Links With The Past: The Newly-Named Leicester City’s First Away Programme

It was the first league match at the north London club’s home ground since 1915 as the Football League had been suspended for four years due to the First World War. The War Office had used the ground as a munitions factory.  

The programme is highly significant because it is the first-ever away programme featuring the Club playing under its new name of Leicester City. Four weeks earlier, the old Leicester Fosse Football Club had been replaced by its reconstructed successor, Leicester City Football Club.

The programme is a four-sided folded single sheet costing one penny. The cartoon on the cover shows two boys from Leicester approaching a market stall manned by a cockerel selling fruit from a box labelled ‘Points’. One boy, whose bag carries the old name of Leicester Fosse, is saying: ‘Wait till ‘e ain’t looking and p’raps we can pinch a couple.’

A feature inside the programme provides a synopsis of Fosse’s 30-year Football League history, stating ‘we can’t think of the Fosse as Leicester City’.

Tottenham’s only other encounter against Fosse is also recalled. This was a 5-5 draw in 1914 in a first round FA Cup tie followed by a Spurs victory in the replay at Filbert Street. Leicester’s full-back on that day was Tommy Clay, who two days later was transferred to Tottenham.

The players for both teams are listed in the programme. The north Londoners’ side included Tommy Clay, while the City side contained five pre-war Fosse players.

These were goalkeeper Herbert Bown (mis-spelt Brown in the programme), left full-back Sam Currie, who was a Players’ Union activist, outside-right George Douglas, who had scored the first goal for the new City club two days earlier, Teddy King, the long serving wing-half, and Jim Harrold, a very tall centre-half who played first-class cricket for Essex.

The programme also advertises season tickets, which were priced between £2.10 and £3.50. The first team and reserve team fixtures are listed together with a key to the pitchside boards giving the half-time scores in other matches.

For the record, Leicester City lost 4-0 and Tommy Clay scored a penalty against his old team-mates.