The FA Cup Goal Kings - and What They Did To Leicester

[kushiro]

Before each round of the FA Cup I've been writing a piece about the history of that fixture. So far we've had Millwall in Round Three and Birmingham City in Round Four. But now with Bournemouth it's a bit different. We've never played them in the FA Cup before. So I'm going to tell a different kind of FA Cup tale - though this one's a bit of a horror story.

 

Let's start with a quiz question.

 

Which team has scored the most goals in the FA Cup?

 

Not just this season, but across the whole 153 year history of the competition?

 

The answer is a bit of a surprise.

 

It's Kettering Town. 

 

A bizarre stat, but when you consider the age of the club, and the round at which they traditionally enter, maybe it's not really that surprising. They've had the chance to wallop the minnows in the qualifying rounds since they first entered back in 1890, and unlike other senior non-League sides, they've never made it into the Football League (a step which takes away that opportunity for walloping).

 

Their goals total now stands at 912, one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. And while that may give us yet another chance to snigger at Spurs' perennial also-ran status, we can't really crow - not when you look at our FA Cup record against Kettering. It's pretty shocking. In fact, it is probably the worst record of any League club against a non-League side in the history of the competition. 

 

The squeamish may want to look away now. Here are the sordid details:

 

December 14th 1895 . FA Cup Qualifying Round. Leicester Fosse v Kettering Town.

 

This was our second season as a Football League club, but we were still required to go through the qualifying rounds of the 'English Cup', as it was then called. We had beaten Hinckley Town, Hucknall St.Johns and Kimberley already, and now we faced Kettering Town of the Midland League at Walnut Street, as it was then called.

 

 

Enzo Maresca would have approved of our tactics in the late Victorian era. We played a patient, passing game - but it was a style that didn't please everyone. The local press described it as 'fiddlin' and finnickin', and fans who prefered a more direct approach no doubt had other words for it. Kettering came to Leicester for this Cup tie and countered our approach with 'the long kicking methods of the Midland League'. On a mud bath of a pitch in December their style was more effective.

 

Leicester attacked the 'Gasworks End' in the first half, but after just five minutes, Kettering took the lead. We got level with a Harry Trainer goal, but before half time the non-Leaguers went back in front. After the break we attacked the Town end, but conditions got worse, and with Kettering full back Draper 'displaying his well-known fouling proclivities', we were frustrated.  The match finished in a 'severe storm' with Kettering holding on for a famous victory, They were in the First Round proper, where they would lose to Newton Heath.

 

 

January 2nd 1897.  FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town v Leicester Fosse

 

A year on and after beating Wellingborough and Bulwell, we drew Kettering Town again and had a chance for revenge. That didn't happen though. The match followed exactly the same pattern as a year before. We were 2-1 down at half time and couldn't force an equaliser after the break. This was the reaction of the Leicester Mercury;

 

The defeat was received with keen disappointment, not to say disgust, in Leicester. It was a pity that time should have been wasted in witnessing such a miserable attempt at football. The players were as fit as they should be, yet some of them would not exert themselves sufficiently to turn a hair. The ground was hard, and falling was dangerous, but if Kettering could take the risk, why not Fosse? The players have descended to the depths of ignominy.

 

So once again it was the Midland League side that went through to the First Round proper - and once again they lost at Newton Heath.

 

 

December 10th 1898   FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town. v Leicester Fosse

 

Two years on and the sides were drawn together again at the same stage of the competition. Third time lucky, surely.

 

We were on a run of seven straight wins in League and Cup that had taken us to third place in Division Two and past Kimberley and Rushden in the qualifying rounds of the Cup.

 

But at Kettering's new Rockingham Road ground it was the same old story. They used 'pulverising methods' while Leicester tried again to play their patient passing game. It didn't work. ''Whenever they fiddled with the ball they were knocked off it by the Kettering half backs', said the Leicester Daily Post reporter.  Once again we were behind at the break, though this time we managed a second half equaliser, Bernie Fulwood's goal forcing a replay.

 

On the following Thursday afternoon it was 1-1 with time running out when a player called Herbert Winterhalder headed past Fosse keeper Arthur Howes and - unbelievably - the non-Leaguers had done it again. They were in the last 32, though once more that was as far as they got - they lost at Notts County.

 

So that's the story -  three times we've drawn them in the Cup, three times we've lost. Probably the worst record for any League club against non-League opposition (unless you know different).

 

Just a bit of context, though. The concepts of 'league' and 'non-League' were a bit different then. There were only 36 teams in the Football League, so there were a lot of strong teams outside it. One of them, our old friends Tottenham, actually won the competition a couple of years after these Kettering exploits, and another, Southampton, were twice finalists. 

 

So it wasn't quite the same level of shock, for example,  as Harlow Town beating us in 1980, or Maidstone winning at Coventry tonight. 

 

Edited 26 February 2024 by kushiro

[kushiro]

After such a sorry tale it's good to know there is at least a crumb of comfort to be taken from the Kettering FA Cup story. 

 

Two of those record 912 goals in the competition were scored by this man:

 

 

Younger readers may not recognize him but that's Derek Dougan. He was at Filbert Street for just a short time in the 1960s but it's no exaggeration to say that at that time he was adored by Leicester fans just as much as Jamie Vardy has been these last ten years.

 

At the end of his playing career he joined Kettering Town, where he had total control of the club both on and off the field - the first person in history, or so he claimed, with such complete authority. 

 

They were the first English club to wear a sponsor's name on their kit, in 1976 - as you can see. They hadn't bothered to ask permission from the FA before they did so, and the authorities predictably stepped in and cried 'foul'. The resultant publicity was, of course, exactly what the club and Kettering Tyres, had banked on - a foobtalling version of the 'filth and the fury' pantomime that gave the Sex Pistols such a boost later that year.

 

On November 6th 1976, Kettering drew 1-1 at Darlaston in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round - and it was Dougan who got the goal - at the age of 38, a year older than Jamie Vardy is now. That would have been, at a wild guess, about the 600th goal Kettering scored in the competition.

 

Kettering won the replay, and just like those victories over Leiceter Fosse back in the day, that took them into the First Round Proper. There they created another shock by winning at Oxford United, Dougan with the crucial goal again.

 

In Round Two, they were drawn against fellow non-Leaguers Tooting and Mitcham United, and for this tie Dougan left himself out - but brought in his new signing. This was another Leicester City legend:

 

 

Lenny Glover was still only 32. 

 

Kettering won that 1-0, and they were in the hat for the excitement of the Third Round draw, with the whole country listening on the radio. 

 

Sadly, the romance ended there. Instead of a dream re-match against Leicester, 80 years on, or a tie against any of the other big clubs, they got a home game against Colchester United. They lost that 3-2, and the Doog / Lenny fairy tale was over.

 

It wasn't just the Cup run that was over. A few days before that Cup defeat they had lost for the first time in the League that season - yes, unbeaten until early January in all competitions. They had seemed to be cruising to the Southern League title, and another shot at election to the Football League. They'd already come close in 1974, 1975 and 1976 - and surely they'd do it this time.

 

But with the Cup exit their League form dropped off too. They finished down in third place, and champions Wimbledon were the club whose name went into the ballot at the Football League AGM. They were voted in, with Workington the first team booted out since Barrow five years earlier. The Doog soon moved on, and the golden days were over. They were free to go on walloping the minnows in the qualifying rounds for evermore. But they have never fulfiled that dream of making the big time. They're currently in the Southern League Premier Division - even lower than Maidstone. Who knows, maybe someday the Poppies wil make it.

Edited 26 February 2024 by kushiro

[Aus Fox]

The local press described it as 'fiddlin' and finnickin', and fans who prefered a more direct approach no doubt had other words for it.

 

Fun Fact, those same supporters who had other words for it, still have a season ticket to this day.

[kushiro]

Here's that Daily Mirror piece on Dougan and Glover enlarged and hopefully readable:

 

[kushiro]

That 1976/77 FA Cup season was totally iconic for me, thanks partly to the book Journey To Wembley, in which journalist Brian James started in the Preliminary Round at Tividale and went all the way through to the Final. It's done all the time now of course but I think he was the first to do it properly. I got the book when I was 13 and I must have read it all the way through about five times.

 

 

 

[kushiro]

So we lost to Kettering three years out of four - and in the middle of that we were knocked out by Southampton, then in the Southeern League. So in fact it was four seasons in a row that we lost to a non-League club. It took us a while to get the hang of this FA Cup business.

Edited 27 February 2024 by kushiro

[Izzy]

Whenever I read these historical posts, part of me wishes we were still called Leicester Fosse.

 

It's so unique.

[Corky]

Everyone on here who was at that game in 1895 was in Pen 3.

[kushiro]

13 hours ago, Izzy said:

Whenever I read these historical posts, part of me wishes we were still called Leicester Fosse.

 

It's so unique.

Were you there at that WImbledon game in 2003 when the crowd at the Walkers Stadium voted on Jon Holmes' idea of changing the name back to Fosse? 

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, kushiro said:

Were you there at that WImbledon game in 2003 when the crowd at the Walkers Stadium voted on Jon Holmes' idea of changing the name back to Fosse? 

As it happens, I was in hospital having a major operation at exactly that time so missed it!

 

I wonder if the vote would be any different now, 20 years on?

 

[fuchsntf]

3 hours ago, kushiro said:

Were you there at that WImbledon game in 2003 when the crowd at the Walkers Stadium voted on Jon Holmes' idea of changing the name back to Fosse? 

Since The 50s has I know,,every few years,fans sort of rumble again

through the idea of wanting the name Fosse tabled has our 2nd name

and not city..I don’t know if a motion though discussed was never tabled,

or request official..

 

I used to keep many old stories…from the old stories of Leicesters long past

seasons. from those Kettering games ,WWI+II, Sep Smith period past Don Revies heroics upto Ian king,G,Banks last city days..Had 2 scrap books,& other “memorabilia”. which I gave on request from the lady before Hutchinson ,who with now online  as yourself keept a good tally of our history….

 

I enjoy how you suddenly come in at the appropriate time…like Gud ol’

@davieGand his history lessons or upto date breaking news..

[davieG]

3 hours ago, kushiro said:

Were you there at that WImbledon game in 2003 when the crowd at the Walkers Stadium voted on Jon Holmes' idea of changing the name back to Fosse? 

Still got the poster. Voted Fosse - everyone knows City is now Manchester.