TWIH: Record Breakers

In future years, this week, the fourth week in January 2014, will go down in the Club’s History as the time when Leicester City won their eighth league match in succession for the first time ever. Considering that next season the Club will be celebrating its 130th birthday, this is a remarkable achievement.

Until the victory at St Andrew’s, the record run of consecutive league wins was seven. This has occured on four previous occasions.

The last time this happened was 21 years ago, when Brian Little’s side won successive second tier games against Birmingham City, Barnsley, Sunderland, Tranmere Rovers, Grimsby Town, Cambridge United and Charlton Athletic. This run took place in February and March 1993 and took Leicester City from 8th to 5th in the table.  They maintained this Play-Off position until the end of the season, and beat Portsmouth in the semi-finals, only to lose a pulsating game in the Wembley Play-Off final for a place in the Premier League against Glenn Hoddle’s Swindon Town The stalwarts of that side were Carl Muggleton or Kevin Poole, Gary Mills, Richard Smith, Steve Walsh, Colin Hill, David Oldfield, Steve Thompson, Julian Joachim and David Lowe.

The Club also achieved seven consecutive league wins in the frozen winter of 1962/63 when they were labelled the ‘Ice Age Kings’. What made this run even more remarkable was that it was part of a run of 10 wins on the bounce because Leicester City also won three FA Cup matches in amongst the seven league games.  The run lasted from Boxing Day 1962 until 23 March 1963. By the end of April, Leicester City were top of the old First Division and FA Cup Finalists against relegation threatened Manchester United. Winning the League and FA Cup double looked to be a very realistic prospect for Leicester City.

Unfortunately, this did not happen. Leicester lost their last four league games. They also lost the FA Cup Final. Their final league position was fourth. The players who took Leicester City on this 10 match unbeaten run were Gordon Banks, John Sjoberg, Richie Norman, Frank McLintock, Ian King, Colin Appleton, Howard Riley, Graham Cross, Ken Keyworth, Davie Gibson ad Mike Stringfellow. The manager was Matt Gillies.

There was also a seven match unbeaten run in the league in 1924/25, in a season which saw Leicester City go on to become Champions of the old Second Division.  The Club had been re-formed from the old Leicester Fosse in 1919 and their astute manager Peter Hodge had built a side which contained some of the all-time greats in Leicester City’s history. Amongst others, he signed Arthur Chandler, who became the Club’s record goal scorer, Adam Black who made more league appearances than any other Leicester player, Johnny Duncan, who was his inspirational skipper, and Hughie Adcock who went on to play for England . The seven match unbeaten league run took place between 24 January and 11 March, 1925. It took Leicester City from third in the table to top, a position they held (except for one week) until they secured the title at the end of the season. This Leicester City side was the basis of the great team which went on to become one of the most feared in the land. They finished third in the top Division in 1928 and second, one point off winning the League title, in 1929.

We have to go back over one hundred years, to the days of Leicester Fosse, for the only other occasion Leicester won seven league games in succession. This was in the 1907/08 season, which ended in the Fosse being promoted, (as runners up to Bradford City), to the old First Divsion for the first time in their history. The run lasted from mid February until the end of March. It took the Fosse from eighth position to third in the table. The defeated teams were Blackpool, Derby County, West Bromwich Albion, Bradford City, Hull City, Glossop and Lincoln City. The run ended in dramatic fashion with a 5-1 defeat by Fulham at Craven Cottage. One of the key Leicester Fosse players at that time was their England international goalkeeper Horace Bailey, who later on that year won Olympic Gold as part of the Great Britain Football team at the White City Olympic Games. Another key player was Leicester Fosse’s record goalscorer Fred Shinton.

Pictures.

LEAD. Julian Joachim

1. Gordon Banks

2. Johnny Duncan

3. Horace Bailey