CITY 3 LEICESTER CITY 1
League Cup 2nd Round
22nd September 1965
Attendance 13,246
Scorers
City King(19 og), Murray(68), Pardoe(86)
Leicester Roberts(73 pen)
City Ogley, Kennedy, Sear, Horne, Wood, Oakes, Summerbee, Gray, Murray, Pardoe, Young
Leicester Banks, Sjoberg, Norman, Roberts, King, Appleton, Riley, Goodfellow, Cross, Gibson, Sinclair
It was Round Two of the League Cup and City were drawn at home to Leicester City, one of a remarkable series of games between the clubs in the two major English cup competitions in the late Sixties.
It was a first match in the senior team for Stan Horne, a player who had been at Aston Villa under foe Mercer’s management, and who had been advised to give up soccer due to high blood pressure.
He later went for a second opinion and when pronounced fully fit, he circulated all clubs with copies of the report.
Mercer saw the letter and invited Stan to Maine Road for trials – and on the day after the Leicester game, he was a very happy man on being offered a contract.
Less ecstatic was the England goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, after being given little cover by the Leicester defence in his first match of the season following recovery from a fractured wrist.
He had no chance with the first goal after 19 minutes, Alan Oakes putting in a thunderous drive which defender Ian King accidentally deflected past Banks. And he wasn’t to blame for the second either. Neil Young and Horne were involved in the build-up and the ball eventually found the back of the net thanks to Jimmy Murray.
Oakes gave away a penalty later, when he handled in the area, and up stepped Bobby Roberts to pull one back for the visitors, but the Light Blues hadn’t finished yet. With just four minutes left, Young hit a tempting pass into the goal area, Banks mistimed his attempted interception, and Glyn Pardoe nipped in to seal the result.
ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 23RD SEPTEMBER 1965