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kushiro

Goodison Glory

By kushiro, in Leicester City Forum

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kushiro

kushiro

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OK, I'll admit that this one's a bit personal.

 

I've always had a thing for Goodison Park as my father played there for his school team in the Liverpool Schools' Cup Final in 1950. Here he is scoring at the Gwladys Street end:

 

Gwladys-St-goal.jpg

 

That's the magnificent old Main Stand in the background.

 

I've never known what kind of goal that was. It looks like a simple tap in - but I like to imagine that it was the final touch to a mazy run through the whole defence, like John Barnes in Brazil.

 

I'm going to really miss that place - so here's a run down of a few glorious Leicester moments from the past.

 

 

1) Shinji's Breakthrough.

 

Shinji Okazaki was feeling frustrated in December 2015. He had lost his place in the starting line up to Leo Ulloa and couldn' t get it back. 

 

Then the players went on their Christmas outing to Copenhagen. He'd been with the team for five months but still felt a bit of an outsider. Then in the bars of Copenhagen he really let his hair down for the first time, totally relaxed and probably totally p***ed . He partied until the early hours without a care in the world.

 

The following week Claudio Ranieri noticed something about him in training. He looked sharper and more confident. Ranieri decided to put him back in the starting XI and  you know what happened next:

 

Goodison-again.png

 

That was the turning point for Shinji, and the final tweak to the team that took us all the way. 

 

 

2) Top of the Pile

 

That Okazaki goal took us eight points clear and we were all feeling a bit dizzy.  The first time we'd ever hit the top of the League was back in September 1926 after a crazy game at Goodison. We were 3-0 down, then goals from Ernie Hine, Johnny Duncan and two from Channy put us 4-3 up. In the last minute Everton got a penalty. - but Billy Troup skied it and the two points took us to the summit. 

 

That was our first game at Goodison after the completion of The Bullens Road stand - the one the away fans are put in now. 

 

 

3)  You Sexy Thing

 

Another confession. Matt Elliott used to have me questioning my sexuality.   He was such a beautiful hunky beast (he still has that same figure, right?).

 

We didn't realise at first that he wasn't only a rock at the back, he was also a skilful centre forward, as he proved when Martin O'Neill played him up front as an emergency striker.

 

Great memories:

 

 

 

4)  Nice one, Mr. Shipman

 

Not such a great memory this one, but it is a key moment in the club's history. 

 

In December 1968, Leicester City's board of directors told Matt Gillies that they still had confidence in him but that his trusted sidekick Bert Johnson was being shown the door. Nice one, Len. Matt knew they were just playing games and that his glorious decade at the club was over.

 

Two days later we were due at Goodison Park. What would Matt do? On the Friday, he told the board 'I'm resigning,  but let's keep it secret until after the Everton game'.

 

Bert Johnson didn't make the journey north. Matt must have felt very lonely.  On Saturday morning, rumours started flying around that Gillies had quit. The Liverpool Echo photographer caught up with him at the Adelphi Hotel before the game:

 

Frank-O-5.jpg

 

It wasn't the ideal preparation for a trip to face an Everton team that was just discovering how good it was, a year before they won the title.  Gillies' last words before the game were 'Go out and enjoy it'.

 

We lost 7-1 and Gillies broke down in tears in the dressing room aferwards as he told the team it was over. 

 

 

5)  Who Saves Penalties?

 

Another personal memory.  There must have been fewer than 100 Leicester fans in the away end at Goodison on a cold March evening in 1984  - one of them was me.  Gary Lineker scored a classic 'race through the middle' goal and we took a point thanks to Mark Wallington's penalty save from Andy King:

 

Wallo-24-Everton-1.jpg

 

 

 

6)  No Words Necessary

 

Vardy-Goodison.jpg

 

 

Well that's half a dozen. More to come later. 

 

 

Edited by kushiro
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SouthStandUpperTier

SouthStandUpperTier

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20 minutes ago, kushiro said:

5)  Who Saves Penalties?

 

Another personal memory.  There must have been fewer than 100 Leicester fans in the away end at Goodison on a cold March evening in 1984  - one of them was me.  Gary Lineker scored a classic 'race through the middle' goal and we took a point thanks to Mark Wallington's penalty save from Andy King:

 

Wallo-24-Everton-1.jpg

 

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kushiro

kushiro

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2 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

Looks like we are wearing the infamous classic green with yellow pinstripes kit.

Yeah - nice hoof from Tommy Williams too. Looks like Kevin Ratcliffe was trying to play offside - leaving Lineker to run away from Derek Mountfield. Good job it wasn't the other way round  - Ratcliffe might have caught up with him.

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Supergray22

Supergray22

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43 minutes ago, kushiro said:

Yeah - nice hoof from Tommy Williams too. Looks like Kevin Ratcliffe was trying to play offside - leaving Lineker to run away from Derek Mountfield. Good job it wasn't the other way round  - Ratcliffe might have caught up with him.

Ratcliffe was quick but I’d have fancied Lineker at that time. 

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kushiro

kushiro

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21 minutes ago, Plastik Man said:

Wow! As has already been said, never seen that before, and in the infamous green kit!

I'm still hoping someone uploads the footage from  the following month - Leicester 3 Liverpool 3 - possibly the greatest game I've ever seen.  Andy Peake's typical screamer is out there somehwere but I've never seen the other goals anywhere.

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Izzy

Izzy

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8 hours ago, kushiro said:

I'm still hoping someone uploads the footage from  the following month - Leicester 3 Liverpool 3 - possibly the greatest game I've ever seen.  Andy Peake's typical screamer is out there somehwere but I've never seen the other goals anywhere.

Trust me, I've searched high and low for this.

 

Was in the DD with my old man. 28,000 packed in to Filbo under the lights and a game I'll never forget.

 

Still got Bill Anderson's newspaper report in an old scrapbook but never seen the highlights :(

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kushiro

kushiro

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Before more Leicester memories, here's a bit of history:

 

 

1) Everton were forced out of Anfield when the landlord raised the rent. Then they found this site on the other side of Stanley Park;:

 

OS-1890.png

 

How do you fit a football ground in there?

 

Easy - like this:

 

OS-1906.png

 

 

2) Scary looking press box in the 1890s. It was installed when the ground hosted the 1894 FA Cup Final. Everton were the best supported team in the country at the time. St Luke's Church in the corner of the ground was rebuilt shortly after this.

 

old-goodison-road-side.png

 

 

3) We Shall Not Be Moved:

 

William Fraser's house stands in the way of 'progress'.

 

william-fraser-again.png

 

That was 1937. He refused to move out when the club wanted to develop the Gwladys Street end. Leicester had a similar problem on Burnmoor Street - they bought up several of the houses with a view to developing the East Stand but eventually gave up (for a varierty of reasons).

 

 

4)  Great spec on top of St. Luke's church.

 

from-outside.png

 

 

 

But they might come and get you:

 

 St-Luke-s.png

 

I remember when they tried to take us off Bentley's Roof (or was that just a strange dream I had):

 

 

5)  During the 1966 World Cup:

 

pele.png

 

 

 

 

After it:

 

trophies.png

 

(before the 1966 Charity Shield)

 

 

kushiro

kushiro

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Right, here's a few more Leicester memories from Goodison:

 

1)  Everton 2 Leicester 2  February 2015

 

feb-2015.png

 

Jimmy Mulville, Everton fan, comedy writer and co-founder of Hattrick productions, was the official sponsor of  this game, and in that capacity he invited his friend Jon Holmes (you know, Lineker's agent, ex-Leicester chairman) to Goodison. After the 2-2 draw, Jon said 'I'll do the same at the King Power next season when we play Everton game and invite you!'.

 

This looked completely unlikely, as we were adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, where we had been for three months. 

 

Then came the Great Escape. 

 

At the start of the next season, Jon looked at the fixture list and saw the Everton game scheduled as the last home game, and applied to sponsor that game as planned. 

 

On May 7th 2016, Jon welcomed Jimmy Mulville to the King Power.

 

 

2)  Dixie's On Fire

 

I included a 7-1 defeat in the original post above, and - sorry - here's another one.

 

On November 5th 1927 we lost by that score at Goodison, with Dixie Dean scoring three. That made it an astonishing 23 goals in 12 games. He finished the season with 60.  We had a great season too - finishing 3rd, our highest ever at that time.

 

colourized.png

 

 

3)  The last time we played at Goodison in Division Two was when we won 2-1 in September 1953. Both teams ended up being promoted at the end of the season - we were champions on goal average.  Everton have never dropped out of the top flight since then.  As for us? Count 'em...

 

 

4)  We've only ever played one FA Cup game at Goodison:

 

 

 

 

5)  This thread started with Shinji's goal at Goodison in 2015. Let's finish with a carbon copy from Harvey Barnes:

 

barnes-and-shinji.png

 

Here's the goal:

 

 

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kushiro

kushiro

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Right, I'll round off this thread with a picture of my dad again - scoring his second goal in that Final in 1950 - this one at the Park End:

 

2nd-goal-cropped.png

 

Sorry - I've broken the unwritten 'don't post pictures of your own family' rule twice in one day. But hey - it's a special occasion.

 

(They won 4-3 by the way - St. Francis Xavier School that is, who used to own Melwood before selling the site to Liverpool in the early 1950s)

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