{"id":691,"date":"2016-05-12T13:39:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T13:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=691"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","slug":"prophesying-leicester-citys-success-in-1895","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2016\/05\/12\/prophesying-leicester-citys-success-in-1895\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophesying Leicester City’s success in 1895?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>In a previous blog post, I talked about the early days of Leicester Fosse Football Club. The Fosse, or \u2018The Fossils\u2019 as they were known to their supporters, eventually became Leicester City in 1920.\u00a0 Some intriguing details of their early history can be found in The Wyvern<\/em>, a Leicester-based Victorian periodical, for which the Special Collections holds issues from 30 October 1891 until 8 October 1897.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had left Fosse at the end of the 1893\/4 season, when they finished 2nd<\/sup> in the Midland League and were elected to Division 2 of the Football League.\u00a0 Fosse maintained their good form the following season.\u00a0 Their second home game was against Burton Wanderers, a team known for their good footballing skills, as well as for \u2018roughing it\u20199<\/sup>:<\/p>\n

\u2018A capital crowd of enthusiastic admirers of the \u201csocker\u201d game assembled at Walnut-street last Saturday, and it goes to prove what splendid accommodation the Fosse Ground has when I say that, although quite 9,000 persons were present, there was comfortable room for three or four thousand more to see with ease. The grand stand, viewed from the far side, had a most animated appearance, and the new seats inside the ropes are a great improvement, and every seat was taken.\u20199\"SCD01214_14Sept1894_opp_p328amended\"<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Burton won 1 \u2013 2, a victory which The Wyvern\u2019s<\/em> not entirely unbiased reporter put down to their defenders \u2018literally mowing the Fosse men down if they got near them\u20191<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"SCD01214_21Sept1894_opp_p347amended\"<\/a>The match against Woolwich Arsenal on 9 March 1895 was another landmark in Fosse\u2019s history, \u2018their \u201cfirst bow\u201d to a London audience. Ironically, it had to be played at Leyton, because Arsenal\u2019s home ground was closed for 5 weeks, as punishment for crowd trouble at a bad-tempered match with Burton Wanderers.\u00a0 The Fosse game ended in a 3 \u2013 3 draw, but again it was a fractious affair:<\/p>\n

\u2018A very unpleasant incident, some ten minutes before time, occurred, resulting in Gordon having to be assisted off the field. Boyle, the Arsenal centre half, deliberately kicking the Fosse centre on the calf of the leg, a dastardly piece of brutality which deserved severer punishment than Mr Adams meted out.\u20192<\/sup><\/p>\n

In spite of these trials, Fosse finished the season in 4th<\/sup> place, above both Burton in 7th<\/sup> and Arsenal in 8th<\/sup>.\"SCD01217_6Nov1896_opp_p40amended\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few things stand out for me from this brief account of the early days of Leicester Fosse. First, if proof were needed, on-the-pitch controversy and bad behaviour and crowd trouble are nothing new (according to The Wyvern<\/em>, none of it caused by Fosse\u2019s players or supporters, of course).\u00a0 Second, how important an enthusiastic and dedicated supporter-base is to success \u2013 and this has been something that Leicester has been fortunate enough to have over many years.\u00a0 As far back as November 1892, The Wyvern\u2019s<\/em> correspondent, \u2018In-Touch\u2019 wrote:<\/p>\n

\u2018Last Saturday\u2019s experience furnished indisputable evidence of one fact \u2026 that in Leicester we are now sufficiently infatuated with the winter pastime to be able to support two clubs. It cannot be denied that the Fossils have increased in importance at a most gratifying rate \u2026 and certain it is that the Tigers cannot look on with their old nonchalant air \u2026 but \u2026 the public appetite \u2026 has grown to such proportions that plenty of support for both teams is sure to be forthcoming.\u20193\"SCD01217_8Oct1897_opp_p392amended\"<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

What better way to end than with the eerily prophetic words of \u2018Custodian\u2019, a later correspondent, writing before the beginning of the 1895\/6 season, who deserves to be quoted in full:<\/p>\n

\u2018Once more we\u2019re on the eve of another football season and who will venture to assert what further bounds the Association code will make in Leicester. He would be a bold prophet who tried to do so \u2026 Harking back to something like 6 years ago it is really surprising to note what enormous strides the \u201csocker\u201d game has made in our town.\u00a0 Time was when it was utterly ignored and was actually sneered at by some folks.\u00a0 In fact, people would hardly venture five yards to witness a game, and it doesn\u2019t seem so very long ago since the Fosse club was in its infancy, yet it is now almost in the front rank of English football \u2026 And don\u2019t you forget that the club mean to advance still further, and will not be satisfied until the First Division is reached and a prominent position occupied thereon (let us hope the top).\u20194<\/sup><\/p>\n

And, of course, one more point stands out from all this, exemplified by \u2018Custodian\u2019s\u2019 words. At the beginning of a new season, for the fans anything at all is possible.\u00a0 More often than not (and I\u2019m speaking here as a supporter, not of Leicester City, but of QPR \u2013 time to own up) dreams are crushed after only the first couple of matches.\u00a0 But, very occasionally, they are realised.<\/p>\n

1<\/sup>The Wyvern<\/em>, (Leicester, 21 September 1894), p. 346<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>The Wyvern<\/em>, (Leicester, 15 March 1895), p. 331<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>The Wyvern<\/em>, (Leicester, 11 November 1892), p. 42, SCD 01213<\/p>\n

4<\/sup>The Wyvern<\/em>, (Leicester, 16 August 1895), p. 262, SCD 01215<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0In a previous blog post, I talked about the early days of Leicester Fosse Football Club. The Fosse, or \u2018The Fossils\u2019 as they were known to their supporters, eventually became Leicester City in 1920.\u00a0 Some intriguing details of their early history can be found in The Wyvern, a Leicester-based Victorian periodical, for which the Special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}