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Leicester City Football Club was founded in 1884, and between the years 1884 and 1919 they were known as Leicester Fosse. It was whilst playing as Leicester Fosse that they suffered their heaviest defeat... 21st April 1909 they went down 12:0 to Nottingham Forest. 19 years later, and now Leicester City they recorded their record league victory.. 20th October 1928 against Portsmouth at Filbert street saw a 10: 0 victory. Their best ever cup win was 1st December 1964 away at Highfield Road, the home of Coventry City when they came away 8:1 winners....

As a very young lad I went to Filbert Street for every home game, as my Dad was an avid Foxes fan. Mum worked on Saturdays so I didn't have a choice - I had to go !! We sat in the upper tier of the double decker stand.  

When I reached about ten I started going to watch Coventry City with a friend and his parents. That lasted a couple of years and then in 1969 I started following Leicester City.... The year we were beaten in the FA cup final by Manchester City 1- 0. Their goal was scored by Neil Young, and NO that's not the same one who went on to record some classic albums with Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren !!!

The FA Cup has still eluded us but we did win the Coca Cola Cup in 1997 and were beaten finalists in the same competition (but now named the Worthington Cup) in 1999, losing to Spurs who scored in the dying seconds to secure a 1:0 win. City also reached the 2000 final to make it three finals in four years..............

Leicester City won the Worthington Cup by defeating Tranmere Rovers by 2:1 History was made as it was the first time Leicester had won a major trophy at Wembley. City hero was Matt Elliott who headed both goals from Steve Guppy corners. Ex city striker David Kelly scored the Tranmere goal.

After 18 years as a professional footballer, and four previous trips to the twin towers for domestic cup finals Tony Cottee had yet to secure a winners medal. At the age where many have hung up their boots TC had another chance to get that elusive medal, and this time he did .

How things change !!

Seven days after winning the Worthington Cup City stormed to an emphatic 5:2 victory against Sunderland with recent signing Stan Collymore scoring a hat trick on his home debut. At least Stan would now get headlines on the back pages of the tabloid press instead of hitting the front pages with tales of various misdemeanours !!... Emile Heskey put in one of his best ever performances that afternoon, got one goal, and on the day he was unstoppable. The fans saw something that afternoon with real potential - the Collymore / Heskey partnership.

Little were the fans to know Heskey's goal and appearance was to be his last for the Foxes. Four days later Heskey joined Liverpool for £11 million. It was the worst kept secret in football, and had been rumoured for many months that Emile would be a Liverpool player by the end of the season. We will never know how the partnership would have worked out and only have the memory of what could have been.

About the players......

In my opinion the team assembled by Martin O'Neil was the best ever. Not since the Jimmy Bloomfield days of the 70's when stars such as Keith Weller, Frank "Elvis" Worthington, Peter Shilton and Alan Birchenall took to the Filbert Street turf did we have such a strong team. Many say that team were just two players short of a title contending team. Nearly thirty years later we found ourselves in the same situation. Under O'Neil we finished top ten every season..

Keith Weller passed away 13.11.2004 after a long battle against cancer.



My favourite player of all time is Steve Walsh. Regarded by many as "Mr Leicester City" Unfortunately Steve left the club early in the 2000 / 2001 season after twelve years. He had a reputation as a hard man, and had been sent off many times. In recent years he had calmed down and was the anchor of the team. His greatest moments whilst at Leicester were lifting the Coca Cola Cup, and scoring twice in the first division play off final at Wembley against local adversaries Derby County.
Steve went to play for Norwich City, managed by ex Foxes manager Bryan Hamilton. Hamilton was the Leicester City manager who signed Walshie for the Foxes from Wigan all those years ago.

After City's relegation to the Nationwide one of the problems was to keep the best players, and to cut the wage bill. Gary Rowett was first to leave, signing for Charlton. Robbie Savage was next out the door, making the short trip to Midlands rivals and newly promoted Birmingham City. It's always sad to see your team broken up. Sav was an excellent servant for over five years at the club.
Loved by many and loathed by even more !!

About the managers......

We probably had one of the the best managers in the country. Martin O'Neill. He built his team on a shoestring budget and did not have millions to spend. He has an eye for a bargain, buying players like Mustapha "Muzzy" Izzet for £600,000 or Neil Lennon for £1million and turning them into players whose value would triple in years to come. After leaving Leicester, O'Neil had to part with  £6 million to take Lennon from Leicester to Celtic. At Leicester his most expensive signing was Darren Eadie who he brought from Norwich City for £3 million.  

Born 1st March 1952 Kilrea, Northern Ireland, he played for Distillery, Nottingham Forest, Norwich City, Manchester City and Notts County. As well as winning 62 full international caps for Northern Ireland, his other honours are Irish Cup (1971) Division One Championship (1978) League cup (1978 and 1979) and The European Cup (1980). In a recent interview when asked why he had never won the FA Cup his reply was he was to busy winning The European Cup !!

His managerial career started with Grantham, moving to Shepshed Charterhouse, Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich , and finally arriving at Filbert Street December 1995.

Previous managers include Mark McGhee, Brian Little, Bryan Hamilton, David Pleat, Gordon Milne, Jock Wallace, Jimmy Bloomfield, Frank McClintock and Matt Gillies.

After four and a half glorious years at Filbert Street in which the club had success like never before - Three appearances in the Coca Cola / Worthington Cup Final and three successive top ten finishes in the premiership, Martin O'Neill decided to leave.

On Thursday 1st June 2000 he became the manager of Glasgow Celtic, the club he had supported as a youngster. It was the stuff dreams were made of, a calling he could not turn down.  

Martin O'Neils replacement Peter Taylor was sacked Ist October 2001 after fifteen months in the job. A disappointing start to the season and the alarming slump after the defeat at the hands of lowly Wycombe Wanderers in the F A Cup were to blame. Taylor may have been a excellent coach but you could not say the same about his management skills. Under Taylor the team lost the fighting spirit installed by O'Neill.

The search was on for a new manager. Harry Redknapp was the likely contender with George Graham being the fans choice. In the end it was neither. Redknapp turned us down, although the City word was he was never actually offered the job, and George Graham was tied up with his legal action against Spurs. This could have been a excuse, and the true fact was probably he didn't see LCFC as a high profile club. Whether we could have afforded him is another question.

The board had made it clear that the next manager would have to wheel and deal by selling current players to fund any new signings as there was no money to spend. "Where's the money gone" was to be a familiar phrase once more.  

Garry Parker became caretaker manager for the visit of Leeds in the Worthington Cup. A 6:0 thrashing was his one and only game in charge, and the following day 10th October, Dave "Harry" Bassett was appointed Leicester's twelfth manager in 20 years. He has a track record of getting clubs promoted, but could he keep us in the premiership was the big question. As his assistant he brought along Micky Adams, who quit as Brighton manager to join Bassett. Adams was an ex Coventry City player, but if he proves himself the man for the job I am prepared to forget his previous indiscretion. By all accounts he is a very capable manager who has proved himself at lower levels, very similar to Martin O'Neil. The idea is for him to take over from Bassett in a couple of years time. An ironic twist of fate saw the departing Peter Taylor take over as manager at Brighton, the job vacated by......Micky Adams. 

The home game against Manchester United 6th April, was significant for two reasons....

Firstly It was Bassetts last game as manager. After the game he took on the role of Director Of Football, and "moved upstairs". Micky Adams became manager. 

Secondly and more importantly, was that City had to win against United to have any chance of Premiership survival. 

They didn't win and it was to be relegation to the Nationwide league. 

In my opinion all City's troubles started when peter Taylor joined. He wasted millions buying players who were just not good enough for Premiership football. Akinbiyi, Benjamin, Lewis, Wise and Cresswell. His best signings were undoubtedly Rowett and Walker. 

Adams got the club straight back into the premiership, finishing second behind Portsmouth, but the team struggled to get out of the bottom half dozen for most of the season. Results didn't go in our favour and points were squandered on more than one occasion, and it was a swift return to the first division, or as it had now become "The Coca Cola Championship"  
Being three nil up at Wolverhampton and then losing four three, conceding last minute goals and not  to mention some of the substitutions Adams made in the last ten minutes were all reasons for the return..  

On Monday 11th October 2004 Micky Adams resigned as manager of the club. City had been one of the clubs tipped for promotion straight back to the premiership, but a series of poor performances and results left them in mid table. Dave Bassett took temporary charge and managed five straight draws, then October 31st 2004 Hearts manager Craig Levein was announced as the new Leicester City manager.. in his first game City drew two all at Crewe making it six in a row !!

City started the 2005/2006 campaign as one of the favourite's to get promotion back to the Premiership. Unfortunately the performances on the pitch showed no indication that the bookies had got it right. Levein had assembled a squad of young players, with the exception of goalkeeper Rab Douglas, and their inexperience showed. Even the experience of Dion Dublin couldn't help get a winning run together. By Christmas, with only five wins in the league, fans were already calling for Levien's head.

In the FA tie against Spurs at the Walkers, City came from 2 - 0 down to take the tie 3 - 2 which proved that the team were capable, but they couldn't reproduce the same form in the league. City were defeated in the following two games against Cardiff, and fellow strugglers Plymouth which left them firmly in the relegation berth third from bottom.

On Wednesday 25th February 2006 the board met and decided enough was enough. Levein and Leicester City parted company and the search for the next Leicester City FC manager was to begin.

Rob Kelly, (who was Levein's assistant manager) and Mike Stowell became the caretaker management team.  Prospective managers were approached, and LCFC were refused to speak to them or they turned the job down. Kelly and Stowell got the team back into winning ways and after a good run, they were given the job until the end of the season. Results continued to improve and City pulled away from the relegation area to finish 16th in the Championship, 12 points above the drop zone. Based on this "success" the pair were given the job on a permanent basis. The target for next season must be a play off place. We had been out of the Premiership for too long.

Rumours started to circulate in 2006, that ex Portsmouth chairman Milan Manderic was looking to buy a new football club, with Leicester one of the clubs involved. Due to a long protracted take over he didn't get control until the end of January 2007, after the transfer window had closed, and therefore his money would not be able to buy the players that the club so desperately needed to get them out off what was becoming a very poor season.

The 2006/2007 season never really got going, and fans were calling for the head of Rob Kelly. With only five games left to play, and City only five points above the relegation zone, Manderic stepped in and sacked Kelly. In his place he brought in manager Nigel Worthington, whose first game in charge would be against the club which had sacked him, Norwich. Three defeats and two wins followed, and City finished in 19th place.

On Friday 25th May 2007, Martin Allen was announced as the next Leicester City manager. An ex Barnett, Brentford and MK Dons manager he came with the reputation as a hard man. After some of the performances we have seen over the last three seasons, I believe we need some one like him to get the players back into shape, and playing with some pride and passion when they pull on the blue shirt.
On Wednesday 29th August 2007 after only 96 days in charge Martin Allen left the club "by mutual consent",
and with that, he became the manager with the shortest tenure in charge in the history of the club.  

Manderic didn't waste a lot of time looking for a replacement. The usual names were in the frame, Warnock, Dowie, Jewel etc. Wednesday 12th September rumours began to circulate that Gary Megson was due to be announced as the new manager. Megson had previously taken West Bromwich into the premiership on two occasions (and also went down with them), and had previously been manager at East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest, where he failed to change the clubs fortunes. Biggest surprise was the announcement that ex Foxes favourite Gerry Taggart would be returning to the club as a coach.
Was this Manderics way of placating the fans, many who did not want Megson as manager ?

The Megson era didn't last long.... six weeks later he'd gone to be the new Bolton manager,
and the recent "record" for the shortest tenure as manager of Leicester City set by Martin Allen
was rewritten !



Many fans couldn't hide their relief and joy. The performances on the pitch were no more inspiring under Megson than his predecessors. City favourite Steve Walsh was one of the first to throw their hat into the ring, but lack of coaching badges and no managerial experience would surely go against him. The search was now on for yet another manager.   



Reports on Monday 19th November linked Plymouth manager Ian Holloway with the vacant position. This was denied by both clubs. On Wednesday 21st, Holloway tended his resignation as Plymouth manager, but their board would not accept, stating it would be discussed at their next meeting, two days later on Friday. Then, against all expectation, it was announced there was to be a press call at the Walkers on Thursday at 7pm. Over the last 24 hours things had moved on behind the scenes and Ian Holloway was unveiled as the new manager of Leicester City Football Club. His first game in charge would be against Bristol City. LCFC won the game and in doing so Holloway became the first new LCFC manager in 55 years to win his opening game.



The rest of the season was nothing short of a disaster, with City flirting with relegation for the third season in a row. Unable to win two back to back games meant they were in the bottom three one week and out the next, then back in the following week.


City fans were booing the team of at half time and full time. Fed up with watching the same mediocre performances week in week out. On paper we had the nucleus of a good team, but the players don't seem to share that view. There's a few who give it their all every game and there are those who just play well when it suits them.  Not good enough......





2009 / 2010 Review

At the start of the season the majority LCFC fans would have settled for a mid table position in our first season
back in the championship. Even finishing fourth from bottom would have pleased some fans. As the season progressed it was clear that we were more than holding our own, and the optimism levels began to rise. Losing only one nil away at Newcastle, and holding them to a draw at the Walkers with only 10 men were highspots. The lowest point in the season was being on the wrong end of a 5 - 1 thrashing away at against Nottingham Forest. March saw a string of bad results. 
A 2 all draw at the Walkers against Coventry, after being 2 nil up and coasting, was followed by four straight defeats. Results in other games went our way and City maintained their top six position, but many fans thought that the bubble had burst and we would then go into freefall.  The team turned it round and got back to winning ways, with five wins in the last five games, including a comprehensive thumping of Nottingham Forest when they visited the Walkers, this time Leicester winning 3 - 0, and therefore restoring bragging rights to Leicester.


With one game to go Leicester cemented their place in the play off positions, and their opponents would be Cardiff City over two legs, the first one being played at the Walkers. A tight game ensued with Cardiff the better team in the first 45, and they took the lead with 12 minutes to go from a Whittingham free kick. Almost immediately from the restart Matty Fryatt had a glorious chance to put City level, but I suspect his lack of games and match fitness didn't help and he shot straight at the advancing Cardiff 'keeper. City piled on the pressure, but could find the 'net.
We had to go to the Cardiff City Stadium for the return leg and do something that we hadn't managed to do
in 2 previous visits that season, Win !!   

City got off to a bad start when they went 1 nil down after 12 minutes. It was all Cardiff and I remeber thinking when they scored that it was now game over. How wrong I was to be. Three minutes later Fryatt went through and this time he did find the back of the net. We then had them on the ropes and every time we went forward we looked like scoring. Welshman Andy King rose to head in a Paul Gallagher cross to put Leicester 2 1 up on the night, 2 all on aggregate. City contined to push forward looking for the goal that would give them the overall lead, and it was to come when Richie Wellens put away a penalty kick.  The referee then awarded Cardiff a spot kick, which should not have been allowed as in the build up a Cardiff striker was clearly in an off side position. They scored to level the tie at three all, and at ninety minutes it remained the same. 30 minutes extra time could not separate them so it was to be decided on penalties.
Both teams scored their first three, but when Kermorgant stepped up for Leicester he tried to chip the keeper and it was saved. Cardiff scored their fourth, so it was all on loan striker Martyn Waghorn. He stepped up and struck a fine penalty, but was thwarted by the keeper who saved well, earning Cardiff a play off final against Ian Holloways Blackpool.

The Stadium

Filbert street has not always been the home of Leicester City. When the original Leicester Fosse was founded in
1884 they played at Victoria Park. During 1887 they played at Belgrave Road before returning to Victoria Park in
1888 this time staying until 1891 when they moved to Filbert Street where they remained until 2002.

Filbert street held approximately 21,800 and was the laughing stock of the Premier Division. One superb stand - The Carling Stand, One reasonable - The CIS (Double Decker) and two that were a joke. Martin O'Neil joked that new
signings were walked onto the pitch backwards so the first thing they saw would be the Carling Stand and not the
East Stand, which was more like a cattle shed.

The new 32,000 seater stadium was ready dfor the start of the 2002 /2003 season.
The stadium name was originally announced as "The Walkers Bowl", which was instantly disliked by many.
The "Bowl" made it sound too American.
After a petition and a backlash from the fans the name was changed to "The Walkers Stadium"

Prior to the start of the 2011 / 2012 the stadium had a change of name, and is now known as "The King Power" stadium, and for the coming season the LCFC shirt will also bear the "King Power" name.  

This page last updated on

Saturday 21st May 2010

© A S Mackness 2010