Before each round of the FA Cup I've been writing a piece about the history of that fixture. So far we've had Millwall in Round Three and Birmingham City in Round Four. But now with Bournemouth it's a bit different. We've never played them in the FA Cup before. So I'm going to tell a different kind of FA Cup tale - though this one's a bit of a horror story.
Let's start with a quiz question.
Which team has scored the most goals in the FA Cup?
Not just this season, but across the whole 153 year history of the competition?
The answer is a bit of s surprise.
It's Kettering Town.
A bizarre stat, but when you consider the age of the club, and the round at which they traditionally enter, maybe it's not really that surprising. They've had the chance to wallop the minnows in the qualifying rounds since they first entered back in 1890, and unlike other senior non-League sides, they've never made it into the Football League (a step which takes away that opportunity for walloping).
Their goals total now stands at 912, one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. And while that may give us yet another chance to snigger at Spurs' perennial also-ran status, we can't really crow - not when you look at our FA Cup record against Kettering. It's pretty shocking. In fact, it is probably the worst record of any League club against a non-League side in the history of the competition.
The squeamish may want to look away now. Here are the sordid details:
December 14th 1895 . FA Cup Qualifying Round. Leicester Fosse v Kettering Town.
This was our second season as a Football League club, but we were still required to go through the qualifying rounds of the 'English Cup', as it was then called. We had beaten Hinckley Town, Hucknall St.Johns and Kimberley already, and now we faced Kettering Town of the Midland League at Walnut Street, as it was then called.
Enzo Maresca would have approved of our tactics in the late Victorian era. We played a patient, passing game - but it was a style that didn't please everyone. The local press described it as 'fiddlin' and finnickin', and fans who prefered a more direct approach no doubt had other words for it. Kettering came to Leicester for this Cup tie and countered our approach with 'the long kicking methods of the Midland League'. On a mud bath of a pitch in December their style was more effective.
Leicester attacked the 'Gasworks End' in the first half, but after just five minutes, Kettering took the lead. We got level with a Harry Trainer goal, but before half time the non-Leaguers went back in front. After the break we attacked the Town end, but conditions got worse, and with Kettering full back Draper 'displaying his well-known fouling proclivities', we were frustrated. The match finished in a 'severe storm' with Kettering holding on for a famous victory, They were in the First Round proper, where they would lose to Newton Heath.
January 2nd 1897. FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town v Leicester Fosse
A year on and after beating Wellingborough and Bulwell, we drew Kettering Town again and had a chance for revenge. That didn't happen though. The match followed exactly the same pattern as a year before. We were 2-1 down at half time and couldn't force an equaliser after the break. This was the reaction of the Leicester Mercury;
The defeat was received with keen disappointment, not to say disgust, in Leicester. It was a pity that time should have been wasted in witnessing such a miserable attempt at football. The players were as fit as they should be, yet some of them would not exert themselves sufficiently to turn a hair. The ground was hard, and falling was dangerous, but if Kettering could take the risk, why not Fosse? The players have descended to the depths of ignominy.
So once again it was the Midland League side that went through to the First Round proper - and once again they lost at Newton Heath.
December 10th 1898 FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town. v Leicester Fosse
Two years on and the sides were drawn together again at the same stage of the competition. Third time lucky, surely.
We were on a run of seven straight wins in League and Cup that had taken us to third place in Division Two and past Kimberley and Rushden in the qualifying rounds of the Cup.
But at Kettering's new Rockingham Road ground it was the same old story. They used 'pulverising methods' while Leicester tried again to play their patient passing game. It didn't work. ''Whenever they fiddled with the ball they were knocked off it by the Kettering half backs', said the Leicester Daily Post reporter. Once again we were behind at the break, though this time we managed a second half equaliser, Bernie Fulwood's goal forcing a replay.
On the following Thursday afternoon it was 1-1 with time running out when a player called Herbert Winterhalder headed past Fosse keeper Arthur Howes and - unbelievably - the non-Leaguers had done it again. They were in the last 32, though once more that was as far as they got - they lost at Notts County.
So that's the story - three times we've drawn them in the Cup, three times we've lost. Probably the worst record for any League club against non-League opposition (unless you know different).
Just a bit of context, though. The concepts of 'league' and 'non-League' were a bit different then. There were only 36 teams in the Football League, so there were a lot of strong teams outside it. One of them, our old friends Tottenham, actually won the competition a couple of years after these Kettering exploits, and another, Southampton, were twice finalists.
So it wasn't quite the same level of shock, for example, as Harlow Town beating us in 1980, or Maidstone winning at Coventry tonight.
Let's start with a quiz question.
Which team has scored the most goals in the FA Cup?
Not just this season, but across the whole 153 year history of the competition?
The answer is a bit of s surprise.
It's Kettering Town.
A bizarre stat, but when you consider the age of the club, and the round at which they traditionally enter, maybe it's not really that surprising. They've had the chance to wallop the minnows in the qualifying rounds since they first entered back in 1890, and unlike other senior non-League sides, they've never made it into the Football League (a step which takes away that opportunity for walloping).
Their goals total now stands at 912, one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. And while that may give us yet another chance to snigger at Spurs' perennial also-ran status, we can't really crow - not when you look at our FA Cup record against Kettering. It's pretty shocking. In fact, it is probably the worst record of any League club against a non-League side in the history of the competition.
The squeamish may want to look away now. Here are the sordid details:
December 14th 1895 . FA Cup Qualifying Round. Leicester Fosse v Kettering Town.
This was our second season as a Football League club, but we were still required to go through the qualifying rounds of the 'English Cup', as it was then called. We had beaten Hinckley Town, Hucknall St.Johns and Kimberley already, and now we faced Kettering Town of the Midland League at Walnut Street, as it was then called.
Enzo Maresca would have approved of our tactics in the late Victorian era. We played a patient, passing game - but it was a style that didn't please everyone. The local press described it as 'fiddlin' and finnickin', and fans who prefered a more direct approach no doubt had other words for it. Kettering came to Leicester for this Cup tie and countered our approach with 'the long kicking methods of the Midland League'. On a mud bath of a pitch in December their style was more effective.
Leicester attacked the 'Gasworks End' in the first half, but after just five minutes, Kettering took the lead. We got level with a Harry Trainer goal, but before half time the non-Leaguers went back in front. After the break we attacked the Town end, but conditions got worse, and with Kettering full back Draper 'displaying his well-known fouling proclivities', we were frustrated. The match finished in a 'severe storm' with Kettering holding on for a famous victory, They were in the First Round proper, where they would lose to Newton Heath.
January 2nd 1897. FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town v Leicester Fosse
A year on and after beating Wellingborough and Bulwell, we drew Kettering Town again and had a chance for revenge. That didn't happen though. The match followed exactly the same pattern as a year before. We were 2-1 down at half time and couldn't force an equaliser after the break. This was the reaction of the Leicester Mercury;
The defeat was received with keen disappointment, not to say disgust, in Leicester. It was a pity that time should have been wasted in witnessing such a miserable attempt at football. The players were as fit as they should be, yet some of them would not exert themselves sufficiently to turn a hair. The ground was hard, and falling was dangerous, but if Kettering could take the risk, why not Fosse? The players have descended to the depths of ignominy.
So once again it was the Midland League side that went through to the First Round proper - and once again they lost at Newton Heath.
December 10th 1898 FA Cup Fifth Qualifying Round. Kettering Town. v Leicester Fosse
Two years on and the sides were drawn together again at the same stage of the competition. Third time lucky, surely.
We were on a run of seven straight wins in League and Cup that had taken us to third place in Division Two and past Kimberley and Rushden in the qualifying rounds of the Cup.
But at Kettering's new Rockingham Road ground it was the same old story. They used 'pulverising methods' while Leicester tried again to play their patient passing game. It didn't work. ''Whenever they fiddled with the ball they were knocked off it by the Kettering half backs', said the Leicester Daily Post reporter. Once again we were behind at the break, though this time we managed a second half equaliser, Bernie Fulwood's goal forcing a replay.
On the following Thursday afternoon it was 1-1 with time running out when a player called Herbert Winterhalder headed past Fosse keeper Arthur Howes and - unbelievably - the non-Leaguers had done it again. They were in the last 32, though once more that was as far as they got - they lost at Notts County.
So that's the story - three times we've drawn them in the Cup, three times we've lost. Probably the worst record for any League club against non-League opposition (unless you know different).
Just a bit of context, though. The concepts of 'league' and 'non-League' were a bit different then. There were only 36 teams in the Football League, so there were a lot of strong teams outside it. One of them, our old friends Tottenham, actually won the competition a couple of years after these Kettering exploits, and another, Southampton, were twice finalists.
So it wasn't quite the same level of shock, for example, as Harlow Town beating us in 1980, or Maidstone winning at Coventry tonight.
