-to-one chance, but it was our last'. Cardiff manager Fred Stewart said 'We were lucky to win. I don't think Leicester could have played better than they did today'. The Leicester players had to make the long journey home, arriving back at Great Central Station at 10.30pm. But the scenes there were no less remarkable than at Ninian Park: 'Thousands of supporters were there to give them a rousing reception - the kind normally reserved for conquerors. Several of the players were lifted shoulder-high, and Duncan and Chandler were carried as far as High Street, where the large crowd was so packed that for several minutes vehicular traffic was held up as cheers for City were raised repeatedly. Although some of the players had an uncomfortable few minutes, they assure me that they greatly appreciate the spirit behind the demonstration'. (Leicester Mercury) It was a welcome you might expect for losing Cup-finalists, not for a team that hadn't even made the semis. So how to explain it? It's easy really. The team had taken the supporters and the whole city on an incredible three month joyride, conquering all before them, scoring more goals and playing more attractive football than any team in the land. We hadn't made it to Wembley, but we had arrived. For the first time, the name 'Leicester City' was one that inspired respect and admiration among football lovers across the country.

The day before the game, Bonzo was getting five-star treatment at the Esplanade Hotel. As the Mercury reported, 'the most profound respect is paid to the mascots that have been sent to the team. No meal is begun until the handsomely-decorated Bonzo and other equally expressive emblems of good luck are given their proper place at the table'. Also visiting the hotel was the Western Mail, and they had the Leicester party pose for a photo Let's add names so we know who's who: The fifteen in the picture are the regular first XI, two other players in the squad - Buchanan Sharp and Norman Watson, plus manager Peter Hodge and trainer Dave Gardner. Or should that be sixteen? Channy is holding Bonzo (and you can probably spot other mascots too). One man who was with the party but not in the picture was our blind masseur Bill Fox, who would have been giving special attention to Adcock's ankle all week to get him fit for the game. The Western Mail reporter had a word with Arthur Chandler, 'whose scoring feats have occasioned so much comment in football circles recently': "Meeting him in "mufti" one would never think that this was the same finely-built, broad-shouldered man who is so thrustful in front of goal. He seems quite a different personality on and off the field. As a matter of fact, he's the entertainer of the party and a great practical joker. He told me 'It's going to be a great tussle. We thoroughly realise the strength of the opposition and we shall enter into this match determined to go every inch of the way. We can play good football and shall do so in this match. There will be no hacking, but a good clean game. We think we have a chance of the double - Cup and League. I think one goal may settle the match either way'". Around tea time, Johnny Duncan received the news that he'd been selected for Scotland's trial game on March 17th. If he does well in that game he'll be playing against England at Hampden Park in the match to decide this year's Home International championship. These were the men selected for the trial - some of those names would become all-time Scottish greats in the years ahead: The trial is normally 'Anglos' - those playing in the Football League, v 'Scots', but this year only four Anglos were chosen and the teams were simply labeled A and B. Notice that one of the other Anglos is Jimmy Nelson, the Cardiff full back we'd be facing tomorrow - though he was a very special kind of 'Anglo' - a Scot playing for a Welsh club who signed him from Irish club Crusaders. Duncan is also on this list of the top scorers in the four divisions of the Football League, published in Thomson's Weekly News, interestingly, in goals per game order. So Channy is behind David Brown of Darlington (though if you added FA Cup goals he'd be ahead): 'Dean' there in third place is of course Dixie - this was the season he burst onto the scene with Tranmere Rovers. A week from now, he would play his last game for the club before signing for Everton on March 16th. At the bottom of that list is Len Davies of Cardiff - but he wouldn't be facing Leicester tomorrow. He was injured in Wales' defeat in Scotland last month. Finally, apologies for being a bit slow. I didn't realise that the hat Churchill is giving Channy in the cartoon a few days ago is meant to be a 'Welsh hat'. You can see it again in another Mercury cartoon this week, which shows Johnny Duncan, having led the team through three rounds of the Cup, now facing the next hurdle:

After Bill died, a match was held at Filbert Street to raise money for his widow, Laura. It was a unique game - 'the boxers' v Leicester police. Bill had been a great fan of boxing, and their team included Len Wickwar, whose popularity in the 1930s wasn't far off Tony Sibson's in the 1980s. This was how they lined up: Unfortunately, they weren't as good with their feet as they were with their fists, and they were outplayed by the well-drilled police XI. But they did have help from the referee - Arthur Chandler - who kept awarding them dubious penalties, and then allowing them to retake when they missed. Despite Channy's interventions, the police won 6-3 - here they are receiving a special cup prepared for the occasion: Here's a shot of the man in everybody's thoughts that day. Taken in 1929, Bill on the left talking to South African goalkeeper Aubrey Mandy in the tunnel at Filbert Street: Mandy himself was an interesting figure - have a look at his entry in Of Fossils And Foxes. No doubt Bill told him about his experiences in the Boer War.

No list of Leicester City greats can be restricted to players only. Some of the most adored figures in the history of the club have made their contributions behind the scenes - Craig Shakespeare, Alan Birchenall, Vichai. You can no doubt think of more. No-one at the club has ever been held in greater affection than Bill Fox. So why have you never heard of him? It's time his tale were told. William Henry Fox was blind. But that didn't stop him becoming a key man at the club between the wars. No-one called him a 'physio' back then, but that's what he was. His genius was in his hands. 100 years ago this week, as we prepared for an FA Cup quarter-final at Cardiff, the Western Mail encountered Bill at our base in Penarth on the South Wales coast: "Fox is the club's masseur. He lost his sight in the Boer War, and in recent years has taken a very keen interest in the Leicester club. The directors and players swear by him, and when I saw him massaging keeper Godderidge in the Penarth Baths, he seemed to be quite as proficient as a man in possession of all his faculties. He has a particularly impressive appearance'. 'Though Fox has never seen a ball kicked, he can tell by an extraordinary sense of hearing how the game is going, and seems to know exactly what is happening on the field. 'That's a good shot', he will exclaim, and when the whistle is blown he will shout 'Free kick!' or 'Offside' and is seldom wrong'. Bill served in the Seaforth Highlanders as a signaller in the Boer War. It was thought that the 'dazzling heliograph' contributed to the loss of his sight. When the British garrisons were besieged in Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith, with telegraph lines cut, the only means of contact with the outside world was via light-beam communication, heliograph in the daytime, Aldis lamps at night. After the Boer War, Bill came to Leicester, working for the corporation laying the new electric tramlines, then taking employment at the Gas Works on Aylestone Road. When his sight failed, he turned to massage, and offered his services to the club that was still called Leicester Fosse. At first he was a volunteer, but after World War One, the players had come to depend on him so much that the newly named 'Leicester City' took him on as a regular member of the backroom staff. Many times he accomplished remarkable feats of restoring players to fitness on the eve of a match, and they would declare that somehow, his hands had a power to heal that others did not. 'His sense of direction was uncanny', said the Evening Mail, 'and when he went on the field to assist an injured player only those who knew of his affliction realised that the man who ran so unerringly across the grass was sightless'. In the summer months, Fox provided the same services to Leicestershire County Cricket Club, and County legend George Geary would rely on him to get him in tune for Test Matches. Away from work, he was known for his skill at ten-pin bowling. 'He can swing the ball at the pins with uncanny accuracy', Johnny Duncan said 'We tell him the number he has knocked down and he then proceeds to disturb the rest of the pins'. Boxing was another of his passions - he would sit ringside and 'could tell you what had been going on between the two men who were so keen on knocking the wind out of each other'. Here he is in 1930 at Filbert Street, showing off his penalty taking skills: The caption read 'Leicester City find a penalty expert. Bill Fox, the club's blind masseur, is adept at scoring from the penalty spot, even when the goalkeeper is about. Here he is seen demonstrating to the boys how the trick is done'. In 1934 Bill fell ill, and spent several months in the Royal Infirmary. He received regular visits from Leicester players, who would read him the sports reports from the newspapers. He had to undergo two serious operations, and then doctors told him he needed a blood transfusion. The players were only too keen to put their names forward, and in the end it was full back Willie Frame who was chosen. Bill finally left hospital in March 1935 and returned to his home at 55 Winifred Street, just behind the Infirmary. But the story was to have a tragic end. The following day, his wife Laura found him slumped on his bed with wounds to his throat. He was rushed back to the Infirmary but died a few minutes later. The coroner's report recorded a verdict of 'suicide while of unsound mind', and confirmed that a razor blade had been found by his side. 'One cannot be surprised at his mind breaking down under the strain', it added. Mr L.H. Burridge, club chairman, said 'Bill was very devoted to the boys, and them to him. His loveable personality endeared him to everyone he came in contact with'. At the funeral, his coffin was carried by seven current City players and former captain Johnny Duncan: The club was in a desperate state. We were bottom of Division One with nine games to play - exactly the same situation as 2015 when Richard III was reburied in the cathedral. On March 28th 1935, three days after Bill Fox was laid to rest at Saffron Lane cemetery, Tottenham arrived at Filbert Street. Lose this and it was surely all over. But as if in tribute to their beloved friend, the players tore into the opposition and handed Spurs a 6-0 thrashing. 'Every man jack in the Leicester forward line was working like a Trojan', said the Daily Herald, 'playing the right kind of pass and generally going though the Tottenham defence like a chef's knife through a succulent ham'. Those two points took us off the bottom of the table, but still a long way from safety. Two days later Liverpool came to Filbert Street and were beaten 3-1. The headline in the Evening Mail was 'Four Points in Three Days - Who Said Relegation?' A week after that we went to Elland Road and won 2-0, leaving us just a point from safety. It was a startling reversal of fortunes. Had the players got together and said 'Let's do it for Bill?' Sadly, there was no great escape. We failed to win any of our last six games and our fate was sealed. Relegated after ten years in the top flight, the club's first Golden Age was over. In those closing weeks of the season, two City greats played their last game for the club - Arthur Chandler, and Adam Black. And with Bill's welcoming smile and healing hands no longer around, it was truly the end of an era. Having imagined the players being inspired by Bill's memory immediately after the funeral, we might also wonder whether a decade later, when the club decided to put a badge on the shirt for the first time, they were commemorating not only the traditional symbol of Leicestershire, but also the name of the man who had found his way into the hearts of everyone connected with the club.

Three days before the quarter final, the Leicester squad set off for their base in Penarth, on the South Wales coast just outside Cardiff. Watching them depart, the Leicester Evening Mail reporter was moved to write that 'they made one think of a gallant band of explorers, in search of what they know to exist, but few are able to locate'. This was the biggest game in the club's history. We'd made the last eight once before - fifteen years ago when we were still Leicester Fosse. But it was different then. We played Newcastle away when they were the best team in the land and we were a Division Two side not good enough to sustain a promotion challenge. It finished 3-0 and could have been a lot more. Now we set off for Cardiff confident of victory. The players boarded the 2.28 departure from Great Central Station, and 'work was stopped in the hosiery factory opposite in order that the girls could give them a hearty send-off. They crowded round the windows, cheering and blowing kisses. In the booking hall, Arthur Chandler was presented with a Bonzo pup as a mascot. It had a blue ribbon around the neck, but there was a rush to redecorate it with the appropriate colour'. With Cardiff playing in blue, we'd have to switch: The team arrived that evening at the Esplanade Hotel in Penarth: Little danger here of a repeat of the incident in the hotel at Whitley Bay before the Newcastle tie, when Channy woke up in the morning covered in snow after roommate Johnny Duncan insisted on keeping the skylight open at night. Here he could snuggle up with his Bonzo pup, dreaming of the tricks he was going to show Fred Keenor on Saturday.

More on Arthur Chandler - the man the whole country was talking about. He had now scored three hat-tricks in five weeks - v Coventry, v Hull in the Cup, and now 5 v Barnsley. Mercury cartoonist R.B.Davis had Winston Churchill, well-known hat-lover, providing a selection to him. You can see the names of those clubs on the boxes. Then, looking ahead to the FA Cup quarter-final, Winston takes one out of the 'Cardiff' box. Eighteen months earlier the two had actually met: That was at Filbert Street when Winston stood unsuccessfully for the Liberal Party in the Leicester West constituency. It's worth looking in a bit more detail at Channy's scoring habits. Recall that between September and January he had that sequence of scoring in seventeen out of nineteen games - ' the most consistent run of scoring in the club's history'. He was getting them all in ones (with just a solitary double). Compare that with his recent run of 15 goals in eight games: He was like a batsman who begins his innings cautiously, picking up singles close to the wicket, but then starts slogging the bowlers all round the ground.

It really was dancing in the streets time. This is what had happened in the last three months: Seventeen unbeaten - and if you tried to pick one as the highlight you'd have about ten different games competing for that title.

League Match Number 29 Saturday February 28th 1925 Leicester City v Barnsley According to an Evening Mail report this week, the club's exploits were providing a boost to the city's commercial fortunes. But better still was the spring in the step and the smile on the face of every individual Leicester fan. What did this extraordinary team have up its sleeve next? At the start of the month, the replay win over Newcastle was followed 48 hours later by a six goal hammering of Sheffield Wednesday in the League. Now there was another Thursday-Saturday double bill. Just two days after knocking out Hull, we faced Barnsley at Filbert Street. Hugh Adcock was still unfit so Norman Watson kept his place on the right wing, while Barnsley had future Leicester legend Ernie Hine at inside left. The Daily Express sent a reporter to the game, and the following is a collage of that report plus regulars 'Kernel' in the Footbal Post and 'Albion' in the Mercury. 'Instead of being tired by Thursday's Cup game, Leicester were as fresh as if they'd had a fortnight off. The most prominent player, naturally, was Chandler. A heavy man is generally at a disadvantage on a mud heap and it was remarkable to see the nimbleness, pace and agility of the Leicester centre forward. After seven minutes, the home side took the lead thanks to Chandler's persistence and cleverness. Duncan pushed the ball through to him and he ran between both backs and left keeper Tommy Gale helpless with a powerful oblique drive'. 'Chandler quickly added a second. It was a goal that will stand as a classic of what can be accomplished by speed, strength and ball control when a man sets himself the task of going through a defence, even though the mud is up to his ankle at every stride. He finished by sending the ball into the roof of the net with another lovely drive'. 'Leicester were displaying remerkable speed and technique on a surface that was exceedingly treacherous, playing in a manner that marked them - if there had been any doubt before - as a team of outstanding talent'. 'The Barnsley goal was almost in a state of perpetual siege and their full backs were glad to kick anywhere to obtain a temporary respite'. 'Two minutes after the break, Chandler completed his hat-trick - his second in three days. Wadsworth dropped over a nice centre which Chandler took in his stride, and after rounding Gittins he easily beat Gale for the third time'. 'Two minutes later Wadsworth was again in the picture with another smart run and centre. This time Chandler took the ball very low to score number four to a great ovation'. After that came Barnsley's best spell of the game, 'Godderidge going full length to scoop out a beauty from Hine'. Then with ten minutes to go Watson centred from the right for Chandler to score his fifth, and just after that Duncan got on the scoresheet, heading in Wadsworth's cross from the left'. Two of the greatest individual scoring feats in the club's history had taken place within the space of a couple of months. Channy didn't quite match Duncan's six on Christmas Day against Port Vale - though nobody before or since has equaled his haul of eight goals in two games just 48 hours apart. Somwhow, despite having dropped just three points in our last twelve games, we found ourselves back outside the top two. Derby followed up their midweek win with a 1-0 victory at Clapton Orient, and having moved above us with a point on Monday, Man U today had an easy 3-0 win over Wolves at Old Trafford. Chelsea were in danger of losing touch with the leading three. After going two up at home to Portsmouth they managed to lose 3-2. Here's another table - showing the top goalscoring teams across all four divisions: And that was just in League games. We'd knocked in another ten in the FA Cup in recent weeks. Channy now had 28 in the League, and with thirteen games still to play he was being tipped to break the all-time record of 38. Leicester fans would have loved to have seen him break into the England team, but in those days internationals often clashed with a League programme. Had Channy played to his usual standard in the trial game in January, he wouldn't have had the chance to score those five goals today - he would have been pulling on a Three Lions shirt and playing against Wales in Swansea. We need to have a closer look at the two internationals played this afternoon. First the game in Swansea - "the crowd a mere 8,000, most of them drenched; the ground abominable, the players unrecognizable, the football - magnificent.", as the Westminster Gazette put it. England won 2-1, with Manchester City's Frank Roberts getting both. The game's outstanding performer, however, was the home side's centre half and captain, Fred Keenor of Cardiff City - the man whose job a week from now would be to try and pour water on Channy's fire in the FA Cup quarter-final. This was how one reporter summed up his performance: 'The man of the match was Keenor. He was here, there and everywhere, inspiring his young wing halves, shielding his backs, tacking with almost inevitable certainty, and developing attacks in the second half in a manner that bordered on the miraculous'. He also scored Wales' only goal, firing home from the edge of the box with the help of a deflection. The clash between him and Chandler in seven days' time looked like being a true battle of the giants: Meanwhile, Scotland were beating Ireland 2-1 at Windsor Park in Belfast, where there wasn't so much space on the terraces: The picture below shows Mick O'Brien, who had hurried across the Irish Sea straight after Hull's defeat at Filbert Street on Thursday: That's O'Brien on the right. You can also see legendary Scottish forward Hughie Gallacher in the white shirt and Irish keeper Tom Farquarson, the former IRA member now playing for Cardiff City. He was another man we'd be facing next Saturday. Scotland won that game 2-1, and joined England on four points at the top of the Home Internationals table. The decider would be in April at Hampden Park, and with Scottish selectors having recently watched Johnny Duncan, there was a chance we'd be seeing a Leicester player in one of the season's two showpiece events. The other big one, of course, was the FA Cup Final. Johnny had his eyes on that, too. Cardiff warmed up for the Cup with an impressive 2-1 win at Newcastle in Division One today, and as this Football Post cartoon shows, while there would be three other quarter-finals next Saturday, as well as a number of crucial League fixtures, the game getting people really fired up was the one at Ninian Park:

So who is cup hero Norman Watson, the man who came in for Hugh Adcock and set up each of Channy's three goals? Here's what Of Fossils and Foxes says about him: 'A sturdy, muscularly defensive half back who exhibited versatility and patience in equal measure when sporadically backing up City's early 20s promotion efforts. After that, he shuttled left and right across the middle line with odd excursions to outside right and full back'. He was from Chester-le-Street in County Durham. That Channy hat-trick took his total for the season to 30 in 33 games in League and Cup - way ahead of anyone else. The England selectors had not chosen him for this Saturday's game v Wales after his poor showing in the trial game. So he'd be playing for us against Barnsley in the League, just two days after the Hull replay. This is how the Football Post saw things: (and I still haven't worked out why they use the 'gent' to represent us)

FA Cup Third Round Replay Thursday February 26th 1925. 3pm kick-off Leicester City v Hull City Nearly 1,000 visiting supporters made the trip on special trains that left Paragon Station in Hull and arrived at Great Central Station three hours later. 'A good number of them were of the fair sex', reported the Mercury, and 'there was never such a collection of black and amber hats'. Arriving at the same station from Sheffield were the Hull players, led by Mick O'Brien. Before they headed for the ground, 'they stopped for a meal in the station buffet'. O'Brien told a reporter that 'if there is a decisive result I will leave at six o'clock for Ireland'. He had been selected to play for his country against Scotland in Belfast on Saturday. If another replay were necesssary, it would take place on Monday, and he would have to pull out the Ireland squad. The surprise before the game was that our right winger Hugh Adcock, tormentor of Newcastle in the last round, was unfit after taking a knock on the ankle at Hull. With Johnny Duncan's brother Tommy having left earlier this season we had no experienced replacement, so half back Norrman Watson was drafted in to play an unfamiliar role. This was the scene at 2.55 - the band plays as Duncan leads the team out, with Channy following behind: The excerpts from match reports that follow have been pieced together from the Daily Chronicle, the Nottingham Journal and the two Leicester papers. 'Duncan named the coin correctly and secured the Royal Blues a distinct first half advantage', with Paddy Mills (Nigel Pearson's great uncle, you'll recall) kicking off for Hull with a strong wind against them. 'The game opened with a series of thrills provided by the Leicester forwards, who played with the speed of greyhounds in the mud. Chandler put Duncan through but his shot hit the foot of a post with Maddison nowhere near it. After ten minutes of hurricane attacking, Watson put across a high dropping centre which curled towards goal. Maddison got his fists to it but it was a weak clearance, straight on to the head of Chandler, who steered it into the net'. The Spion Kop shortly after Chandler's goal 'Chandler and Carr then went perilously close to a second, before Duncan ran clean through and Maddison had to make a glorious save'. 'Play proceeded to the accompaniment of an almost continual roar from the crowd, which was worked up to a high degree of excitment by the dazzling work of the home forwards. It was easy to see why Leicester had earned the description of the 'wonder team'. With each one scheming in turn, Chandler, Duncan and Carr were an irresistible trio - brain and brawn working on that heavy ground. All were scientific and thrustful, but also cool and deliberate. These three know not the meaning of selfishness'. The biggest scare for Leicester in the first half came when 'Hooper played a back pass unsighted to Godderridge, not noticing that Mills was almost upon him. Godderidge only had time to reach the ball on his knee and there was quite a struggle before he succeeded in getting the ball away'. Once again the battles between centre-forward and centre-half caught the eye. 'The burly Chandler bewildered O'Brien, his former clubmate, but it was far from a happy day for Paddy Mills, who found Carrigan masterful without having to resort to the tactics which made him so unpopular at Hull'. Meanwhile, on the left wing, Wadsworth was causing anxiety to the visitors. He was badly brought down by Collier, with Billy Newton shooting just wide from the free kick. It was 1-0 at the break, then 'the second half opened with a thrill. Hull were now playing with a strong wind behind them and after three minutes, Thom put a ball in from the left and Hamilton beat Godderidge from close range'. Hull now started playing with a degree of confidence. 'A spell of kick and rush football followed, and this did not improve the home side's chances. But before it was too late, Leicester steadied themselves and once again began to look a team infinitely superior to Hull'. With twenty minutes to go, Leicester went back in front when 'Chandler headed in from a corner admirably taken by Watson'. Stand-in Watson then completed a memorable afterrnoon, his 'magnificent run and centre led to a tussle in front of goal before Chandler pounced and banged the ball in for his third'. O'Brien jumps, Chandler waits to nod in his second goal. The remaining minutes were simply a celebration. The Leicester 'war cry' was heard - 'fans emitting a series of yells which sounded like the Maori war song'. And when rain started falling, the crowd broke into a chorus of It Aint Gonna Rain No Mo' - the big hit of recent months: The optimism and rainfall references in the lyrics make it a distant cousin of 'When You're Smiling', written just a couple of years later. The wikipedia entry for the song says it was sung by Sheffield United fans this season - but they weren't the only ones. The game finished 3-1, and this was manager Peter Hodge at the end, as portrayed in the Leicester Chronicle: In the other replay, Spurs were made to regret throwing away that two goal lead on Saturday. In front of a massive Thursday afternoon crowd of almost 50,000, Blackburn raced into a 3-0 lead before the break and Spurs got just one back in the second half. So this was the line-up for the quarter finals, just nine days away: The League positions of the eight clubs left in are shown here on the Division One and Division Two tables from the previous weekend (since when Derby and Man U had picked up points, leaving us in third place) We'd only reached the quarter-finals once before. But there was no knowing how far this wonder team could go:

The day before the game, two other replays were staged. On Saturday, a record crowd of 64,000 at the Hawthorns had seen West Brom and Aston Villa draw 1-1. This Wednesday afternoon, Albion won 2-1 at Villa Park, which left them facing a quarter final tie at Bramall Lane. The other replay was Blackpool's 3-1 win over West Ham. They face the winners of the Blackburn - Tottenham replay, scheduled for tomorrow. Tottenham had been two up with just eight minutes left at White Hart Lane on Saturday, and their fans were singing 'Who killed Cock Robin?' in celebration. Then Blackburn got two late goals, and 'the crowd filed out of the ground in silence'. In those days, no one sang 'two nil, and you ****ed it up' - it was left to the cartoonist in the Daily Herald to put the boot in: Also today, Derby beat Bradford City 2-0 in the League - the fixture postponed from Saturday. That put the Rams three points clear at the top of Division Two: Hull's players spent the night in Sheffield prior to traveling down to Leicester tomorrow. Meanwhile at Filbert Street, preparations were underway for another massive crowd. After the scenes at the Newcastle replay, barbed wire was strung around the pillars on the Spion Kop to prevent a repeat of this scene: The club also announced that the usual price reduction for boys would not be available, and that 'cripple carriages' would not be allowed in the ground 'in the interests of the unfortunate people themselves'. Factories in the city would be closing early again to allow workers to make the 3pm kick off, and the Evening Mail had this front page story: The report claimed that: 'Leicester City football team's wonderful achievements this season have been a huge advertisement to local industry and a stimulus to the city's trade. The team's feats have put the word 'Leicester' into the mouths and minds of hundreds of thousands of people in all parts of the country. The best wishes of all Leicester citizens are, therefore, with the City team in their splendid fights for promotion and the Cup'.

When the draw for the quarter finals was made, the first team out of the hat was 'Cardiff City'. The next was 'Hull City or Leicester City'. If we won the replay we'd be facing another tough away trip. But after our performance at Newcastle in Round Two that wasn't something we'd be too bothered about. This was the full draw: Cardiff City v Hull City or Leicester City Southampton v Liverpool Sheffield United v West Brom or Aston Villa Tottenham or Blackburn Rovers v West Ham or Blackpool Our rivals in the promotion race were playing close attention to the FA cup results. With Leicester facing another replay, it meant that in a period in which Derby, Man U and Chelsea all played just three games, we would be playing six (recall that those three clubs all fell at the first hurdle in the FA Cup). We might be the form team in the division, but surely all these extra games would take something out of us. That, at least, was what our rivals were hoping. As we were snatching that draw at Hull on Saturday, Chelsea were in action in the League - at Stockport County. They had a chance to go level with Derby at the top but were hammered 4-0. This man Tommy Meads got a hattrick: Both Man U and Derby had a weekend off as their scheduled opponets were still in the Cup (Southampton beat Bradford City 2-0). But on this Monday afternoon, just after the quarter final draw was made, United had their chance to go level at the top if they could beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. They couldn't manage it either. Controversial signing from Clapton Orient Albert Pape was on the scoresheet again but they were held to a 1-1 draw. That left the table like this: Meanwhile, as Hull City were preparing for the replay at the luxury Alexander Hotel in Bridlington, our players were following their normal training routine at Filbert Street. Reports suggested that both teams were likely to be unchanged from Saturday. Here's the players details - with just Mick O'Brien on either side over six foot:

The houses came first. The club bought up a lot of those houses over the years with a view to knocking them all down and extending the Popular Side / East Stand. That entrance you can see in the picture was built in 1963 when the road was still called Grasmere Street.

FA Cup Third Round (last 16) Saturday February 21st 1925 Hull City v Leicester City Let's start with a photo I was thrilled to find the other day. It's Johnny Duncan and Mick O'Brien before kick-off. Recall that Mick was our captain until he was transferred to Hull at the start of this season. You can see why Paul Taylor speaks of his 'outsize personality' in that profile from Of Fossils and Foxes quoted a few days ago. It's a picture that really sums up the first decade of Leicester CIty. O'Brien, who so nearly led us to promotion in 1923, and Duncan - the soul of our first truly great side. Perhaps the reason O'Brien is looking so confident is that he knows his team have a plan. They are going to go for our throats right from the start. Within the first few seconds, 'a perfect sea of striped shirts swarmed round Godderidge, the Leicester keeper', and the home side had several near misses in the opening minutes. This came as a surprise to the press photographers, who had all taken up positions behind the Hull goal until they realised the action was at the other end, as this R.B.Davis cartoon in the Mercury showed us: In the 17th minute, Hull's pressure finally paid off. A corner was cleared but Paddy Mills set up Mick O'Brien on the edge of the box. He 'trapped the ball cleverly and let go a shot that sailed over the heads of several players and beat Godderidge as a piercing shriek of pent-up exctiement rent the air'. What a time to get your first goal for the club. Hull didn't let up, and our full backs Adam Black and Harry Hooper were called upon several times to make last ditch challenges. Hooper was having his best game for the club, and cries of 'Well played, Ginger' were heard when he made yet another clearance. Hooper watches as Godderidge saves. The battles between centre half and centre forward at each end were a highlight of the game. Leicester's Pat Carrigan could only deal with Billy Mills by repeatedly fouling him. 'Carrrigan was merciless' said the Hull Daily Mail, 'and the referee was very charitable when he lectured a whole group of players rather than directing his remarks to individuals. Mills at the time was in the hands of the trainer on the touchline'. At the other end, O'Brien was keeping Chandler bottled up . O'Brien is in the centre of the picture here, as Hull keeper George Maddison clears from Hugh Wadsworth. Johnny Duncan and Arthur Chandler are the Leicester players on the left. The best effort for Leicester in the first half was a Chandler shot that Maddison tipped over the bar, then back at the other end just before the interval 'Godderidge made a remarkable save by throwing the ball round the post as he was falling back through the goal'. We still couldn't get going in the second half, and the game became scrappy. Then ten minutes from time we got the equalizer. The ball came over from Wadsworth on the left and 'Duncan had the audacity to get the ball under control without the least suggesiton of hurry and then beat Maddison with a fast cross shot that hit the under part of the crossbar before finding the net'. This is not a good quality picture, but it's worth putting here to get at least a feel of that crucial moment. Duncan is extreme right. Note the fans on the roof: After that it was our turn to swarm around the opposition goal and we nearly snatched a winner that on the balance of play would have been very harsh on Hull. Harry Wadsworth takes on the Hull defence It had been our least impressive performance for several weeks, but we'd survived. These were the other scores: So four of the eight ties were draws, with the most impressive result being Cardiff's win at Notts County, who had been top of the Leage a few weeks earlier. This is what happened at Bramall Lane. Fred Tunstall's winner looks not dissimilar to O'Brien's goal described above: So Leicester got ready for another Thursday afternoon replay. Before that, on Monday lunchtime, it was the draw for the quarter finals.

Three days to go before the big game and the players were taking a break from training at Filbert Street: They're playing 'Wibbly Wob', a table football game. Predictably, Johnny Duncan and Arthur Chandler are the ones hogging the table. I'd never heard of Wibbly Wob: The rules say that 'the disc representing the ball is laid flat on the table and players hold the wires so that the foot of the 'striker' is just touching the disc' There was a bit of a table football boom at the time. Later in the same year Andy Ducat, the footballing cricketer who you might remember from another thread, launched this: Subbuteo was still over 20 years away. .

Supposed to have been late 60s after some City fans heard a singer performing in a bar on a Friday night.

Enigma code. Ha ha. Very good.

I tried to find out but didn't get anywhere. Someone must know...

Yeah - Jeff too. There's been a few. Jimmy Walsh got the winner two seasons running at WHL - the second one was their double season.