1977-78, Frank McLintock's Year.
It was in 1977 that I returned to watch Leicester City again at the age of 14. In the early 1970’s I was taken to most of the home games with a friend of my dad. We watched the games from the far end of the double decker, above where the away fans used to stand.
It was November 12th 1977 and city were playing Ipswich Town. This was the season of Frank McLintock, one which started badly and ended up with relegation to division 2, the departure of Frank McLintock and the arrival of Jock Wallace from Rangers.
City went into this game with just 1 win and 4 draws from their first 14 games. They were at the bottom of the league with 6 points, a total that they shared with Newcastle United. Just 4 goals had been scored in the league since an opening day creditable away 0-0 draw at Maine Road against Manchester City. The 4 goals had been scored by Steve Kember, Jon Sammels, Steve Sims and Frank Worthington. The league table looks even worse when you notice that Nottingham Forest were top of the table and on the way to their league championship win at their first attempt back in the first division under Brian Clough.
The team listed on the programme read,
1. Mark Wallington
2. Steve Whitworth
3. Dennis Rofe
4. Steve Kember
5 Jeff Blockley
6 David Webb
7 Keith Weller
8 Jon Sammels
9 Geoff Salmons
10 Alan Waddle
11 Tommy Williams.
The game against Ipswich Town was won that day 2-1 in front of a crowd of 13,779. In the 20p programme that day, in the supporters club section is details of the coach trip to Birmingham City which cost £1.20 There is also of a reserve winger called Steve Bicknell who has a remarkable resemblance to David Connolly from today’s team.
Shortly after this game , City went into the transfer market with signings such as Billy Hughes from Derby County and Roger Davies who was bought from FC Bruges on December 5th 1977. By the time we played West Brom on April 1st 1978, we were still in the bottom 2, had scored just 19 goals in 36 games with our top goalscorer at that time being Tommy Williams with just 3 goals. We were averaging 18,728 at that point with the highest attendance to date being the 26,051 who witnessed a 4-0 home defeat to Liverpool on November 26th 1977.
In the League Cup that season, we went out in the 2nd round 2-0 at Portsmouth. While in the FA Cup, we won 1-0 at Hull City away in the 3rd round, before being beaten 1-0 at Walsall in the 4th Round.
It was not the greatest of seasons, probably one of our worst in Division 1 in modern history, but I was back watching city, standing in what became the family enclosure and I always hoped for better times.