Robert Exley
The first visit of Leicester – then known as Leicester Fosse - came in March 1895. Arsenal, then of course known as Woolwich Arsenal, were at the time playing their home fixtures at the Manor Ground in Plumstead. In late January of that year however, crowd incidents at the Manor Ground in a game against Burton Wanderers (told in greater detail here by the Arsenal history blog) led to Arsenal being the first side in England to have their ground closed.
Arsenal played two fixtures away from Woolwich, the first against Burton Swifts was played at the home of New Brompton in Gillingham. The second game during the ban was against Leicester Fosse, which took place at the Lyttleton Cricket Ground in Leyton – formerly the headquarters of Essex County Cricket club until 1934. The ground is still there and is situated off of Leyton High Road and a few hundred yards away from Leyton Orient’s current home at Brisbane Road. The game ended in a 3-3 draw.
Arsenal’s first win over the Fosse came in April 1897 at Plumstead, the Gunners running out 2-1 winners. Leicester’s first away win over Arsenal came in October 1897, when the Foxes inflicted a 0-3 defeat on the Gunners at Plumstead. Among the notable early visits of Leicester to Arsenal were an 8-0 win for the Gunners at Plumstead in October 1903, which included a hat-trick for an Irishman called Thomas Shanks. The first top flight meetings between the two sides took place over the Christmas period of 1908. On Christmas Day that year, the two sides met at Filbert Street and played out a 1-1 draw. Twenty four hours on, the Boxing Day meet between the two sides back at Plumstead ended with a 2-1 win for Arsenal. One of the earliest pieces of footage from a Leicester match was away game at Sunderland in January 1907.
Leicester Fosse’s first visit to Arsenal on the opening day of the season on 6th September 1913 would be the very first competitive game played at Highbury. Leicester’s Thomas Benfield scored the very first goal at the ground, Arsenal however ran out 2-1 winners with George Jobey scoring Arsenal’s first Highbury goal and Archibald Devine grabbing the winner from the penalty spot with twelve minutes left. Leicester’s second visit to Highbury came on Boxing Day 1914 with a thumping 6-0 win for Arsenal. A few months later, an FA Cup third round tie between Arsenal and Leicester was captured by the newsreel. Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners.
During the 1930s, there were seventeen meetings between Arsenal and Leicester which brought seventy eight goals in total (an average of four goals a game). Examples of such high scoring games include Arsenal’s 8-2 win over Leicester at Highbury in October 1932, with a hat-trick for Joe Hulme, two goals each for Cliff Bastin and Ernest Coleman and one for David Jack. Arsenal banged in eight goals again a week before Christmas 1934 with a hat-trick apiece for Ted Drake and Joe Hulme, as well as two for Cliff Bastin in an 8-0 win for the Gunners. In 1938/39, the last season before the Second World War, Leicester finished rock bottom of the top tier.
The newsreel caught Leicester’s trip to Derby in mid-April that season, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The result left the Foxes one point above the drop zone, but with both sides below – Chelsea and Birmingham - with games in hand that they managed to pick up points from. Both remained unbeaten for the last four games of the season and a defeat at Grimsby the following week relegated Leicester to the Second tier. When Football resumed seven years later, Leicester’s visit to Newcastle in the FA Cup would be featured in the same Pathe News bulletin as NHS founder Nye Bevan presenting a Sportsman of the Year trophy to British Heavyweight Champion Bruce Woodcock.
The Foxes remained in the second tier until winning the second tier title in 1953/54. Leicester however dropped back down again the following season, the Foxes not enjoying a sustained period in the top tier again until winning the second tier title again in 1957 under the management of former Arsenal player David Halliday and spending most of the 1960s in the old First Division. In August 1958, Arsenal achieved a 5-1 win over Leicester at Highbury, with goals from Danny Clapton, Dennis Evans, Gordon Nutt and two for Cliff Holton. In November 1960, ITN cameras caught footage of an Arsenal Reserve game against Leicester City Reserves. The relevance of the game had been that it was the first time that contract rebel George Eastham turned out in an Arsenal shirt since signing for the Gunners from Newcastle.
Around a month later, Leicester would achieve their first ever win at Highbury and their first away win over the Gunners during the twentieth century. Goals from Colin Appleton and two for Ken Keyworth inflicted a 1-3 defeat on the Gunners, with Jackie Henderson on target for Arsenal. 1961 would of course be a year of significance for Leicester as, on top of reaching as high as sixth in the first tier, they reached the FA Cup Final beating Barnsley 2-1 in a Quarter Final Replay and Sheffield United in the second replay of the Semi Final at St Andrews, though losing to Spurs in the Final.
In late August 1961, Arsenal and Leicester would play out a 4-4 draw at Highbury. On target for the Gunners would be Mel Charles, George Eastham, Johnny McLeod and Alan Skirton, while Leicester’s goals came from Jimmy Walsh, Ken Keyworth and the excellently named Albert Cheesebrough. Leicester’s next visit to Highbury in September 1962 would be caught for posterity by the ITN cameras. The two sides played out a 1-1 draw with Joe Baker on target for Arsenal, Ken Keyworth again scoring for Leicester. Later that season, Leicester would reach Wembley again after beating Bill Shankly’s Liverpool 1-0 in the Semi Final at Hillsborough, however lose the final to Man United at Wembley.
In 1963/64, Leicester would achieve a double over Arsenal. At the end of August at Filbert Street, the Foxes would inflict a 2-7 defeat on the Gunners, of which Frank McLintock would be among the scorers. Back at Highbury a week before Christmas, another Frank McLintock goal against his future club Arsenal would be the difference as Leicester inflicted a 0-1 defeat on the Gunners. Incredibly, before McLintock signed for Arsenal in October 1964, he would line up for Leicester one more time against the Gunners at Filbert Street just a few weeks earlier, scoring both of the Foxes goals in a 3-2 win for Arsenal. Frank’s first side against his old side came at Highbury in January 1965.
The Gunners achieved a 4-3 win over Leicester, with goals from George Armstrong, George Eastham and two for Joe Baker. As well as Frank McLintock, Leicester of course provided England’s world cup winning goalkeeper in Gordon Banks. A little known fact about Banks is that his father ran a betting shop in the Yorkshire village of Catcliffe at the time when it was illegal and his disabled brother was once mugged for the shop’s daily takings and sadly died a few weeks later as a result of his injuries. Banksie started his League career at Chesterfield, which developed a reputation for producing great goalkeepers such as Bob Wilson, Steve Ogrizovic and John Lukic. Gordon Banks’s first game back at Highbury as a World Cup winner was a six goal thriller at the start of October in 1966.
Leicester inflicted a 2-4 defeat on Arsenal with George Graham scoring for Arsenal on his debut after joining from Chelsea. This however turned out to be Banks’s final visit to Highbury with Leicester, as Gordon was transferred to Stoke the following season. It seems baffling in hindsight that Leicester allowed the best goalkeeper in the world at the time to leave at the age of just twenty nine, with Leicester manager Matt Gilles telling Gordon: ‘we think your best days are behind you, and you should move on’. The background to the story however is that Banks had only been on £60 a week at the time of his transfer - which equates to around just under £1000.00 in today’s money - which may have been over three times what the average worker earned, but was a base rate figure at bigger clubs.
Luckily the Foxes had eighteen year old Peter Shilton waiting in the wings. In the close season of 1967 Leicester played a pre-season friendly against German’s Eintract Frankfurt, covered here by the newsreel with shots of a young Shilts in training. Shilts actually scored a goal for Leicester against his future club Southampton in a 5-1 win at the Dell in October 1967. It wasn’t all plain sailing for Shilton however, and on Boxing Day 1967 conceded an own goal by punching the ball into his own net in a 2-4 defeat at home to West Ham.
One of the highlights of the 1967/68 season had been a 2-2 draw with Leeds United at Filbert Street. Shilton’s first trip to Highbury came in April 1968, with Arsenal taking both points with a 2-1 win secured by goals from Bobby Gould and George Graham, while David Nish would be on target for Leicester. The latter went on to become the youngest captain of an FA Cup final side at the age of twenty three (although Tony Adams would be younger when he led Arsenal in the 1988 League Cup Final, but still not the youngest ever Wembley captain. That honour belongs to a twenty year old Barry Venison who captained Sunderland in the 1985 League Cup Final).
Leicester however lost the 1969 FA Cup Final, a defeat compounded by relegation to the Second tier. Leicester’s last visit to Highbury before the drop came in August 1968, when Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners with goals from David Court and two for Bobby Gould. Leicester finished their first season in the second tier in third place, just two points off of a promotion place. In 1970/71 the Foxes were in contention for promotion again. Despite being in the second tier, their young goalkeeper Peter Shilton would be called up to make his debut at Wembley in a 3-1 win over East Germany (the first of a record 125 caps). Also, this footage here captured a visit to Leicester’s training ground by midlands ITV regional Company ATV in February 1971.
A month later, the Foxes would be drawn against Arsenal in the FA Cup Quarter Final away at Filbert Street – a tricky tie considering that Leicester were in the running for promotion, just one point off of the top of the old Second Division. The tie ended in a 0-0 draw, meanwhile back at Highbury in the replay nine days later (just forty eight hours on from beating Crystal Palace in the League at Selhurst Park) a Charlie George header just before half time gave Arsenal a 1-0 win to secure a Semi Final tie with Stoke City.
Leicester however finished the season as Second tier champions, three points clear of Sheffield United in second place. As will be seen tomorrow, Leicester would spend most of the seventies in the top tier of English football, with quality players such as Frank Worthington, Keith Weller and Alan Birchenall.
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