Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

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Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

Club Historian John Hutchinson revisits the 1928/29 season, when Leicester City finished runners-up in the old First Division, one point behind The Wednesday (now Shefield Wednesday).

2026-06-08T13:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

7 Hours 20 Mins Ago

Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

Club Historian John Hutchinson revisits the 1928/29 season, when Leicester City finished runners-up in the old First Division, one point behind The Wednesday (now Shefield Wednesday).

John Hutchinson

2026-06-08T13:00+01:00

Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

Club Historian John Hutchinson revisits the 1928/29 season, when Leicester City finished runners-up in the old First Division, one point behind The Wednesday (now Shefield Wednesday).

John Hutchinson

2026-06-08T13:00+01:00

Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

Club Historian John Hutchinson revisits the 1928/29 season, when Leicester City finished runners-up in the old First Division, one point behind The Wednesday (now Shefield Wednesday).

John Hutchinson

2026-06-08T13:00+01:00

Remembering The Old First Division Title Bid Of 1929

Club Historian John Hutchinson revisits the 1928/29 season, when Leicester City finished runners-up in the old First Division, one point behind The Wednesday (now Shefield Wednesday).

John Hutchinson

2026-06-08T13:00+01:00

Until we lifted the Premier League title 10 years ago, the closest that we’d come to winning the top-flight trophy was 87 years earlier. That season, we were runners-up in the old First Division, failing by one point to become champions of England.

The 1928/29 football season was the 10th season after Leicester Fosse had been reborn as Leicester City. Four years earlier, in 1924/25, the recently renamed club had won the old Second Division title for the first time. Adapting to its new status and anticipating larger crowds, the Filbert Street ground was developed to hold 42,000 fans. The Main Stand, which had been built in 1921, was extended and a new Double Decker Stand was erected in 1927 on the south side of the venue.

In the first three seasons in the top-flight, we finished 17th, seventh and third. The side already contained the likes of the Scotland international Johnny Duncan, prolific goalscorer Arthur Chandler, speedy winger and future England international Hugh Adcock, classy full-back Adam Black and the ever-dependable centre-half George Carr. It was further strengthened by new signings. These were future Manager, the inside-forward Arthur Lochhead, goalkeepers Kenny Campbell and Jim McLaren, and future England internationals Sid Bishop, Ernie Hine and Len Barry.

This meant, that by 1927/28 and 1928/29, when we made two serious attempts at becoming champions, the Manager Willie Orr, building on the foundations laid by his predecessor Peter Hodge, had assembled the most formidable side in the Club’s history. Fans flocked to see the team. In February 1928, a record Filbert Street crowd of 47,298, with another 5,000 locked outside, watched our FA Cup Fifth Round tie defeat against Spurs.

The historic 1928/29 season did not start too auspiciously for Leicester. Winning only two of our first 10 games, we had slipped to 14th in the table by the end of September.

Then two events improved matters.

Firstly, George Ritchie, a classy and cultured left-half was signed from Falkirk to replace the departed England international Sid Bishop. Ritchie had impressed Willie Orr five months earlier when he played in a Scottish League XI against City in a benefit match for Leicestershire County Cricket Club at Filbert Street.

Secondly, on 20 October, 1928, we defeated Portsmouth 10-0, a Club record victory which still stands. This was the famous ‘Six Swans’ match. Arthur Chandler scored a double hat-trick. Five swans flew over the ground after he had scored his fifth goal. Then, a sixth swan straggled behind, a little later. The crowd called for a sixth goal, which Arthur duly scored. Ernie Hine, who won his first England cap two days later, netted a hat-trick and Len Barry, Leicester’s England international winger, scored once.

After this result, Leicester began to climb the table, to the extent that, on 9 March, after a 3-2 victory at Filbert Street over Manchester City (managed by old Manager Peter Hodge), Willie Orr’s side rose to third in the table, and after 6 April they were second. Four days later, we surprisingly lost 1-0 at Portsmouth, who were fighting relegation.

With two to go, we were still in second place on 48 points. In those days, a win was worth two points not three. The Wednesday, renamed Sheffield Wednesday the following season, also had two games to play and were on 51 points, with a slightly better goal average.

We drew our penultimate game at Huddersfield 1-1 after conceding an 81st-minute goal following a rare mistake by goalkeeper Jim Mclaren. On the same day, which incidentally was FA Cup Final day, The Wednesday also drew 1-1, after scoring an 85th minute equaliser against Burnley. These late goals in both matches ended our chance of catching The Wednesday, who became champions of England.

The following Saturday, we ended our season with a 6-1 victory at Filbert Street over Bolton Wanderers, who had lifted the FA Cup seven days before. Arthur Chandler missed the game through injury, and the reserve centre-forward Harry Lovatt hit a hat-trick. Rather surprisingly perhaps, on the eve of the game, the whole Leicester City side attended a Cricket Dinner at De Montfort Hall to welcome the touring South African cricket team. Meanwhile, The Wednesday lost their last game. This meant that Leicester finished the season as runners-up with 51 points, one point behind their Hillsborough rivals.

Despite this impressive total of points, our away record was rather disappointing, as we only won five out of the 21 games away from Filbert Street, scoring only 32 goals, conceding 41. However, our home record was very impressive. A record of being undefeated all season in the league was described at the time as outstanding. Equally impressive was scoring 64 league goals at Filbert Street, conceding only 28.

Reviewing the season, the local press was impressed with the players’ performances. Ernie Hine and Arthur Chandler, who scored 66 goals between them, were praised for their goalscoring prowess. Arthur Lochhead was described as the ‘brainiest forward playing in England today’. Wingers Hugh Adcock and Len Barry were complimented on being selected for England’s tour of France, Spain and Belgium once the league season was over. The team’s half-back line, including George Ritchie, was complimented for being ‘the motive of the attack’, with skipper John Duncan eliciting sympathy for ‘not having won a league championship medal, as a reward for his great work during the season’. Full-backs Adam Black, ‘a stylist and a master of his work’, and Jack Brown, ‘a capital partner for Black’, were also praised as were centre-back George Carr and goalkeeper Jim McLaren.

Despite these accolades, the players were not very well rewarded for their achievement of finishing second in the league. The handwritten Directors’ minutes in the Club’s archives record that the Board’s request to the Football League for permission to give the players a gift to the value of £10 was refused!

The Club archives contain many items from that momentous season. The story of the season is recorded in a meticulously kept notebook written by an unknown hand in 1929, which contains detailed handwritten notes about each game. Other items include a menu from the South African cricket dinner signed by Adam Black, the 1929 Directors’ minutes book, the match ball from the 10-0 victory over Portsmouth, Arthur Chandler’s 1928/29 contract, one of Ernie Hines’s England caps, Hugh Adcock’s passport for his England tour and some rare matchday programmes from the season, including the one for the final match of the season against Bolton Wanderers.

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