'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

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'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

After making 159 appearances for Ipswich Town, striker David Lowe joined us in July 1992. During four seasons at Filbert Street, he played 108 games for Leicester City.

2026-05-04T15:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

8 Hours 28 Mins Ago

'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

After making 159 appearances for Ipswich Town, striker David Lowe joined us in July 1992. During four seasons at Filbert Street, he played 108 games for Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-04T15:00+01:00

'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

After making 159 appearances for Ipswich Town, striker David Lowe joined us in July 1992. During four seasons at Filbert Street, he played 108 games for Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-04T15:00+01:00

'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

After making 159 appearances for Ipswich Town, striker David Lowe joined us in July 1992. During four seasons at Filbert Street, he played 108 games for Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-04T15:00+01:00

'I Scored & Then Got Sent Off!' - David Lowe's Foxes Memories

After making 159 appearances for Ipswich Town, striker David Lowe joined us in July 1992. During four seasons at Filbert Street, he played 108 games for Leicester City.

John Hutchinson

2026-05-04T15:00+01:00

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, David recently spoke about his 17-year career in football, playing 690 matches in the top five levels of English football, before developing a career as a coach.

When David was 16, he became an apprentice at Wigan Athletic. He made his first team debut as a 17-year-old in October 1982 against Reading and was a regular in the Latics’ Third Division side for the next five seasons, during which he scored a spectacular overhead goal at Wembley against Brentford to win the Freight Rover Trophy in 1985. Two of David’s team-mates that day were future Leicester stars, Steve Walsh and Mike Newell.

The following season, with Bryan Hamilton as manager, Wigan missed out on promotion to the second tier by one point.

“I was fortunate to be at Wigan,” David reflected. “Nowadays, kids don’t get a lot of opportunity in the first team, but Wigan was quite a small club. There were only four apprentices when I first joined, and I got the opportunity to play a lot.”

In June 1986, both Bryan Hamilton and Steve Walsh left Wigan for Leicester and, a year later, David signed for Ipswich Town for £80,000.

Up against Brentford's Chris Kamara during the 1985 Freight Rover Cup Final at Wembley.

“When John Duncan was manager at Chesterfield, I’d played particularly well against them,” he said. “Then he became Ipswich’s manager and, after talking to him, I decided to sign for them.

“I really enjoyed my five years at Ipswich. It was my first club away from home and I worked with good people like Duncan, John Lyall and Charlie Woods. I won two England Under-21s caps when I was there. The only downside was my cruciate ligament injury, which put a bit of a dampener on things.”

In 1992, Ipswich were promoted to top tier along with Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers. Two months later, David signed for Brian Little’s Leicester City for a reported fee of £200,000. Little had set his sights on promotion following the disappointment of our recent Wembley Play-Off Final defeat to Kenny Dalglish’s Rovers.

“After five years at Ipswich, there was no new contract offer, so when Leicester approached Ipswich about signing me, I decided it was time to move on,” David recalled.

“I had a slow start at Leicester because, during my relocation period, while I was staying at the Holiday Inn, I broke my cheekbone in a pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach. In that first season, though, I played a lot of football and scored a few goals.”

At the end of the season, we once again reached the Play-Off Final for a place in the Premier League but were defeated 4-3 by Glenn Hoddle’s Swindon Town.

Parading the Freight Rover Cup trophy after scoring spectacularly in Wigan's 3-1 victory.

The following season (93/94), the Foxes did gain promotion. However, David didn’t feature too much and, in February 1994, he went on loan to John Rudge’s Port Vale. Five goals in 19 appearances helped the Valiants win promotion to the second tier three months later.

Although David was back at Leicester in time for the Club’s Wembley Play-Off Final against Derby County, he wasn’t in the squad. However, that victory over the Rams, secured by Walsh famously scoring two goals, meant that David could look forward to the following season as a Premier League player.

He commented: “When the Premier League season started, I wasn’t in the team for the first three games, but I made my top-flight debut at Filbert Street when we won our first point, against Queens Park Rangers. In the next game, at Wimbledon, I scored my first Premier League goal but then I got sent off! I was sub for my first game back after suspension, which was against Spurs at Filbert Street.”

Recalling that evening, David continued: “Mark Draper (the Club’s first-ever £1M signing) played the ball to me on the left-hand side. I ran with the ball, brought it onto my right foot and just bent it round really, scoring from about 20 yards out.”

This goal, which was later voted as the Club’s Goal of the Season, helped secure City’s first-ever victory in the Premier League, which had been established two seasons earlier.

David went onto make 29 Premier League appearances and scored eight goals that season, which ended in relegation. In November 1994, with Leicester struggling in the Premier League, Little left the Club to manage Aston Villa.

Battling's Jimmy Carter alongside Foxes team-mate Mark Draper during a 2-1 home Premier League victory over Arsenal in which Lowe scored the winner.

“Brian had signed me, so this was disappointing,” David said. “But it was no surprise that Brian left. Villa was where he had made his name as a player. Soon afterwards, Mark McGhee and Colin Lee came in. A few weeks later, we went to Villa Park. I came on as a sub and scored twice in a 4-4 draw, when we came back from 4-1 down.”

Although we failed to prevent relegation, McGhee and Lee set about building an attractive side for an instant return to the Premier League. Mark Draper, Ian Ormondroyd, David Oldfield, Gavin Ward and Nicky Mohan left Filbert Street. Mark Robins and Garry Parker, who had been McGhee’s first signings, were joined by Scott Taylor, Steve Corica, Pontus Kåmark and Zeljko Kalac.

Commenting on McGhee’s emphasis on playing attractive football, David remembered: “Mark and Colin’s style was possession based. I enjoyed working with them both, as I had done with Brian and his staff.”

This style worked, but with City in second place in December 1995 and looking set for an instant return, McGhee became the second manager in 12 months to depart, in order to join Wolverhampton Wanderers. Shortly afterwards, Martin O’Neill became Leicester’s new Manager.

Thinking back to this time, David recalled: “I had played a lot of football under Brian and Mark and had been a regular starter in the side that season until Mark left, but I didn't play much football under Martin. As a consequence, I left Filbert Street soon afterwards to go back for a second spell at Wigan.

Heading back to Wigan.

“I left Leicester on deadline day in March 1996. Martin told me that he had accepted a bid for me from Wigan, but that it was up to me if I wanted to go. My contract was up at the end of the season and I was in my early 30s. There was no real contract offer for me at Leicester and Wigan were offering me a three-and-a-half-year contract, so I signed for them.

“I really enjoyed it back at Wigan. We won promotion (from the fourth tier) in 1997. I was the club’s top scorer and Player of the Season in 97/98. The following year, we were defeated by Manchester City in the (third tier) Play-Off Semi-Finals. While I was there, I managed to break the club’s all-time goalscoring record in all competitions, a record which still stands.

“In the summer of 1999, Wigan offered me the youth coach’s job, but I turned it down because I wanted to keep playing, so I went to Wrexham on a two-year deal, but in November I fell out of favour there and went on loan to Rushden and Diamonds, where we very nearly won promotion from the Conference.”

David then went on to coach for the PFA, and later at Wigan Athletic, Derby County, Tranmere Rovers and Blackburn Rovers.

David concluded: “I spent four years at Leicester and enjoyed it. More often than not, we were near the top end of the Championship, and I managed to play in the Premier League too, which was good. I also loved playing at Filbert Street. The atmosphere was always good because the crowd were quite close and on top of you.”

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