Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way....

[kushiro]

...oh what fun it is to see, the Leicester win away - at Birmingham - on the way to promotion.

 

To help you through the long Monday hours before the game, here's a few merry St, Andrews memories:

 

December 1st 1979: 

 

Jock Wallace's Leicester are lying 5th, Birmingham are 6th, but it's not like 2023/24. It's incredibly tight at the top, with both clubs just one point off the top. 

 

City fans arrive at St. Andrews to find out that Frank Worthington is making his Birmingham debut, with a guy called Steve Lynex dropped to the bench despite seven goals in his last 12 games. It wasn't a happy debut for Frank. We won 2-1, keeping up an amazing record of scoring in every League game so far that season. Alan Young and Martin Henderson got the goals with Gary Lineker, playing wide on the right, involved in both.

 

Here's a section of Bill Anderson's match report:

 

 

And this is a classic 1970s Mercury photo - amatuerishly super-imposing a mysterious spherical object so it looks like they're playing with a tennis ball:

 

 

We won the return in April too, and in the end both sides went up - us as champions.

 

 

January 28th 2014.

 

No need for words here - just some classic action, as we set a new club record of eight wins in a row on the way to another table-topping season:

 

 

 

 

November 26th 1995

 

Some fine action from the 'Mark McGhee is the Messiah' period, which lasted all of four months. Three weeks earlier we'd gone three up in no time at West Brom, and ended up winning 3-2. Now we take a quick two-goal lead at St, Andrews.  Very nice of the 1995/96 season review editor to completely omit the Brummies' fight back.

 

 

 

September 5th 1953

 

We've had 1979 and 2014, and here's a third 2-1 win at St. Andrews on the way to promotion as champions. This was a key early season result - we went into the game down in 10th, with Birmingham 3rd. 

 

It was a tale of two goalkeepers. Gil Merrick was then England's number one, depsite playing in Division Two. He would soon see six Hungarian goals fired past him at Wembley, then seven more in Budapest. But he kept his place for the World Cup Finals in Switzerland, where England were knocked out by holders Uruguay in the Quarter-final. 

 

Leicester keeper Johnny Anderson so nearly made it two second tier keepers at the Finals. He was perhaps our key player that season, more so even than Rowley and Hines in attack (the men who got the goals at Birmingham that day). Anderson was called up for his Scotland debut just two weeks before the World Cup kicked off, but in the end he was only a non-traveling reserve. Here he is in action that day at St. Andrews, challenging Ted Purdon then saving from a disbelieving Jackie Stewart:

 

 

He would be a much more prominent figure in Leicester history had he not been overshadowed by the emergence of Banks and Shilton in the following decades.

 

Another man who was being tipped for Scotland honours that season was our captain and centre-half - Matt Gillies. He didn't get a call-up in the end but finished the season with the Second Division Shield:

 

 

Fans of spot-the-difference might notice something weird if you compare that photo and the one below, taken at the same sitting. In the one above, you can see John Anderson in his keeper's jersey behind Matt Gillies' left shoulder. But in the picture below it's clearly a different keeper (I think it's Adam Dickson). The most likely explanation is that Anderson was away with the Scotand squad, making that debut appearance I mentioned above. Slightly better quality photo-shopping (as it wasn't called then) than the Mercury example earlier. Manager Norman Bullock is front right.

 

 

 

March 15th 1994

 

Birmingham CIty 0 Leicester City 3 on a Tuesday night. Brian Little's side finished 4th but then beat Derby in the play-off final.  Somehow there is no footage of this game online (unless you know better...)

 

We know from the Mercury report that 'Julian Joachim burst onto Iwan Roberts' pass in the ninth minute to leave the keeper helpless with a stunning finish that sent City fans into raptures'. Roberts and Ian Ormondroyd then added more.

 

Steve Claridge came on as sub for Birmingham, to little effect. That result left them bottom of the table, and as we went up in May, they were heading in the opposite direction. Just for a year, though, in both cases.

 

 

Time for a quick historical summary. In the 12 seasons in which we've been promoted to the top flight, we've played at St. Andrews in half of them. Of those six, we've won four, drawn two, lost none. The only one I've not mentioned is a 0-0 draw in October 1970, with Peter Shilton outstanding, just before he had a strop and put in a transfer request.  

 

Let's hope tonight is another to add to the list.

[surrifox]

I was gutted when Little left after rebuilding the side but never got what McGhee was about and if he hadn’t left we might not have landed MON 

[kushiro]

There's a lively discussion over on that other forum...

 

https://www.bentleysroof.co.uk/index.php?threads/memories-of-brum.23428/

[Free Falling Foxes]

Although I had been to Filbert St several times before under the ruse to help my sister in one of the kiosks, the first match I had to pay to watch was 68/69 season v Brum.

Rodney Fern scored a spectacular overhead kick.

Next day on 'Star Soccer', Billy Wright said he would travel a thousand miles to see a goal like that again.

[WestLothianFox]

2 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Although I had been to Filbert St several times before under the ruse to help my sister in one of the kiosks, the first match I had to pay to watch was 68/69 season v Brum.

Rodney Fern scored a spectacular overhead kick.

Next day on 'Star Soccer', Billy Wright said he would travel a thousand miles to see a goal like that again.

I cant remember who we were playing, but I do remember Rodney Fern scoring with an overhead kick, so assume it was the same game. I was standing behind the goal that he scored it

 

[SuperMike]

3 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Although I had been to Filbert St several times before under the ruse to help my sister in one of the kiosks, the first match I had to pay to watch was 68/69 season v Brum.

Rodney Fern scored a spectacular overhead kick.

Next day on 'Star Soccer', Billy Wright said he would travel a thousand miles to see a goal like that again.

I was there too - spent most of the match calling Fern a useless so-and-so - and then he did that! Lochhead and Manley scored the others - pretty sure Birmingham had taken the lead (Summerill?). To be pedantic - it was the 1969-70 season -I think it was the first match.

[Free Falling Foxes]

1 hour ago, SuperMike said:

I was there too - spent most of the match calling Fern a useless so-and-so - and then he did that! Lochhead and Manley scored the others - pretty sure Birmingham had taken the lead (Summerill?). To be pedantic - it was the 1969-70 season -I think it was the first match.

I nearly put 69/70 but wrongly correct myself.

It was indeed the first match.

I was in the popular stand - 2/6 for boys.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

12 hours ago, kushiro said:

March 15th 1994

 

Birmingham CIty 0 Leicester City 3 on a Tuesday night. Brian Little's side finished 4th but then beat Derby in the play-off final.  Somehow there is no footage of this game online (unless you know better...)

Can't find any footage either, but did find a few photos from the game in the matchday programme for the home game against Barnsley a few days later.

 

 

P.s.  We lost the Barnsley game 1-0, with a relatively unknown Ulsterman by the name of Taggart putting in an excellent performance at the heart of Barnsley's defence.