On The Beach

[kushiro]

The perfect script for tomorrow would be a thumping victory to reach 100 points, with Jamie Vardy hitting a hat-trick, inspired by the sight of a tifo stretching half way round the ground.

 

But if it doesn't turn out like that no-one's going to be that bothered.  We're not quite 'on the beach', but the pressure is off and the players can relax. 

 

Don't take your eyes off the action, though. It's often in fixtures like this that the most remarkabke things happen. Here's a quick run through of some of those moments.

 

 

1)  Sous Les Paves, La Plage

 

We start, appropriately enough, on the beach. 'Soue Les Paves, La Plage' was one of the slogans of 'Les Evenements' in Paris in May 1968 - 'under the paving stones, the beach'. It was a utopian vision of urban landscape returned to nature, but those ripped up paving stones came in handy for other purposes.

 

As France teetered on the brink of revolution in early May, there were remarkably similar scenes on the streets of Leicester. But here the motivation wasn't political.

 

The slum clearance programme around the Royal Infirmary was at its height, and as those old terraced houses were demolished, the debris lay all around. Bricks, planks of wood filled with nails, lumps of concrete. 

 

On Saturday May 4th, Leicester City were at home to Nottingham Forest. We were 10th, Forest were 14th, so in League terms, it was a meaningless end-of-season game. But of course, Leicester - Forest is never meaningless.

 

This is how one local resident remembered that afternoon:

 

I was really frightened. Nottingham Forest were coming to play, and people were saying 'There's going to be trouble'. My dad says ‘No there’s not'. They’d just knocked down Clarendon St and Raglan St. I said ‘Well I’m not stopping, there’s going to be trouble’. I went to see my Auntie Pat. As I came out there’s this huge mob coming down New Bridge Street, right across the road they were, and they were picking sticks and bricks up off the debris. And there was trouble ‘cos all the shop windows got broken didn’t they, and that’s the first time I remember any vandalism down there’.

 

That's from the wonderful oral history book, Walnut Street. 

 

The trouble continued at the ground. According to the Mercury, 'The Forest mobs were in first, and took the Kopites pitch on the terraces under the Double Decker Stand'. The inevitable ruck followed and there were dozens of arrests.

 

One of those  who ended up in court was a 21 year old from Wigston, whose name I'll omit. According to a police officer giving evidence, he'd shouted, 'Come on Koppites, give 'em some stick!'. Not quite the authentic voice of the terraces, is it? More like something you'd see in a speech bubble in Tiger and Scorcher. But who knows, maybe he really did say those words.  The defendant claimed he was only trying to encourage the team, shouting 'Give us an L!', which at least sounds plausible.

 

The Mercury also carried reports of trouble at the station, quoting the manageress of the buffet on Platform 2. She said Forest fans had 'sat on the floor, slopped tea on the tables and spilled sugar'.  They really should bring back the birch, if only to sweep those surfaces.

 

 

 

2)  Let 'Em Get Four Then Shut Up Shop

 

On the last day of the 1923/24 season, we had absolutely nothing to play for. But it was very different for opponents Derby County. They needed to beat us 5-0 at the Baseball Ground to move above Bury into second place and clinch promotion.

 

It also started so well for the Rams. They were two up in twenty minutes, and the half-time score was 3-0.  When the fourth went in, the Bury fans who had traveled down from Lancashire were 'feeling blue'. 

 

But amid desperate scenes at the end, Derby couldn't manage that fifth goal.  They would stay down for another season.

 

'Tough luck, chaps', said the Leicester players as they shook hands with their opponents at the end, trying their best to conceal the smirks.

 

 

 

3)  The 'Lowest Gate Ever'

 

May 7th 1921. Stockport County v Leicester City  - so meaningless that only 13 people turned up to watch it. Or at least that's the story you would read in footy annuals in the 1970s. 

 

Of course, it couldn't possibly have been only 13. Stockport's ground had been closed by the FA after fans attacked a referee, and this game was the second act in a double-header at Old Trafford. After Man U beat Derby 3-0 in the first game, Stockport and Leicester drew 0-0. Only 13 people paid to get in between the two matches, but over a thousand stayed after the United game to see more action.

 

I wonder how many away fans were there?

 

 

4)    The Ghost of White Hart Lane

 

April 26th 1964.  Leicester City 0 Tottenham 1 - the last game of the season, the only highlight a sublime moment from John White:

 

 With everyone else expecting him to pass, he let go a tremendous drive from the edge of the penalty area and it zoomed past Gordon Banks’.

 

White had so nearly joined Leicester instead of Spurs, and if he had, his life would have been very different. That goal at Filbert Street was the last he would ever score. Two months later, he was playing golf at Crews Hill near London when he was struck by lightning and killed.

 

The book 'The Ghost of White Hart Lane' is highly recommended.

 

 

5)     We'll Never Play You Again

 

  ...is a chant that Leicester fans sing tongue in cheek. We are the ultimate yo-yo club, and tomorrow's game will not be our last ever in the second tier.

 

But we can be a little more confident that our Legaue One game at Crewe Alexandra on May 2nd 2009 was our last ever at that level. We went into the game at Gresty Road having already clinched the title, and we strolled to a 3-0 victory. 

 

What's interesting about that game is what might have happened, had events that season turned out differently.

 

Four months earlier,  a 20 year old Stocksbridge Park Steels striker called Jamie Vardy was looking for a move to a Football League club. Crewe Alexandra were in a relegation fight in League One, their plight not helped by a recent defeat at the King Power Stadium.

 

Crewe scouts had been watching Vardy, and in January he came to Gresty Road for a trial. Gary Marrow, Steels boss, came down to see how he was getting on, and told Jamie he thought he was making a good impression. But Vardy wasn't enjoying himself:

 

There were two lads staying in digs with me, so I asked what we did for dinner. They said they were making pasta. I didn't fancy that. I went round the corner and found a MacDonalds.  I wasn't going to try and be something I'm not.

 

He wasn't offered a contract, and he went back to Stocksbridge. 

 

So we never got to see an end of season drama in which Vardy scores a last minute goal to keep Crewe up before celebrating provocatively in front of the Leicester fans. Shame really.

 

Back in the real world, Crewe's defeat that day confirmed their drop into the fourth tier.

 

 

6)   A Million Strides - and A Single Peck

 

If professional footballers occasionally treat the last game of the season as a bit of a lark, that's not something that could ever be said of Alan Birchenall. His charity run was a feature of our final home game for about 40 years. 

 

Apologies to the great man, but depsite all those hard yards, he will probably be remembered for this moment more than any other. 

 

In the last game of the 1974/75 season we traveled to Bramall Lane. Tony Currie scored a thirty-yarder past Mark Wallington, we lost 4-0, and of course...

 

 

 

There's more coming soon.

Edited 3 May 2024 by kushiro

[kushiro]

More to come, starting with a personal story:

 

7)  May 5th 2001  Leicester 4 Tottenham 2.

 

This was after nine straight defeats. After Wycombe beat us in the Cup we seemed to give up.  On the beach from the middle of March. Peter Taylor's fault, or the players' fault?

 

For this final home game of the season I wasn't on the beach - I was on the roof. I've posted this before but it's one of my favourites:

 

 

I made an appeal a few years back for information about who those three are. No luck at the time. Any ideas?

 

[Raj]

 

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Good read, thanks.

[ClaphamFox]

13 minutes ago, kushiro said:

More to come, starting with a personal story:

 

7)  May 5th 2001  Leicester 4 Tottenham 2.

 

This was after nine straight defeats. After Wycombe beat us in the Cup we seemed to give up.  On the beach from the middle of March. Peter Taylor's fault, or the players' fault?

 

For this final home game of the season I wasn't on the beach - I was on the roof. I've posted this before but it's one of my favourites:

 

 

I made an appeal a few years back for information about who those three are. No luck at the time. Any ideas?

 

Given that Taylor went on to prove himself as a top manager by winning major trophies at several clubs, I'd say it must have been the players' fault.

 

Oh wait......I'm sorry. That happened in the alternative universe I occasionally visit when I get bored of this one. It's hard to remember which is which sometimes.

[BKLFox]

32 minutes ago, kushiro said:

More to come, starting with a personal story:

 

7)  May 5th 2001  Leicester 4 Tottenham 2.

 

This was after nine straight defeats. After Wycombe beat us in the Cup we seemed to give up.  On the beach from the middle of March. Peter Taylor's fault, or the players' fault?

 

For this final home game of the season I wasn't on the beach - I was on the roof. I've posted this before but it's one of my favourites:

 

 

I made an appeal a few years back for information about who those three are. No luck at the time. Any ideas?

 

Left to right they are; Beatrice, Harry and William Windsor 

[kushiro]

48 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

Left to right they are; Beatrice, Harry and William Windsor 

 

Wow!  Please tell me more. Are they still City fans? 

[ramadaone]

Can't tell which one of you is taking the piss or if its both of you

 

 

[Bert]

Never booked a holiday through them. 

[kushiro]

8)  So we're going to be presented with the trophy tomorrow. Here's a quiz question. What were the two occasons when the FA Cup was displayed at Leicester's last home game of the season.

 

There was 2021  - when we lost 4-2 to Spurs a week after beating Chelsea in the Final, with 8,000 allowed into the King Power.

 

The other one?

 

It was in 1928, when two days after winning the trophy at Wembley, Blackburn Rovers rounded off their season on Monday evening at Filbert Street. They brought the cup with them and it sat on display in front of the Main Stand.

 

Blackburn had reached Wembley by beating Arsenal 1-0 in the semi-final - at Filbert Street. 

 

On that Monday, Leicester beat Blackburn 6-0 to finish third in the table - our best ever. It's just about possible that someone in the crowd that day lived to see us lift the trophy 93 years later.

[Out Foxed]

Fantastic as always 

[kushiro]

Presumably before that 6-0 defeat in 1928, those Blackburn players had been celebrating their Cup triumph fairly riotously in the 48 hours between Wembley and Filbert Street.

 

The match report actually suggests Leicester were taking it easy. It could and should have been at least double that score, but:

 

There was evidently a feeling of sympathy. Players right in front of goal with nothing to do but shoot straight, managed to put the ball over the top or wide.

 

Two decades earlier, Leicester had not been given the same sympathy by Nottingham Forest. It was the club's first season in the top flight but relegation back down to Division Two had already been confirmed. The players were in no fit state to play football after celebrating 'Leggy' Turner's wedding the day before. 

 

Forest won 12-0. Our record League defeat. 

 

And there are two other moments to mention:

 

Ten years ago, results in other games meant promotion for Nigel Pearson's team was sealed with six games to play. I'm not sure the players were in quite the same state as that Forest game, but we certainly relaxed.  In the next game Brighton won 4-1 at the King Power. 

 

And in 1957, we sealed the Divison Two title with two games to play by winning 5-1 at Leyton Orient.  Three days later, the same opponents were at Filbert Street for the final game of the season. The Second Division Shield was there, ready to be presented to Leicester for the fourth time after the game, and the Orient players formed a guard of honour as we ran out. That was the end of the niceties.  They ran us ragged, going 4-1 up before the hour mark as we looked anything but champions.

 

As the Mercury put it, 'Orient looked like inflicting Leicester's record home defeat'. But 4-1 was how the scoreline stayed.

 

This was Jack Froggatt with the shield, the players looking just a little sheepish.

 

 

 

 

Any Blackburn fans reading all this might feel a little encouraged. If we do lose tomorrow, there are numerous historial precedents.

Edited 4 May 2024 by kushiro

[kushiro]

'

On 03/05/2024 at 13:58, kushiro said:

The perfect script for tomorrow would be a thumping victory to reach 100 points, with Jamie Vardy hitting a hat-trick, inspired by the sight of a tifo stretching half way round the ground.

 

But if it doesn't turn out like that no-one's going to be that bothered.  We're not quite 'on the beach',

 

Maybe I was wrong.