Was the 2014/15 escape Leicester's greatest ever?

[kushiro]

Tomorrow, March 26th, is the anniversary of the body of King Richard III being reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2015. We all know what that was the trigger for. But was that recovery the greatest in our history? Or was there another season with an even more unlikely escape from relegation? That's the question to be answered in this thread - a countdown of Leicester's Top Five Greatest Escapes:

 

5) 1974/75

 

 

This picture of Jimmy Bloomfield celebrating his 41st birthday appeared in the papers in February 1975. But his expression looks more like exasperation than celebration.

Everything was going wrong. Frank Worthington had gone 16 League games without a goal. Peter Shilton had left for Stoke City and replacement Mark Wallington had broken his wrist. Keith Weller had asked for a transfer, then refused to play the second half of a home defeat to Ipswich after being barracked by fans. The players no longer wanted Weller as captain. Results on the pitch reflected the off-field disharmony - on the morning of February 22nd, after 13 games without a win, and less than a year after being hailed as the most exciting team in the League, the table revealed the grim reality:

 

 

Three up / three down had been introduced this season, so the gap to safety, rather than being a single point to Carlisle in 20th, was a massive six points to Spurs in 19th (and there were only two points for a win then). That day we headed for White Hart Lane.  It was a great chance for Spurs to pull further away from danger - and to bang another nail in the Leicester coffin. 

 

It didn't work out like that. We cruised to a 3-0 victory - the scorers Jon Sammels, Mike Stringfellow (his last for the club) - and Frank Worthington, finally back in the goals.

 

After the game Alan Birchenall put the boot in: 'We've got problems, but not as many as they have. That's the worst Spurs team I've ever seen'.

 

The mood at the club lifted. The following week, in place of 'crisis' headlines, we got this:

 

 

That's Frank on stage at a Grumbleweeds concert in the city. The day that picture appeared, Frank got the winner at Carlisle. So that was two crucial away wins in eight days - the start of a run of just one defeat in eleven games. Pretty soon we were above Spurs. Our key players were new names -  Bob Lee, finally given a run in the team, and new signings Jeff Blockley and Chris Garland.  Highlights of the run-in were a 2-2 draw at European Cup finalists Leeds United, and Garland's hattrick in a 3-2 home win v Wolves.

 

We finished in 18th place, three points clear of the drop, with Spurs 19th and Carlisle, Chelsea and Luton going down. 

 

 

4)  1983/84

 

After getting promoted so spectacularly the previous season, Gordon Milne must have been confident that the Lineker / Smith / Lynex combination could terrify a few defences in the top flight too. What a shock we all got.

 

Mark Wallington was the only survivor of the 74/75 escape,  but a contract dispute meant he sat out the first five games, giving new signing Mark Grew a chance. It was quite a baptism. The first two games were home defeats to Notts County (4-0) and Luton Town (3-0). Here's where I introduce my own form of illustration. I used to make little doodles in my school exercise books - and I still have this effort that tells the story:

 

 

The caption reads: Which way does Mark Grew turn? Shots from long range fly to every corner in his first 2 City games.  It's a bit hard to blame Grew, given that he was defending a goal which, judging from the lines on the page, appears to be 12 yards high.

 

Here's a picture of that Martin O'Neill goal (the Mercury's attempt to photoshop the ball into the picture just as amateurish as my cartoon):

 

 

Things didn't improve. We lost the next four as well - the worst start in our history, and after 10 games we had just TWO points:

 

 

Then it all started to click. Lineker started scoring, Bob Hazell was bought to strengthen the defence, and gradually we realised we could hold our own against anyone. A run of seven unbeaten around Christmas took us out of the bottom three, and we ended up relatively comfortably in 15th after some scintillating performances like the 3-3 draw with Liverpool (which could be in a different Top 5 - the greatest games ever seen at Filbert Street).

 

3) 1932/33

 

If you saw the recent thread about the Rapid Vienna game you'll be familiar with this one. It's February and we still have only two wins to our name. Look at the table and you can see that if three points for a win had been in place then we'd have been in even deeper trouble. Four points adrift at the bottom was bad enough:

 

 

Then, after the Austrians gave us a footballing lesson and a few bits of advice, we altered our formation and went on a great run, safety assured on the last day with a 6-2 win v West Brom.  Here's a photo from the 1-1 draw v champions Arsenal in March, the Gunners having received permission to change their kit to a new white-sleeved design just the week before:

 

 

 

 

Just a word of explanation before the top two greatest escapes - we're not talking necessarily about last day dramas here, but taking a longer perspective, looking at moments across a whole season when we looked utterly doomed. So just missing out on this Top 5 were Tony James v Oxford in 1991 and Ian McNeill's similarly dramatic winner at Birmingham in 1958.

 

Right, on we go:

 

2)  2014/15 

 

What?? Not number one? 

 

Here's a reminder of how the Premier League stood when King Richard was buried. We had  nine games to play:

 

 

We had won only twice since September, and it was now early April. But one thing that might have given us hope was that of the fixtures remaining, six out of nine were at home, many of them against teams with little left to play for.  It's a familiar story so I'll just round this part off with a single photo, of what many cite as THE crucial moment in the whole Leicester City title miracle story:

 

 

 

1) 1958/ 59

 

Matt Gillies had been in the job six months. But how long would he last?  This was the table on the morning of March 27th as we headed for Burnden Park, Bolton:

 

 

Leicester had lost six in a row and looked doomed. One bookie was offering odds of 50-1 against us staying up. Just like 2014/15, the darkest hour came with nine games to play. The five point gap to safety here was the equivalent of the seven point gap in 2014/15 (with three points for a win). We were dead and buried, surely, and there was no King Richard to save us. Were there any other useful omens? Well, it was Good Friday...

 

Portsmouth, our partners in misery at the bottom, threw in the towel. From that point they lost all their remaining games, and didn't get back to the top flight for 30 years. Would the same have happened to us had we gone down? No Ice Kings? No Cup Finals in the 60s? That's how much may have been riding on our finding a way to stay up.

 

Given the drama of the run-in, it's a story with a surprisingly minor place in Leicester City mythology. And it's one that needs telling in some detail...

 

To be continued.

 

 

Edited 25 March 2022 by kushiro

[MattFox]

14/15 was really weird

 

If our results matched a lot of our performances we’d have been comfortable all season

[Wolfox]

Wow…. What a great read…. Thank you!

[Foxes1]

I remember the 1990/91 season when we won on the last day at home to Oxford Utd to stop us falling into the third tier for the first time ever. Tony James scored the winning goal.

'Leicester’s narrow 1-0 victory, coupled with West Brom’s draw with Bristol Rovers, sparked wild celebrations among the Filbert Street faithful, who spilled out onto the pitch at full-time to celebrate with the players.

Meanwhile, at Twerton Park, the Baggies were consigned to relegation to the Third Division.'

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Yes, easily. It wasn't just our greatest escape, but THE greatest escape. Look at the table you posted FFS.

[Fox92]

2 minutes ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Yes, easily. It wasn't just our greatest escape, but THE greatest escape. Look at the table you posted FFS.

It's mental looking at it now. 

[Bayfox]

Yes. End off.

 

Ok as others have mentioned we were never a side that got battered week in week out don't think we lost by more than a couple most the season. So we were always in games but we went so long without a win in spells between basically the 1st few weeks to about 12 weeks before the end of the season. We really did look dead and buried and the fact we had been playing ok must really have made the players and staff think, well we are playing ok, maybe we just aren't cut out for this level as a group 

 

The confidence gained from winning 1 game to going on the run we did was incredible. In my life its clearly the most outstanding survival. I just can't reason even now how you go on that sort of run at that stage of the season. 

 

Madness.

[Sampson]

That West Ham game where the run started is one we don’t talk about enough. Was massive in the context of the clubs history.

 

We’d played brilliantly that game but it was 1-1 and Nugent had missed a penalty. Remember saying during the game that summed up our season, playing well but missing a bunch of chances including a penalty.

 

Then Kingy poked one in in the dying minutes and after that we didn’t stop winning for over a year afterwards.

 

Must’ve been Andy King’s most important goal for us.

 

Pretty sure we’d switched to 3-4-1-2 from 4-4-2 in that game and Albrighton came into the side after barely featuring all season as well and he was brilliant during the great escape run and made a big difference.

Edited 25 March 2022 by Sampson

[coolhandfox]

The 2014/15 team was a lot better then results suggested, they were in, most games and lost games they should have won.

 

The big turning point as we all know was the arrival of a big squared headed German who brought PL know-how. 

 

 

[Fox92]

1 minute ago, coolhandfox said:

The 2014/15 team was a lot better then results suggested, they were in, most games and lost games they should have won.

 

The big turning point as we all know was the arrival of a big squared headed German who brought PL know-how. 

 

 

Agreed, some of Pearson's signings were so astute and Huth was probably the best example of this.

[foxfanazer]

That Vardy goal still gives me chills whenever I watch it. Unbelievable scenes!

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

56 minutes ago, kushiro said:

Tomorrow, March 26th, is the anniversary of the body of King Richard III being reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2015. We all know what that was the trigger for. But was that recovery the greatest in our history? Or was there another season with an even more unlikely escape from relegation? That's the question to be answered in this thread - a countdown of Leicester's Top Five Greatest Escapes:

 

5) 1974/75

 

 

This picture of Jimmy Bloomfield celebrating his 41st birthday appeared in the papers in February 1975. But his expression looks more like exasperation than celebration.

Everything was going wrong. Frank Worthington had gone 16 League games without a goal. Peter Shilton had left for Stoke City and replacement Mark Wallington had broken his wrist. Keith Weller had asked for a transfer, then refused to play the second half of a home defeat to Ipswich after being barracked by fans. The players no longer wanted Weller as captain. Results on the pitch reflected the off-field disharmony - on the morning of February 22nd, after 13 games without a win, and less than a year after being hailed as the most exciting team in the League, the table revealed the grim reality:

 

 

Three up / three down had been introduced this season, so the gap to safety, rather than being a single point to Carlisle in 20th, was a massive six points to Spurs in 19th (and there were only two points for a win then). That day we headed for White Hart Lane.  It was a great chance for Spurs to pull further away from danger - and to bang another nail in the Leicester coffin. 

 

It didn't work out like that. We cruised to a 3-0 victory - the scorers Jon Sammels, Mike Stringfellow (his last for the club) - and Frank Worthington, finally back in the goals.

 

After the game Alan Birchenall put the boot in: 'We've got problems, but not as many as they have. That's the worst Spurs team I've ever seen'.

 

The mood at the club lifted. The following week, in place of 'crisis' headlines, we got this:

 

 

That's Frank on stage at a Grumbleweeds concert in the city. The day that picture appeared, Frank got the winner at Carlisle. So that was two crucial away wins in eight days - the start of a run of just one defeat in eleven games. Pretty soon we were above Spurs. Our key players were new names -  Bob Lee, finally given a run in the team, and new signings Jeff Blockley and Chris Garland.  Highlights of the run-in were a 2-2 draw at European Cup finalists Leeds United, and Garland's hattrick in a 3-2 home win v Wolves.

 

We finished in 18th place, three points clear of the drop, with Spurs 19th and Carlisle, Chelsea and Luton going down. 

 

 

4)  1983/84

 

After getting promoted so spectacularly the previous season, Gordon Milne must have been confident that the Lineker / Smith / Lynex combination could terrify a few defences in the top flight too. What a shock we all got.

 

Mark Wallington was the only survivor of the 74/75 escape,  but a contract dispute meant he sat out the first five games, giving new signing Mark Grew a chance. It was quite a baptism. The first two games were home defeats to Notts County (4-0) and Luton Town (3-0). Here's where I introduce my own form of illustration. I used to make little doodles in my school exercise books - and I still have this effort that tells the story:

 

 

The caption reads: Which way does Mark Grew turn? Shots from long range fly to every corner in his first 2 City games.  It's a bit hard to blame Grew, given that he was defending a goal which, judging from the lines on the page, appears to be 12 yards high.

 

Here's a picture of that Martin O'Neill goal (the Mercury's attempt to photoshop the ball into the picture just as amateurish as my cartoon):

 

 

Things didn't improve. We lost the next four as well - the worst start in our history, and after 10 games we had just TWO points:

 

 

Then it all started to click. Lineker started scoring, Bob Hazell was bought to strengthen the defence, and gradually we realised we could hold our own against anyone. A run of seven unbeaten around Christmas took us out of the bottom three, and we ended up relatively comfortably in 15th after some scintillating performances like the 3-3 draw with Liverpool (which could be in a different Top 5 - the greatest games ever seen at Filbert Street).

 

3) 1932/33

 

If you saw the recent thread about the Rapid Vienna game you'll be familiar with this one. It's February and we still have only two wins to our name. Look at the table and you can see that if three points for a win had been in place then we'd have been in even deeper trouble. Four points adrift at the bottom was bad enough:

 

 

Then, after the Austrians gave us a footballing lesson and a few bits of advice, we altered our formation and went on a great run, safety assured on the last day with a 6-2 win v West Brom.  Here's a photo from the 1-1 draw v champions Arsenal in March, the Gunners having received permission to change their kit to a new white-sleeved design just the week before:

 

 

 

 

Just a word of explanation before the top two greatest escapes - we're not talking necessarily about last day dramas here, but taking a longer perspective, looking at moments across a whole season when we looked utterly doomed. So just missing out on this Top 5 were Tony James v Oxford in 1991 and Ian McNeill's similarly dramatic winner at Birmingham in 1958.

 

Right, on we go:

 

2)  2014/15 

 

What?? Not number one? 

 

Here's a reminder of how the Premier League stood when King Richard was buried. We had  nine games to play:

 

 

We had won only twice since September, and it was now early April. But one thing that might have given us hope was that of the fixtures remaining, six out of nine were at home, many of them against teams with little left to play for.  It's a familiar story so I'll just round this part off with a single photo, of what many cite as THE crucial moment in the whole Leicester City title miracle story:

 

 

 

1) 1958/ 59

 

Matt Gillies had been in the job six months. But how long would he last?  This was the table on the morning of March 27th as we headed for Burnden Park, Bolton:

 

 

Leicester had lost six in a row and looked doomed. One bookie was offering odds of 50-1 against us staying up. Just like 2014/15, the darkest hour came with nine games to play. The five point gap to safety here was the equivalent of the seven point gap in 2014/15 (with three points for a win). We were dead and buried, surely, and there was no King Richard to save us. Were there any other useful omens? Well, it was Good Friday...

 

Portsmouth, our partners in misery at the bottom, threw in the towel. From that point they lost all their remaining games, and didn't get back to the top flight for 30 years. Would the same have happened to us had we gone down? No Ice Kings? No Cup Finals in the 60s? That's how much may have been riding on our finding a way to stay up.

 

Given the drama of the run-in, it's a story with a surprisingly minor place in Leicester City mythology. And it's one that needs telling in some detail...

 

To be continued.

 

 

You know, this would make a great short book (I mean, with more than what is in this post), but a nice little "Leicester's great escapes" coffee table number.

[Les-TA-Jon]

6 minutes ago, Bayfox said:

Yes. End off.

 

Ok as others have mentioned we were never a side that got battered week in week out don't think we lost by more than a couple most the season. So we were always in games but we went so long without a win in spells between basically the 1st few weeks to about 12 weeks before the end of the season. We really did look dead and buried and the fact we had been playing ok must really have made the players and staff think, well we are playing ok, maybe we just aren't cut out for this level as a group 

 

The confidence gained from winning 1 game to going on the run we did was incredible. In my life its clearly the most outstanding survival. I just can't reason even now how you go on that sort of run at that stage of the season. 

 

Madness.

Pretty sure that season, Leicester and Arsenal were the only 2 teams to not get beaten by more than 2 goals. Weird to think we were rooted to the bottom of the table for most of the season and yet weren't the whipping boys. 

[Bayfox]

Just now, Les-TA-Jon said:

Pretty sure that season, Leicester and Arsenal were the only 2 teams to not get beaten by more than 2 goals. Weird to think we were rooted to the bottom of the table for most of the season and yet weren't the whipping boys. 

I thought it wss 2 but I couldn't remember for fact and didn't want to state it and couldn't be arsed to check

[Les-TA-Jon]

7 minutes ago, Bayfox said:

Yes. End off.

I always make sure I check out the table when there's 29 games played and take a look at the bottom side. What Leicester did with the great escape and following title win is UNFATHOMABLE 

 

It'd be like trying to claim that the current Norwich side are going stay up, finish 14th and then win the league next season. Madness. 

[Matt_Lcfc]

I actually could not believe how unlucky we were countless times that season. Home matches against Palace, Stoke and West Brom all come to memory. I also recall bad luck in away matches like Man City, Arsenal, Spurs and QPR.

 

We had a quite a weak squad but I actually thought we were well drilled for the most part. There was no way that we were the worst team in the division. If you look at teams like Norwich and even Watford to be fair, they regularly get hit for four or five. I can’t actually recall us losing by more than three goals that season.
 

Having said that, I do still think it was the greatest escape ever. The table supports that view. Those final games were just exhilarating though, I still put that West Brom away match as one of my favourite ever away games. I am pretty sure a good few hundred people got the boot that day .

Edited 25 March 2022 by Matt_Lcfc

[foxfanazer]

10 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

I always make sure I check out the table when there's 29 games played and take a look at the bottom side. What Leicester did with the great escape and following title win is UNFATHOMABLE 

 

It'd be like trying to claim that the current Norwich side are going stay up, finish 14th and then win the league next season. Madness. 

Sometimes it Still doesn't feel like it happened to us. The magnitude of it gets lost

 

Not only were we alive to witness the biggest shock ever in sport but it's actually our club that pulled it off

Edited 25 March 2022 by foxfanazer

[Matt_Lcfc]

10 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

That Vardy goal still gives me chills whenever I watch it. Unbelievable scenes!

Strong case to say that is the most important goal we have ever scored. Not only did it kickstart Vardy, but it completely shaped the mentality. 

[Les-TA-Jon]

4 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

Those final games were just exhilarating though

I remember coming away from the Hull game just before the final run-in. Going into the game everyone sort of knew we needed to win in order to have a chance to stay up. It finished 0-0 and we were lucky to not lose, with Jelavic missing a sitter. 

 

We all felt we were down. I said walking out of the turnstiles "Well, theoretically we can still stay up, we'd just have to win 7 or 8 of the final 9 matches" 

 

Just think how mad that sounds, in the context of that moment, and yet...We. Actually. Did. It. 

Edited 25 March 2022 by Les-TA-Jon

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

Strong case to say that is the most important goal we have ever scored. Not only did it kickstart Vardy, but it completely shaped the mentality. 

That would make for an interest thread in itself. Huth v Spurs, Ulloa v Norwich, King v West ham some other shouts

[Paninistickers]

17 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Pretty sure that season, Leicester and Arsenal were the only 2 teams to not get beaten by more than 2 goals. Weird to think we were rooted to the bottom of the table for most of the season and yet weren't the whipping boys. 

I remember losing unluckily away to arsenal and wenger (magnanimous as he often was after a win) made comments in the post match interview along the lines that it was no surprise they struggled against us for long periods, as, regardless of where we were in the table, we were a good side. 

[fox_up_north]

Christ...that table from 2014...Stoke, Swansea, Hull, Sunderland. You can see how the money is concentrating in SE / North West. 

 

Norwich, Burnley, Leeds and Newcastle are the real outliers. You could include us in a Midlands cluster. But, up to 2 of those will go this season and Newcastle have used a cheat code. 

 

If you look at the Championship, there's a chance we could get a Boro, Huddersfield or Sheffield again but that's it. 

[Matt_Lcfc]

9 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

I remember coming away from the Hull game just before the final run-in. Going into the game everyone sort of knew we needed to win in order to have a chance to stay up. It finished 0-0 and we were lucky to not lose, with Jelavic missing a sitter. 

 

We all felt we were down. I said walking out of the turnstiles "Well, theoretically we can still stay up, we'd just have to win 7 or 8 of the final 9 matches" 

 

Just think how mad that sounds, in the context of that moment, and yet...We. Actually. Did. It. 

Yeah, Hull was the game for me. We were decent that season but it was shocking that day. We couldn’t break ten men Hull down, they were probably the worst team in the division that season too. It actually is remarkable when you think about it.

 

[Matt_Lcfc]

15 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

That would make for an interest thread in itself. Huth v Spurs, Ulloa v Norwich, King v West ham some other shouts

Yeah, so many to pick from. We have been so fortunate to witness so many iconic moments.

[Spudulike]

26 minutes ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

You know, this would make a great short book (I mean, with more than what is in this post), but a nice little "Leicester's great escapes" coffee table number.

It could be done on a top 10 (or 5) theme like the Lineker MotD podcast thing and feature other stories, not just greatest escape. The reader can decide for themselves the winners. 

 

I'd buy it.