Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Next Match | Saturday 2 May Sat 2 May

BLB

(A)

06 D

15 H

41 M

13 S

Interviews & Features

Heritage

Photos

Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Club Historian John Hutchinson's weekly series looks at two special artefacts in Leicester City's growing archives dating back to 2002.

2021-09-29T11:47:00.000Z

by John Hutchinson

Published

29 Sep, 2021

Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Club Historian John Hutchinson's weekly series looks at two special artefacts in Leicester City's growing archives dating back to 2002.

John Hutchinson

2021-09-29T11:47:00.000Z

Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Club Historian John Hutchinson's weekly series looks at two special artefacts in Leicester City's growing archives dating back to 2002.

John Hutchinson

2021-09-29T11:47:00.000Z

Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Club Historian John Hutchinson's weekly series looks at two special artefacts in Leicester City's growing archives dating back to 2002.

John Hutchinson

2021-09-29T11:47:00.000Z

Links With The Past: Piper's Historic Boots & Matchball

Club Historian John Hutchinson's weekly series looks at two special artefacts in Leicester City's growing archives dating back to 2002.

John Hutchinson

2021-09-29T11:47:00.000Z

On 11 May, 2002, Leicester City played their last ever competitive match at Filbert Street, the Club’s home for 111 years. The boots and ball illustrated here are mementoes from that historic occasion.

The boots were worn by Matt Piper, an Academy graduate and Leicester City fan, who celebrates his birthday today (29 September). His headed goal with this ball was the last-ever goal to be scored at Filbert Street. The opponents that day were Glenn Hoddle’s Tottenham Hotspur.

Not only was it to be Leicester’s last game at Filbert Street, it was also to be their final game for the time being in the Premier League after a stay of six years which had seen four top-10 finishes under Martin O’Neill, as well as two League Cup wins, and two European campaigns.

Leicester City won 2-1, registering Micky Adams’ first victory as manager Teddy Sheringham scored for the visitors with a 54th-minute penalty. Paul Dickov equalised on the hour.

Then, 10 minutes later, a long throw to the edge of the goalmouth was headed on by Matt Elliott for young Piper to score his famous goal. It was a diving header in front of the Kop which, along with the rest of the ground, rose to acclaim this historic strike.

Sadly, this was to be Matt’s last competitive game for Leicester City as the Club couldn’t resist selling him to Sunderland for £3.5M to try to offset the growing financial pressures which eventually saw the Club go into administration a few months later.

LATEST HEADLINES

‘We’ve Got Four Cup Finals’ – Passmoor Previews Final Run-In Following an extended international break, LCFC Women return to Barclays WSL action this weekend against London City Lionesses, which is the first of four games remaining this term.

5 Hours 48 Mins Ago

Rowett’s Millwall Assessment Gary Rowett provided his reaction after our 1-1 draw with Millwall in our final King Power Stadium outing of the season on Friday night.

12 Hours 33 Mins Ago

City Draw With Millwall On Filbert Way We drew 1-1 with Millwall in Friday’s night’s Sky Bet Championship fixture at King Power Stadium.

22 Hours 43 Mins Ago

PL2 Play-Offs Defeat For City's U21s Our Under-21s concluded their 25/26 Premier League 2 campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in the Play-Offs Round of 16.

23 Hours 18 Mins Ago