1962–63 Leicester City F.C. season

The 1962–63 season was Leicester City's 58th season in the Football League and their 20th (non-consecutive) season in the first tier of English football. Under the management of Matt Gillies and starring players Gordon Banks, Frank McLintock and Dave Gibson, Leicester sensationally chased the double. After losing 3–1 to Manchester United in the FA Cup Final and gaining just one win from their final nine league games their double challenge collapsed and the Foxes eventually finished in a disappointing fourth position in the league.[1][2]

Leicester City
1962–63 season
Chairman W.S.G. Needham
Manager Matt Gillies
First Division4th
FA CupRunners-up
League Cup2nd Round
Top goalscorerLeague:
Ken Keyworth (21)
All:
Ken Keyworth (27)
Average home league attendance25,841

Overview

The horrendous winter of 1962–63 was the coldest winter of the 20th century in England and Wales[3] and saw a plethora of games being called off: there was no First Division match played in England during January 1963 and Leicester did not play a game between Boxing Day 1962 and 9 February 1963.

As games began to start being played again after the lengthy hiatus, Leicester, on the icy pitches, began to gain huge momentum and went on a lengthy winning and unbeaten run which saw them top the table with nine (and later five) games to go and reach the 1963 FA Cup Final.[4] However, as injuries took hold and the ice began to melt Leicester's momentum faded and they ended up winning just one of their final nine league games and losing the FA Cup final to Manchester United despite being hot favourites, after a dour performance. Though they were chasing the double during the icy period, as the season came to a close the Foxes ended in a disappointing fourth position and as FA Cup runners-up.[3]

Between 10 November 1962 and 8 April 1963, Leicester went on a run of 18 matches unbeaten, earning themselves the nickname "the ice kings" and creating a club record which stood for 46 years, until it was beaten in the 2008–09 season, though Leicester were in a division two tiers lower than that of the 1962-63 side. Their run of seven consecutive league wins between 9 February 1963 and 9 March 1963 was a club record which stood until the 8 December 2019 when Brendan Rogers' side won their eight consecutive Premier League game.[5]

Players

Leicester's creative attack was built around the skillful playmaker Dave Gibson[3] who forged a deadly partnership on the left of Leicester's attack with Mike Stringfellow. Ken Keyworth was the club's centre forward and prolific goalscorer upfront, while Howard Riley provided balance on the right-wing. Much of the flexibility in the side came from the athleticism of Frank McLintock and Graham Cross, who regularly changed positions during games which Gillies said "utterly confused [the] opposition" as opposition players would often be asked to mark "our [Leicester's] number eight, so they thought Cross was their man, when McLintock had replaced him" as "players hadn't got beyond thinking about numbers then."

In defence, Leicester forged a fearsome half-back line of McLintock, Ian King and club captain Colin Appleton with John Sjoberg and Richie Norman as full-backs and legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks in goal.

Influence on English football

The Ice Kings were managed by Matt Gillies and his assistant Bert Johnson and were hugely influential in English football for their fluid "switch" and "whirl" systems and playing sequences of short probing passes to unlock defences and establishing the concept of positional flexibility and for their switching of positions, particularly of inside right and right-half Graham Cross and Frank McLintock, upsetting the tradition 1-11 formations in England and confusing opposition players, who were used to thinking in terms of rigid formations in the English game. Johnson had brought back this system from watching the great Hungary and Austria sides of the 1950s and he and Gillies developed their own version of the systems with Leicester.[3]

Gillies later said it "confused opposition" as opposition players would often be asked to mark "our [Leicester's] number eight, so they thought Cross was their man, when McLintock had replaced him" as "players hadn't got beyond thinking about numbers then."[6]

Results

Football League First Division
  • Leicester City scores given first
Game Date Venue Opponents Score Scorers Points Position
1 18 August 1962 Away Fulham 1–2 Stringfellow 0 15th
2 22 August 1962 Home Sheffield Wednesday 3–3 Walsh, Stringfellow, Riley 1 13th
3 25 August 1962 Home Nottingham Forest 2–1 Stringfellow (2) 3 10th
4 29 August 1962 Away Sheffield Wednesday 3–0 Stringfellow (2), Walsh 5 6th
5 1 September 1962 Home Bolton Wanderers 4–1 Walsh (2), Cross, Gibson 7 4th
6 4 September 1962 Away Burnley 1–1 Gibson 8 5th
7 8 September 1962 Away Everton 2–3 Walsh, Riley 8 6th
8 15 September 1962 Home West Bromwich Albion 1–0 Cross 10 6th
9 19 September 1962 Home Burnley 3–3 Keyworth, McLintock, Riley 11 5th
10 22 September 1962 Away Arsenal 1–1 Keyworth 12 6th
11 29 September 1962 Home Birmingham City 3–0 Keyworth, Cheesebrough, O.G. 14 5th
12 6 October 1962 Away Ipswich Town 1–0 McLintock 16 5th
13 13 October 1962 Home Liverpool 3–0 Gibson, Cheesebrough, Cross 18 5th
14 20 October 1962 Away Blackburn Rovers 0–2 18 5th
15 27 October 1962 Home Sheffield United 2–0 Keyworth 2, Cross 20 4th
16 3 November 1962 Away Tottenham Hotspur 0–4 20 4th
17 10 November 1962 Home West Ham United 2–0 Stringfellow, McLintock 22 4th
18 17 November 1962 Away Manchester City 1–1 Keyworth 23 4th
19 24 November 1962 Home Blackpool 0–0 24 4th
20 1 December 1962 Away Wolverhampton Wanderers 3–1 Gibson (2), O.G. 26 4th
21 8 December 1962 Home Aston Villa 3–3 Gibson (2), Stringfellow 27 4th
22 15 December 1962 Home Fulham 2–3 Walsh, Stringfellow 27 4th
23 26 December 1962 Home Leyton Orient 5–1 Keyworth, Cheesebrough, Appleton, O.G. 29 3rd
24 9 February 1963 Home Arsenal 2–0 Keyworth (2) 31 3rd
25 12 February 1963 Home Everton 3–1 Keyworth, Stringfellow, Graham Cross 33 3rd
26 19 February 1963 Away Nottingham Forest 2–0 Keyworth (2) 35 2nd
27 23 February 1963 Home Ipswich Town 3–0 Stringfellow, Gibson, Riley 37 2nd
28 2 March 1963 Away Liverpool 2–0 Keyworth, Gibson 39 2nd
29 9 March 1963 Home Blackburn Rovers 2–0 Riley, Stringfellow 41 2nd
30 23 March 1963 Home Tottenham Hotspur 2–2 Stringfellow, Keyworth 42 2nd
31 26 March 1963 Away Sheffield United 0–0 43 2nd
32 3 April 1963 Away Leyton Orient 2–0 Stringfellow (2) 45 2nd
33 6 April 1963 Home Manchester City 2–0 Stringfellow (2) 47 2nd
34 8 April 1963 Away Blackpool 1–1 Keyworth 48 1st
35 13 April 1963 Away West Ham United 0–2 48 2nd
36 15 April 1963 Away Manchester United 2–2 Cross, Norman 49 2nd
37 16 April 1963 Home Manchester United 4–3 Heath, Keyworth (3) 51 1st
38 20 April 1963 Home Wolverhampton Wanderers 1–1 Keyworth 52 2nd
39 4 May 1963 Away West Bromwich Albion 1–2 Cross 52 3rd
40 11 May 1963 Away Bolton Wanderers 0–2 52 3rd
41 15 May 1963 Away Aston Villa 1–3 Keyworth 52 4th
42 18 May 1963 Away Birmingham City 2–3 Heath, McLintock 52 4th

FA Cup
  • Leicester City scores given first
Round Date Venue Opponents Score Scorers
3 8 January 1963 Away Grimsby Town 3–1 Gibson (2), Keyworth
4 30 January 1963 Home Ipswich Town 3–1 Cross, Keyworth (2)
5 16 March 1963 Away Leyton Orient 1–0 Keyworth (2)
6 30 March 1963 Away Norwich City 2–0 Stringfellow, Gibson
SF 27 April 1963 Neutral Liverpool 1–0 Stringfellow
Final 25 May 1963 Neutral Manchester United 1–3 Keyworth

Football League Cup
  • Leicester City scores given first
Round Date Venue Opponents Score Scorers
2 26 September 1962 Home Charlton Athletic 4–4 Gibson, Walsh(2), Riley
2rep. 2 October 1962 Away Charlton Athletic 1–2 Keyworth

First Division statistics

First Division table
Pos Club Pld W D L F A GA Pts
1Everton 422511684422.0061
2Tottenham Hotspur 4223910111621.7955
3Burnley 4222101078571.3754
4Leicester City 4220121079531.4952
5Wolverhampton Wanderers 4220101293651.4350
6Sheffield Wednesday 4219101377631.2248

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GA = Goal average; Pts = Points

Club statistics

All data from: Dave Smith and Paul Taylor, Of Fossils and Foxes: The Official Definitive History of Leicester City Football Club (2001) (ISBN 1-899538-21-6)

Appearances
Pos. Nat. Name Div 1 FAC LC Total
GK Gordon Banks 38 6 2 46
GK George Heyes 4 0 0 4
DF Len Chalmers 23 0 2 25
DF Richie Norman 42 6 2 50
DF Frank McLintock 42 6 2 50
DF Ian King 39 6 2 47
DF Colin Appleton 40 6 2 48
DF Graham Cross 29 6 2 37
DF John Sjoberg 20 6 0 26
MF Howard Riley 32 6 2 40
MF Dave Gibson 36 6 2 44
MF Bill McDerment 2 0 0 2
MF Terry Heath 5 0 0 5
FW Mike Stringfellow 29 6 0 35
FW Jimmy Walsh 26 0 1 27
FW Ken Keyworth 32 6 1 39
FW Albert Cheesebrough 23 0 2 25

Starting XI

The following players have been named in the most starting line-ups. This line-up may differ from the list of players with most appearances.

Top goalscorers
Pos. Nat. Name Div 1 FAC LC Total
1 Ken Keyworth 21 5 1 27
2 Mike Stringfellow 17 2 0 19
3 Dave Gibson 9 3 1 13
4 Graham Cross 7 0 1 8
= Jimmy Walsh 6 0 2 8
6 Howard Riley 5 0 1 6
7 Frank McLintock 4 0 0 4
8 Albert Cheesebrough 3 0 0 3
9 Terry Heath 2 0 0 2
10 Richie Norman 1 0 0 1
= Colin Appleton 1 0 0 1
Own Goals 3 0 0 3
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References
  1. The Greatest Ever Leicester City Side
  2. Lymn, Chris. We Love You Leicester! : a popular history of Leicester City. Leicester: CRL. ISBN 0-9534409-0-7.
  3. Bagchi, Rob (6 October 2011). "The forgotten story of … Leicester City: Ice Kings". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  4. Dave Smith & Paul Taylor (2010). Of Fossils and Foxes. ISBN 1-905411-94-4.
  5. Bysouth, Alex (8 December 2019). "Aston Villa 1–Leicester City 4". London: BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  6. Leicester City: The Official History DVD (2004)
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