Marking The 50th Anniversary Of Leicester's Only Community Shield Win
On 7 August, 1971, Leicester won the traditional pre-season curtain raiser, the Charity Shield (renamed the Community Shield in 2002) when they beat Liverpool 1-0.
This was the first and only time that City have won this trophy. Indeed, it was quite a surprise that they were even competing for it, because since 1930 (with the exception of 1950 and 1961) the Charity Shield, which had been established in 1908, had always been contested by the previous season’s league champions and FA Cup winners. Leicester had won neither, yet still won the Shield.
This was because in the 1970/71 season, Arsenal had won the League and cup double. Due to a previously arranged pre-season tour, they could not take part in the Charity Shield, so Leicester were invited as the old Second Division champions to play FA Cup runners-up Liverpool instead.
The match was played at Filbert Street, as the competition did not move to its present venue at Wembley Stadium until 1974. Leicester were just about to start a new era under newly appointed manager Jimmy Bloomfield.
At this pre-season stage, Jon Sammels, from Arsenal, was the only significant addition to City’s title winning squad, as the arrival of Keith Weller and Alan Birchenall was still a few weeks away. The squad included such players as Peter Shilton, Steve Whitworth, David Nish, Bobby Kellard, John Sjoberg, Graham Cross, John Farrington, Alistair Brown, Rodney Fern, Jon Sammels, Len Glover and Malcolm Manley.
Liverpool were managed by the legendary Bill Shankly. In the previous 11 years, they had won the Second Division title, two First Division crowns, and the FA Cup. They had also achieved several near misses in both competitions, and had played in Europe for eight successive seasons.
The Reds team that contested the Charity Shield at Filbert Street included Ray Clemence, Chris Lawler, Alec Lindsay, Tommy Smith, Larry Lloyd, Emlyn Hughes, Ian Callaghan, Alun Evans, Steve Heighway, John Toshack and Brian Hall. These were all household names.
Interestingly, the Liverpool team photograph in the programme included a young, unsure looking, and largely unknown youngster who wasn’t involved that day. His name was Kevin Keegan, recently signed from Scunthorpe United.
On a sunny summer afternoon, in front of a crowd of over 25,000, Leicester won 1-0. The goalscorer was full-back Steve Whitworth, who went on to win seven England caps while at at the Club four years later. It was the only goal he ever scored in his 401 games for the Foxes.
Reports of the match singled out 'Sammels’ intelligent running off the ball, use of space, nimble footwork and brilliant distribution'. They also mentioned the intelligent running of the strikers Alistair Brown and Rodney Fern.
Shankly, however, criticised Leicester’s attacking strategy as typical of Second Division football. Be that as it may, Leicester repeated the dose with a 1-0 league victory over Liverpool at Filbert Street later that season.
City were only the second club in the trophy’s history to win the Charity Shield without ever winning the league or the FA Cup (the other was Brighton in 1910). This win, 50 years ago to the day before this year’s fixture against Man City, was a good omen as it ushered in seven years of top-flight football.