Hit For Six at Grace Road - Then Total Domination

[kushiro]

I was hoping Hull City would beat Birmingham in that replay last week. I really wanted to tell the story of Hull captain Billy Bremner and the horse-inflicted injury he suffered before our Third Round tie in 1978. 

 

Oh well, some other time. Instead, we've got the Cup history of Leicester v Brum. And actually, it turns out that this is a far better tale than Billy and his horse.

 

This is where we begin:

 

 

Grace Road, October 1891, the streets around the ground as yet undeveloped. Birmingham won 6-2 in our only Cup game at that ground - a few weeks later we moved to Fiibert Street.

 

Everything was different then. The Grace Road ground was called 'Aylestone Road', the competition was known as 'The English Cup', the Brummies were called 'Small Heath',  and we, of course, were Leicester Fosse. 

 

Elsewhere in the Cup that day, two other clubs who would shortly change their name were facing each other. Newton Heath beat Ardwick 5-1. They were having to play in this Qualifying Round because both had been rejected by the Football League when they applied for membership in the summer. They would soon become 'Manchester United' and 'Manchester City'.

 

After beating us 6-2, Small Heath had a fine run in the competition, getting past three other clubs to make the First Round Proper, where they were drawn against 'Royal Arsenal'. The Londoners had just become the first professional club in the south, but Small Heath hammered them 5-1, with the press reflecting that: Considering the large sum of money which has been expended on their players, it is somewhat surprising that the Arsenal officials should have gathered together such a wretchedly poor team.

 

The draw for the last sixteen gave all four West Midlands teams a home tie. Fearing that the attraction of Aston Villa, West Brom and Wolves (all Football League clubs) would result in a paltry crowd at their Coventry Road ground, Small Heath accepted 200 pounds to switch their tie against The Wednesday to Sheffield, where they lost 2-0.

 

They were voted into the Football League at the end of that season, and two years later, so were we.

 

I've taken a few moments to tell the story of that Small Heath Cup run - because there won't be another chance. Since they changed their name to Birmingham (and later added 'City') they've played us in the Cup seven times - and we've knocked them out every time. 

 

It's a pretty impressive record.

 

But there's more. 

 

When we beat them in 1910, we went on to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

When we beat them in 1934, we went on to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

When we beat them in 1949, we went on to reach the final for the first time.

When we beat them in 1961, we went on to reach the final for the second time.

 

And on all those occasions we had been drawn away from home.

 

A trip to St. Andrews had become part of the ritual - like the lucky pub you always pop into on the journey to Wembley.

 

Let's have a quick run through the highlights of those ties.

 

 

January 15th 1910. 

 

Round 1: Birmingham 1 Leicester Fosse 4.

 

Round 3, as we now know it, was then called Round 1 - the stage at which the 'big boys' entered the competition. Not that either team was huge at the time - we were mid-table in Division Two, they were at the bottom. 

 

We came away with an easy win, including two from Fred Shinton, who would finish the season with 34 goals - a club record which stood until Channy broke it in the 1920s.

 

After that we got past Bury and Leyton to put us in the quarter finals for the very first time. Crystal Palace (where the final was then staged) was in sight. Then we got the worst possible draw - away at the most successful club of the era - Newcastle United. We lost 3-0 at St. James' Park. 

 

 

February 17th 1934

 

Round 5: Birmingham 1 Leicester City 2.

 

Channy scored both at St. Andrews that day and we were in the quarter-finals for the third time. Fans arrived back at Leicester Station in jovial mood:  With chants of 'Well played, City!' and 'Good old Channy!'  they cheered anything that reminded them of the victory. They cheered as they caught sight of a tram outside the station. They cheered three uniformed policemen who were keeping an eye on the arriving multitude, and they cheered the buses waiting to take them home to distant parts of the city'.   

 

Here's Channy blooting in one of his goals - a picture that hasn't been posted here since - ooh, about three weeks ago.

 

 

After beating Preston in Round Six, we were in the semi-finals for the first time. That took us back to St. Andrews - but we lost 4-1 to Portsmouth.

 

 

January 8th 1949

 

Round Three: Birmingham City v Leicester City. 

 

Finally it's City v City. We were at the wrong end of Division Two, they were mid-table in Division One. The bookies had us 400-1 to win the Cup. 

 

We got past them after two replays. Don Revie's penalty gave us a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews, he then missed one in the replay - another 1-1, then he got the winner back in Birmingham after Len Shipman lost the toss for the right to stage the second replay.

 

It was just four years since the end of the War and in those years of austerity and rationing, the repairs of the roofs at St.Andrews and Filbert Street were not a priority. Both had been damaged during the war. This was our Main Stand in February 1949:

 

 

And the St. Andrews Main Stand was still recovering from the bomb that hit in 1942:

 

 

Wins followed against Preston, Luton and Brentford (QF) and then came the greatest upset in the club's history. Still fighting relegation to Division Three, we beat Portsmouth 3-1 at Highbury (they were five points clear at the top of Division One, and short-odds for the double). Don Revie scored twice and City fans chimed 'Poor Old Pompey!' in the West End long into the night. It was revenge for the 1934 semi-final defeat, and Wembley for the first time.

 

No happy ending for the 400-1 outsiders though -  we lost 3-1 to Wolves with Revie missing through injury.

 

 

February 15th 1961

 

A day of Cup frenzy in Brum. It was Round Five, with Villa hosting the double-chasing Spurs and Birmingham City facing us again. The clubs arranged for staggered kick-offs - 2.45 at Villa Park, 3.15 at St. Andrews. Spurs won 2-0, and we came away with a 1-1 draw, Birmingham's danger-man Jimmy Bloomfield 'well-shackled by Colin Appleton'. 

 

Here's Howard Riley's famous goal:

 

The replay at Filbert Street led to this headline in the Mirror:

 

 

 

Other reports said that after hundreds forced their way in, hundreds forced their way out because they couldn't see anything. 

 

It was madness on the pitch too. In the fourth minute, Leicester's Frank McLintock and Birmingham's Jimmy Singer ‘crashed with an impact that made the crowd shudder’. Singer went off for 20 minutes, but Frank played on: It was my hearing that was most affected. Every ten seconds or so it just cut out so I’d be deaf for a few seconds and then the sound of the crowd would build up to a frightening crescendo – a sensation which persisted for the rest of that drawn match.

 

We won 2-1 with two Ken Leek goals, and then got past Barnsley in quarter-finals and Sheffield United in the semis (after a second replay at St. Andrews). Spurs completed that double of course, beating us 2-0 at Wembley.

 

 

February 12th 1966

 

After coming from behind to win 2-1 at Villa in Round 3, we had to go back to Brum for the next round. We went behind again, but goals from Jackie Sinclair and Jimmy Goodfellow took us through. Here's how the equaliser was scored:

 

 

 

That was the fifth time we knocked them out - but for the first time, it wasn't part of an historic Cup run. We lost to Man City in the next round.

 

 

January 2nd 1999

 

A forgotten Martin O'Neill era classic - the first three goals all stem from clever moves round the edge of the box.

 

 

On the same day, an 18 year-old Italian called Enzo Maresca was making his first appearance in the FA Cup - for West Brom in a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth. 

 

In Round 4, we went behind to Coventry at Filbert Street then totally battered them. But couldn't score. Two late breakaways led to a joke scoreline of 0-3.

 

 

March 4th 2020

 

Round 5: Leicester City 1 Birmingham City 0. 

 

This was a week before lockdown hit football. The quarter-final v Chelsea was played before an empty stadium.

 

 

 

Chelsea won that 1-0, and after the game Brendan Rodgers said: 'We take Cup competitions seriously. We've made a quarter-final; we've made a semi-final. Next year we'll look to take the next step'.

 

He got some things right.

Edited 25 January 2024 by kushiro

[kushiro]

You could say that Birmingham have been our favourite opponents in the Cup. These are the teams we've played most, with the win-loss record.

 

 

Edited 25 January 2024 by kushiro

[HybridFox]

24 minutes ago, kushiro said:

You could say that Birmingham have been our favourite opponents in the Cup. These are the teams we've played most, with the win-loss record.

 

 

At least we beat Chelsea when it counted eh

[Mickyblueeyes]

1999 cup game v Brum. What a classic.

 

What a goal from Frank Sinclair! 
 

However, what were we doing on their two. That was atrocious defending on both occasions!!

[Plastik Man]

I'd suppressed memory of that 0-3 v Cov until now!

 

I seem to remember feeling extremely pissed off we'd lost 0-3 at home to a poor team.

[Guest Electric Yetis]

2 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

I'd suppressed memory of that 0-3 v Cov until now!

 

I seem to remember feeling extremely pissed off we'd lost 0-3 at home to a poor team.

They were down to 10 men aswell.

[Plastik Man]

3 hours ago, Rain King said:

They were down to 10 men aswell.

Even worse!

 

I didn't remember that. Was that the last time they beat us until last week?

[kushiro]

7 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

Even worse!

 

I didn't remember that. Was that the last time they beat us until last week?

We lost 3-1 at Filbert Street in 2001 - a game I'll never forget, because it was plain for all to see that something had gone seriously wrong under Peter Taylor. It really could have been 8-0 that day. Shame there was no foxestalk back then as 'meltdown' wouldn't have come close.

[Plastik Man]

25 minutes ago, kushiro said:

We lost 3-1 at Filbert Street in 2001 - a game I'll never forget, because it was plain for all to see that something had gone seriously wrong under Peter Taylor. It really could have been 8-0 that day. Shame there was no foxestalk back then as 'meltdown' wouldn't have come close.

Ah, well I definitely mentally blocked memories of that period!

[kushiro]

On 26/01/2024 at 06:46, HybridFox said:

At least we beat Chelsea when it counted eh

 

Yeah - and Man U in the QF that season too - the only time we've ever beaten them in the Cup, though we've only played them three times, and never at Old Trafford. 

 

There are some teams we've never played in the competition, the most prominent being Leeds United.