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

[Arriba Los Zorros]

10 hours ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

That side is still my favorite ever. Leaders all over the pitch, prime Vardy, serenading Cambiasso, Wasilewski scissoring Ayoze Pezez. To top it off Nigel Pearson at the helm, the man who built our football club. The Don.

Matty James and Dave Nugent. Paul Konchesky. Knocky! Good Times. 

[Incognito]

17 hours ago, Rain King said:

 

Think everyone in the stands believed we had gone after that.

 

Just remember Nick Powell being brought on for us to moans and groans from the crowd.

Nick Powell didn't come on in either game against Hull during the survival season.

 

He did come on against Man City and West Brom at home, and Southampton away. So quite conceivable groans were at one of those games. 

[Guest Electric Yetis]

3 hours ago, Incognito said:

Nick Powell didn't come on in either game against Hull during the survival season.

 

He did come on against Man City and West Brom at home, and Southampton away. So quite conceivable groans were at one of those games. 

You're are quite correct, sorry.

 

I meant Tom Lawrence!

[sdb]

March 2015 - May 2016 was just pure ecstacy wasn't it? I've never been so invested in anything in my life. Just thinking about it can make me weep happy tears. 

 

Great OP by the way!

[Corky]

The Newcastle game convinced me we'd stay up- they were a shambles but we played with such confidence and authority, we looked like a genuine Premier League side in that and the Southampton match the week after.

[DoveValleyFox]

16 hours ago, Spudulike said:

King's goal against Swansea was one of my all-time favourites. 1 nil up going into the last couple of minutes after spending the previous 15 mins defending deeper and deeper as Swansea created chance after chance. Seemed only a mater of time before the equaliser. A breakaway and a free kick just outside the box is won which, if nothing else, relives the pressure. Up steps the Magic Man and then... 

 

 

That's when I knew 'We are staying up'! 

Little Nathan Dyer that shot. 

 

He, probably more than anyone could never have guessed what was in store for him the following season. He is firmly in amongst the greatest squad in our history. Am I right in thinking that he got a Champions medal?

 

Edit- just checked. Of course he did because he made 12 appearances

 

For me the greatest escape has to be 2014/15 because we had so few games to turn it around.

1984/5 was fantastic. We had a good team with some quality players, playing exciting football. It was not the greatest escape though because we had two thirds of the season to make up the points.

Edited 26 March 2022 by DoveValleyFox

[Spudulike]

16 hours ago, Rain King said:

Yeah loved that game and was delighted King had a hand getting us out with 2 goals in the run in.

 

Think after this match was the first time we'd escaped the relegation zone?

.... and no goal music! So we can celebrate without it. 

[Guest Electric Yetis]

9 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

.... and no goal music! So we can celebrate without it. 

Just watched the highlights and they played Fire by Kasabian. Lot lower volume though.

[purpleronnie]

Its pretty incredible really, the fact we won the league the next season will surely never be surpassed.

 

4th April 2015 - Bottom of the league.  Only 4 wins out of 30 league games.

 

We then only lost 4 times in the next 47 league games.

 

[KingsX]

Thank you @kushirofor a Hall of Fame-quality OP.  It makes a mockery of current-day football journalism.

 

Speaking of which, have the Mercury paraphrased and republished it yet and claimed copyright?

[PAULCFC]

Nearly didn't go to WBA away,thought we had gone.......so glad i did!

 

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

51 minutes ago, KingsX said:

Speaking of which, have the Mercury paraphrased and republished it yet and claimed copyright?

Harsh, but fair.

[onekeithweller]

On 25/03/2022 at 20:09, Spudulike said:

King's goal against Swansea was one of my all-time favourites. 1 nil up going into the last couple of minutes after spending the previous 15 mins defending deeper and deeper as Swansea created chance after chance. Seemed only a mater of time before the equaliser. A breakaway and a free kick just outside the box is won which, if nothing else, relives the pressure. Up steps the Magic Man and then... 

 

 

That's when I knew 'We are staying up'! 

This clip is brilliant, so much more evocative than any TV channel could muster and no bollocks commentary either!

[The Year Of The Fox]

That Vardy goal is still my most favourite I think. Which when you think about his volley V Liverpool, the 4th against United in the 5-3

 

When your grandkids ask you what Jamie Vardy brought to Leicester City you just need to show them the WBA goal. That ten second clip is all things Jamie Vardy 🐐  

[Dan]

12 hours ago, Corky said:

The Newcastle game convinced me we'd stay up- they were a shambles but we played with such confidence and authority, we looked like a genuine Premier League side in that and the Southampton match the week after.

I couldn't fathom watching that how we were below them at the time.

 

In-fact we went above them on the final day I believe and I don't think they've finished above us since.

[Dan]

Didn't Nathan Dyer only come here on loan because of some bust up at Swansea just before the window shut? I bet he'll never believe his luck. I always liked Dyer.

[CosbehFox]

7 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

Didn't Nathan Dyer only come here on loan because of some bust up at Swansea just before the window shut? I bet he'll never believe his luck. I always liked Dyer.

Yeah apparently his partner was shagging a club director 

[kushiro]

Part 2

 

Love hearing these memories of 2014/15.

 

Here's the full story of the 1958/59 escape.  To do it justice requires what may become the longest ever post on this forum. Oh well, it's supposed to be a marathon, not a sprint.

 

We need to start with some background. Just as 2014/15 cannot be fully understood without reference to King RIchard III's reburial, to really appreciate the circumstances surrounding 1958/59 we need to talk about two funeral services that took place in the spring of that year, just as Leicester's position became really desperate.  The stories unfold like a dream sequence - a recurring anxiety dream in which the protagonist is on a train, making the same journey over and over again, with an increasing sense of doom. 

 

Let's start on Monday February 23rd. 

 

A photographer from the Evening Mail was sent to Leicester Station that day to take shots of the thousands of Birmingham City fans heading for Filbert Street. Their opponents were not Leicester City, but Nottingham Forest. Our ground had been chosen as the neutral venue for an FA Cup 5th Round 2nd replay, one of those wonderful Cup sagas that used to enthrall the nation in the days before unlimited replays were considered an extravagance in the football calendar. The crowd was a massive 35,000, higher even than the two FA Cup semi-finals that Filbert Street has staged. The weight of numbers caused traffic chaos in the city.

 

 

There's the shot of those Birmingham fans arriving at the station. 

 

The cut of the gate money that went into City coffers that day would have been very welcome. With the transfer deadline less than a month away, manager Matt Gillies was keen to bring in new faces in the fight against relegation. Two days before we'd been involved in a dramatic game at Luton, going three down, then coming back to 3-3 before conceding a late winner. We were in a perilous position, just above the two clubs in the drop zone, Aston Villa and Portsmouth.

 

Birmingham lost that Filbert Street replay 5-0, and in this fine photo you can see the third goal, scored by Roy Dwight (Elton John's cousin).

 

 

Take a look at the defender in the picture. It's Jeff Hall, Birmingham's England international. No-one could possibly have guessed at the time, but Hall had only weeks to live. 

 

The following Saturday we lost 1-0 at home to Newcastle, and those new signings were looking increasingly necessary. The man on the case was Tom Bromilow, Leicester's chief scout and former manager. After a long and distinguished playing career in which he won two League titles with Liverpool, he'd been boss of Burnley and Crystal Palace before taking the Leicester job in 1939 and seeing us through World War II.

 

On March 4th, four days after the Newcastle defeat, Tom was hurrying across Birmingham station to catch the 9.30 pm train back to Leicester. He'd told his family that morning he might miss the connection. He was on his way home from a Welsh Cup match at Wrexham, where he'd been doing what he did best - spotting talented young players. Matt Gillies would be eagerly waiting his report.  

 

Tom at Burnley in the 1930s:

 

Tom made his connection - but he never made it back to Leicester. Shortly after his train left Birmingham, a railway signalman got on at Whitacre Station and found him alone in his carriage, slumped over the seats, seemingly unconscious. The signalman tried artificial respiration, without success. The emergency services were called at Nuneaton station, and he was taken to the nearby Manor Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The game after Tom's death was at White Hart Lane, with the players wearing black armbands. Spurs were also at the wrong end of the table and desperately needed the points. We lost 6-0 - our third defeat in a row, and Villa beat Leeds 2-1 that day to move above us. 

 

At Tom's funeral three days later, at the Church of the Martyrs on Westcotes Drive, his coffin was carried by City players John Newman, Derek Hines, Bill Cunningham, Johnny Anderson, and Stan Milburn, plus trainer George Dewis. He was 64, and left a widow, a son and a daughter. 

 

Matt Gillies now had to find a new scout. His choice would be one of the key decisions in the club's history. He waited until the end of the season, then chose Bert Johnson, who quickly changed from scout to Assistant Manager. Together, they developed the famous tactical system that lay behind our rise to prominence in the 60s. But had we been relegated in 1958/59, as looked increasingly likely, history would have been very different. There would probably have been no Matt Gillies at Filbert Street to make that key appointment. That's how much was riding on our survival. Just as the Great Escape of 2015 has added significance in the light of the season that followed, 1958/59 seems a massive turning point because of the decade it preceded.

 

Four days after Tom's funeral City lost again, 3-0 at home to Chelsea, with a young Jimmy Greaves opening the scoring. So that was four straight defeats. Villa were playing in the semi finals of the Cup that day - they lost 1-0 to Forest, who'd now knocked out both Birmingham clubs. 

 

The following Wednesday, Jeff Hall was back at Filbert Street for a League game. Far fewer Birmingham fans would have made the journey this time, but the ones that did went home happy, Birmingham beating Leicester 4-2, stretching our losing run to five games. Johnny Anderson, our veteran keeper, couldn't do anything right in his 277th and last game for the club. As the match report made clear, the patience of City fans was wearing thin. Each mistake was hailed with a shout of annoyance which frayed the players’ nerves still more. Spirits would have fallen even further with news of the other game that night. Aston Villa had won 3-1 at Bolton to leave us three points from safety.  

 

Then at the weekend we lost again, 2-1 at Blackpool, and with Villa beating Luton, the gap was suddenly a massive five points. This was the moment when odds of 50-1 against us staying up were offered by one bookmaker. Portsmouth's predicament was equally hopeless. They drew 1-1 with Birmingham that day to move above us on goal average at the bottom. But that would be their last point of the season. It was also the last Birmingham game in which the name 'Jeff Hall' appeared on the team sheet.

 

On Monday morning, March 23rd, Hall was taken ill. He was having difficulty breathing, and his diagnosis would cause a sensation. He was suffering from polio. Hall was taken to an isolation ward and placed on an iron lung. The football authorities realised the gravity of the situation and called off Birmingham's next three fixtures. Then came the contract tracing. Hall had taken part in a televised five-a-side event the previous day as a coach, along with Don Revie of Leeds and two other players. The three were told to stay home, and would miss their club's next fixture. Birmingham's last two games had been that draw at Portsmouth on the Saturday - and the victory at Filbert Street three days earlier. Portsmouth and Leicester players were told to report to a doctor urgently if they developed any symptoms. 

 

Hall's condition was critical, and the people of Birmingham prayed for his recovery, waiting anxiously for the daily updates, just like Mancunians a year earlier when Matt Busby and Duncan Edwards were fighting for their lives in a hospital in Munich.

 

The Football League weren't taking any chances and extended Birmingham City's enforced lay-off to two weeks - their next four games would have to be rescheduled. But after taking medical advice, Portsmouth and Leicester were told they could keep playing. Our game at Bolton on Good Friday would go ahead.

 

The table that morning told the grim reality:

 

 

 A seventh straight defeat looked a certainty when Nat Lofthouse put Bolton 3-1 up after just half an hour. But in the second half, Ken Leek pulled one back, 'heading down in wonderful style from a corner'. Then Leicester were awarded a penalty for handball, and John Ogilvie, who had never scored in his previous 83 games for City, was given the job. The pressure must have been unimaginable. Ogilvie stepped up and hit the ball so hard that it rebounded from the stanchion at the back of the net and landed at his feet. It finished 3-3. Elsewhere, Aston Villa took the lead at White Hart Lane but Spurs came back to win 3-2, moving them away from trouble, but cutting Villa's cushion over Leicester to four points.

 

Jeff Hall had been taken off the iron lung, but his condition was still critical.  The next day, Easter Saturday, saw Leicester and Portsmouth meet at Filbert Street. Only 15,000 turned up, perhaps understandable when we hadn't won a match for three months. That day the dismal run was broken - City won 3-1, with another Ogilvie penalty. Villa were playing at Everton that day, and again they took the lead before throwing it away, losing 2-1. The gap was now just two points.  Easter Monday saw the reverse of the Good Friday fixtures. We drew 0-0 at home to Bolton, while Villa drew 1-1 at home to Spurs, so it was 'as you were', with six games to play.

 

Our next fixture was the big one. Saturday April 4th, Villa Park. On the morning of the match came the tragic conclusion to Jeff Hall's story. At 9.30 am, he passed away. Thousands of City fans were heading for Birmingham by road and rail (surely 24 year old Bernie Henson was among them, either cycling or hitch-hiking). They would have heard the terrible news on the way to the game or when they arrived at the ground, then stood side by side with Villa fans for a minute's silence, in tribute to one of the game's most respected figures. Then the action began.

 

We got off to a great start. This description of Jimmy Walsh's opener sounds uncannily like Jamie Vardy's famous goal at West Brom in 2015.

 

 

Keeper Dave MacLaren was keeping Villa at bay with some magnificent saves, and then midway through the second half Walsh got another. This one sounded equally dramatic:

 

 

Villa pulled one back, but we held on to win 2-1 - one of the most important results in the history of the club. But despite taking six points from four games, we were still in the drop zone. Villa's goal average was better than ours -  they were 20th, we were 21st. Manchester City had also slipped right into trouble after an awful run. They were just one point better off in 19th.

 

So there were five to play. We had the momentum, but our remaining fixtures looked ominous. We had to play the two teams fighting for the title, Wolves and Man United. We had to play West Ham, who were in 4th place. We had an away game at Forest. And the last game of the season was at Maine Road - a potential relegation decider. We still had a mountain to climb. 

 

I'm feeling the tension just typing this (and I know how the story finished), so lord knows what it was like to live through it in real time. I'm gonna take a break - let's leave the climax to another post.

[TrentFox]

On 25/03/2022 at 10:37, Foxes1 said:

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.'

I’m sure I’ve shared this reflection before - forgive me! But my best mate was playing in defence for Oxford  that day. We’d shared a house only two years earlier and been on holiday that summer. In front of the kop, one of our players had lobbed their keeper and was turning around to celebrate as the ball bounced towards an empty net. Out of nowhere, my mate appeared and hooked it off the line to safety. I just remember that in that instant I hurled the most appalling, foul-mouthed tirade at him and called him every name under the sun. Instinct! 🤷

[kushiro]

Here's the end of the story.

 

Quick recap - with five games to play we are still in the drop zone despite taking six points from four games, but now only goal average keeps us below Villa.

 

Thu April 9th

 

Jeff Hall's funeral takes place in his home town of Wilsden in Yorkshire, in the same church in which he'd got married just 18 months earlier. His death sparked something approaching panic.  A polio vaccine had recently been developed, but people had been very reluctant to sign up for it. Now that a famous sportsman in the prime of his life had been laid low, attitudes suddenly changed. People besieged doctors' surgeries; demand outstripped supply. The following week, the whole Leicester City squad received the vaccine. 

 

Sat April 11th

 

Leicester City 1 West Ham 1. Tommy McDonald gave us the lead but John Bond (yes, him) got a late equaliser. Fortunately, for the third away game running Villa threw away a lead, Preston coming back to win 4-2. Finally we were out of the bottom two.

 

Sat Apr 18th

 

Nottingham Forest 1 Leicester City 4.  The unbeaten run stretches to six with this fine win at the City Ground. Goals from Jimmy Walsh, Ken Keyworth, Tommy McDonald, then a Bill Whare own goal, 'the last straw for the home fans, who streamed out of the ground in their hundreds'.  Villa got a point at home to Burnley, and Man City lost 2-1 at Blackburn so we climbed another place to 19th. 

 

Mon Apr 20th  

 

A great day for us without even playing. Some thought Forest been taking it easy against us with the FA Cup Final approaching, but that theory was disproved when they beat Villa 2-0 two days later. There was more good news. Man City lost yet again - 5-1 at West Ham, leaving the table like this:

 

Leicester City        39          30 

Aston Villa             40          28

Man City                40          28

Portsmouth            40          21

 

Was the pressure off? Not with our remaining games against the top two in the League, Wolves and Man United, followed by a trip to Maine Road. It was still all to play for.

 

Wed Apr 22nd

 

We head for Molineux, where Wolves need a point to retain the title. We formed a guard of honour as they took the field, but there the respect ended. In the first half, we actually played Wolves off the park. In an extraordinary 15 minute spell, clever build up play gave Ken Keyworth four one-on-ones with the keeper. Somehow he contrived to miss all of them - hitting two wide, one onto the roof of the net, and then dallying too long, allowing a defender to get back and tackle. What was going on? Had Wolves decided he wasn't worth marking? After the break Wolves took over, and ended up winning comfortably, 3-0. Then Leicester director Len Shipman, who was also a member of the Football League executive, presented Billy Wright with the trophy, Wolves' third title in six years (they haven't won it since).

 

Sat Apr 25th

 

Leicester v Manchester United.  35,000 at Filbert Street with eyes on the game and ears pressed to transistor radios to hear news of Man City and Villa, who were playing each other at Maine Road. Ken Keyworth kept his place, but he still couldn't do anything right in front of goal: In the 19th minute, Leek's centre reached him six yards from goal, with no-one near him. Amazingly, Keyworth fluffed the dream chance. Fortunately, Jimmy Walsh was wide awake, and before a United defender could clear, he nipped in and scored. Bobby Charlton was giving examples of his electrifying power, but he couldn't beat Dave MacLaren.

Gordon Willis added the crucial second goal after half time, and all United could offer was a late consolation. News came through that Man City and Villa had drawn 0-0, but that no longer mattered. We were safe, and police tried in vain to cope with hundreds of spectators invading the pitch and mobbing the players.

 

Wed April 29th

 

Would it be Man City or Villa that went down with Portsmouth? They were level on points, and we had a central role in the drama. Villa's goal average was superior, so if we won at Maine Road, Villa would be safe, unless they took a real hammering at West Brom. With a few minutes remaining, Villa were 1-0 up, and Man City were beating us 3-1. That wasn't enough for Man City - they needed one more goal to send Villa down,  No doubt there were Leicester fans hoping we'd concede another. But then came the late drama that made goal average irrelevant. Ronnie Allen got an equaliser for Albion with two minutes left, and Villa were down. Cue pandemonium at Maine Road - and at the Hawthorns, where, the match report told us, 'the tumultuous cheering and extravagant embraces of the Albion players made it quite clear who the home side wanted to be relegated'. 

 

The most remarkable thing about the whole occasion was the conduct of Villa manager, Joe Mercer. He'd actually been interviewed for the Leicester job four years before, but lost out to Dave Halliday. After events that night, Leicester directors must have been thinking they'd dodged a bullet. Mercer left the Hawthorns five minutes before the end of the game, with everything still to be decided. He had been invited to a special presentation for Billy Wright, who had just become the first player to win 100 England caps. He wasn't there when Albion equalized, nor in the dressing room after the match with his dejected  players. What on earth was he thinking?  

 

In the 60s, of course, he became Man City boss, leading them through their greatest era of the 20th century. And you could say the same about Matt Gillies and Leicester City. The glory days were just around the corner, set up by this dramatic late season escape. 

[kushiro]

So - we have quite a proud history of great escapes. That is, If 'pride' is the right word. With a cynical eye, you might say it's the equivalent of dossing around at work from Monday to Thursday, then busting a gut on Friday to catch up.  

 

But here I want to think of the other side of the coin. To borrow a political cliche, will nobody consider the victims?

 

Every time a club has a late season resurgence, another club has to take its place in the drop zone. And sometimes that involves the opposite of a great escape - a club that coasts along in mid-table before a disastrous late plunge downwards. A particularly amusing example from the history books is Spurs in 1927/28 - they were 9th (out of 22) on March 24th; six weeks later they were 21st and down. Some clubs have a history of it - Manchester City, for example - a club that throughout the 20th century seemed to be on a mission to discover the most weird and wonderful ways to be relegated. 

 

The question is, how many times have we had that experience? Could there be a companion to this thread  - The Top 5 Leicester Late Season Collapses?  We've certainly experienced relegation often enough (whisper it - 12 times). How many of those were the great escape in reverse?

 

The answer is surprising. It has, in fact, never happened. Each time we've gone down, it had been on the cards for months. 

 

If you take each of those 12 relegation seasons and look at the League table with ten games to go, we were either in the drop zone or just one place above. The only exception is the most recent -  2007/08 - the only time we've dropped into the third tier. On that occasion, with ten games to go the table looked like this:

 

 

 

We were four points above the drop zone. But as you can see, Wednesday had two games in hand. Our position was perilous, and indeed a week later, Wednesday had won twice and we had fallen to 22nd. 

 

Choosing 'ten games to play' is arbitrary, but it does illustrate the point. Every time we've gone down, we've not just been s***, we've been consistently s***.  

 

So to summarise, the history of Leicester City features several examples of this:

 

 

That's the 2014/15 season - taken from the wonderful Foxestalk history pages.

 

But no examples at all of this:

 

 

That's not a football season, it's the Wall Street Crash - but you get the idea.

 

 

What does this all tell us about Leicester City? Maybe not a lot, although it does chime with the lyrics of our favourite song. Not once did we 'bring on the rain', but we've often come up smiling.

 

(and if Brendan's boys now lose 11 in a row and allow Watford to overtake us on May 22nd, you'll know who to blame).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 March 2022 by kushiro

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

6 hours ago, kushiro said:

So - we have quite a proud history of great escapes. That is, If 'pride' is the right word. With a cynical eye, you might say it's the equivalent of dossing around at work from Monday to Thursday, then busting a gut on Friday to catch up.  

 

But here I want to think of the other side of the coin. To borrow a political cliche, will nobody consider the victims?

 

Every time a club has a late season resurgence, another club has to take its place in the drop zone. And sometimes that involves the opposite of a great escape - a club that coasts along in mid-table before a disastrous late plunge downwards. A particularly amusing example from the history books is Spurs in 1927/28 - they were 9th (out of 22) on March 24th; six weeks later they were 21st and down. Some clubs have a history of it - Manchester City, for example - a club that throughout the 20th century seemed to be on a mission to discover the most weird and wonderful ways to be relegated. 

 

The question is, how many times have we had that experience? Could there be a companion to this thread  - The Top 5 Leicester Late Season Collapses?  We've certainly experienced relegation often enough (whisper it - 12 times). How many of those were the great escape in reverse?

 

The answer is surprising. It has, in fact, never happened. Each time we've gone down, it had been on the cards for months. 

 

If you take each of those 12 relegation seasons and look at the League table with ten games to go, we were either in the drop zone or just one place above. The only exception is the most recent -  2007/08 - the only time we've dropped into the third tier. On that occasion, with ten games to go the table looked like this:

 

 

 

We were four points above the drop zone. But as you can see, Wednesday had two games in hand. Our position was perilous, and indeed a week later, Wednesday had won twice and we had fallen to 22nd. 

 

Choosing 'ten games to play' is arbitrary, but it does illustrate the point. Every time we've gone down, we've not just been s***, we've been consistently s***.  

 

So to summarise, the history of Leicester City features several examples of this:

 

 

That's the 2014/15 season - taken from the wonderful Foxestalk history pages.

 

But no examples at all of this:

 

 

That's not a football season, it's the Wall Street Crash - but you get the idea.

 

 

What does this all tell us about Leicester City? Maybe not a lot, although it does chime with the lyrics of our favourite song. Not once did we 'bring on the rain', but we've often come up smiling.

 

(and if Brendan's boys now lose 11 in a row and allow Watford to overtake us on May 22nd, you'll know who to blame).

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, this is quality stuff! Bravo! I reiterate that you should consider writing a book on this.

[NasPb]

On 26/03/2022 at 22:03, onekeithweller said:

This clip is brilliant, so much more evocative than any TV channel could muster and no bollocks commentary either!

Compare our atmosphere then to our atmosphere now

[kushiro]

There was a piece on a similar theme in the Mail this week:

Premier League: The greatest escapes from Premier League relegation | Daily Mail Online

 

Of course that's broadening it out from just Leicester to everybody, but if we're doing that, let's do it properly. Not just the usual 'Premier League 1992 onwards' but the history of the Football League.

 

There are two that really stick out, and like 2014/15, both show how important momentum can be:

 

Lincoln City  Division Two 1957/58.

 

This was quite a turnaround:

 

 

Those six wins meant they survived by a single point. The fates really were on their side - that final game v Cardiff had originally been abandoned two months earlier because of snow, much to Lincoln's relief - they were losing 3-0. 

 

This was the table before that winning streak (with two teams going down):

 

 

You can see they had games in hand, but Swansea had a great run in too, dropping only a point from here, so it really needed a miracle. 

 

This was how it finished:

 

 

And here's the thing about momentum - it can work in both directions. As if suffering from Lincoln-induced shock, Notts County and Doncaster both went straight down the following season into Division Four. 

 

 

Sheffield Wednesday Division One 1927/28

 

This was their hopeless predicament with ten games to play (again, two going down):

 

 

Then they did this:

 

 

 

 

Which lifted them all the way to 14th. Look at that crazy points column:

 

 

Poor old Tottenham. This is the season mentioned in the post above. With ten games left, they'd been coasting in 9th place.

 

As for Wednesday, they won the League the following year (with Leicester in second, taking notes for future reference).

[kushiro]

Never seen this before. February 1975. We're bottom without a League win for almost four months. Then we go to White Hart Lane and hammer Spurs to kick off another great escape (see the very start of this thread). This was Mike Stringfellow's last ever start for us - and he scores. Nice Frank Worthington interview post-match too.