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.The Greatest Ever Leicester City Side
The Big Freeze of 1962–1963, was one of the coldest winters on record Football matches in the English leagues suffered because of the severe effects of the winter weather. Some matches in the FA Cup were rescheduled ten or more times. Matches in the fifth and sixth rounds, scheduled for 16 February and 9 March respectively, were played on 16 and 30 March. A board known as the Pools Panel was set up to adjudicate postponed matches to provide the football pool results. From 26 December to 9 February, Leicester completed no league matches. The delays occurred before under-soil heating became widespread at major venues. When the thaw arrived, a backlog of fixtures had to be hastily determined. The Football League season was extended by four weeks from its original finishing date of 27 April. The final league fixtures took place one day before the rescheduled FA Cup final.
Overview The horrendous winter of 1962–63 was the coldest winter of the 20th century in England and Wales 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. 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.
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 8 December 2019 when Brendan Rodgers' side won their eighth consecutive Premier League game.
Players Leicester's creative attack was built around the skillful playmaker Dave Gibson 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.
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."Leicester City: The Official History DVD (2004)
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 Stringfellow015th 2 22 August 1962 Home Sheffield Wednesday 3–3 Walsh, Stringfellow, Riley113th 3 25 August 1962 Home Nottingham Forest 2–1 Stringfellow (2)310th 4 29 August 1962 Away Sheffield Wednesday 3–0 Stringfellow (2), Walsh56th 5 1 September 1962 Home Bolton Wanderers 4–1 Walsh (2), Cross, Gibson74th 6 4 September 1962 Away Burnley 1–1 Gibson85th 7 8 September 1962 Away Everton2–3 Walsh, Riley86th 8 15 September 1962 Home West Bromwich Albion1–0 Cross106th 9 19 September 1962 Home Burnley3–3 Keyworth, McLintock, Riley115th 10 22 September 1962 Away Arsenal1–1 Keyworth126th 11 29 September 1962 Home Birmingham City3–0 Foster (o.g.), Keyworth, Cheesebrough145th 12 6 October 1962 Away Ipswich Town1–0 McLintock165th 13 13 October 1962 Home Liverpool3–0 Gibson, Cheesebrough, Cross185th 14 20 October 1962 Away Blackburn Rovers0–2 185th 15 27 October 1962 Home Sheffield United3–1 Keyworth (2), Cross204th 16 3 November 1962 Away Tottenham Hotspur0–4 204th 17 10 November 1962 Home West Ham United2–0 Stringfellow, McLintock224th 18 17 November 1962 Away Manchester City1–1 Keyworth234th 19 24 November 1962 Home Blackpool0–0244th 20 1 December 1962 Away Wolverhampton Wanderers3–1 Gibson (2), Flowers (o.g.)264th 21 8 December 1962 Home Aston Villa3–3 Gibson (2), Stringfellow274th 22 15 December 1962 Home Fulham2–3 Walsh, Stringfellow274th 23 26 December 1962 Home Leyton Orient5–1 Keyworth (2), Charlton (o.g.), Cheesebrough, Appleton293rd 24 9 February 1963 Home Arsenal2–0 Keyworth (2)313rd 25 12 February 1963 Home Everton3–1 Keyworth, Stringfellow, Cross333rd 26 19 February 1963 Away Nottingham Forest2–0 Keyworth (2)352nd 27 23 February 1963 Home Ipswich Town3–0 Gibson, Stringfellow, Riley372nd 28 2 March 1963 Away Liverpool2–0 Keyworth, Gibson392nd 29 9 March 1963 Home Blackburn Rovers2–0 Riley, Stringfellow412nd 30 23 March 1963 Home Tottenham Hotspur2–2 Stringfellow, Keyworth422nd 31 26 March 1963 Away Sheffield United0–0 432nd 32 3 April 1963 Away Leyton Orient2–0 Stringfellow (2)452nd 33 6 April 1963 Home Manchester City2–0 Stringfellow (2)472nd 34 8 April 1963 Away Blackpool1–1 Keyworth 481st 35 13 April 1963 Away West Ham United0–2 482nd 36 15 April 1963 Away Manchester United2–2 Cross, Norman492nd 37 16 April 1963 Home Manchester United4–3 Heath, Keyworth (3)511st 38 20 April 1963 Home Wolverhampton Wanderers1–1 Keyworth522nd 39 4 May 1963 Away West Bromwich Albion1–2 Cross523rd 40 11 May 1963 Away Bolton Wanderers0–2 523rd 41 15 May 1963 Away Aston Villa1–3 Keyworth524th 42 18 May 1963 Away Birmingham City2–3 Heath, McLintock524th
FA Cup Leicester City scores given first Round Date Venue Opponents Score Scorers 3 8 January 1963 Away Grimsby Town3–1Gibson (2), Keyworth 4 30 January 1963 Home Ipswich Town3–1Cross, Keyworth (2) 5 16 March 1963 Away Leyton Orient1–0Keyworth (2) 6 30 March 1963 Away Norwich City2–0Stringfellow, Gibson SF 27 April 1963 Neutral Liverpool1–0Stringfellow Final 25 May 1963 Neutral Manchester United1–3Keyworth
Football League Cup Leicester City scores given first Round Date Venue Opponents Score Scorers 2 26 September 1962 Home Charlton Athletic4–4Gibson, Walsh(2), Riley 2rep. 2 October 1962 Away Charlton Athletic1–2 Keyworth
First Division statistics
First Division table Pos Club Pld W D L F A GA Pts1Everton422511684422.00612Tottenham Hotspur4223910111621.79553Burnley4222101078571.37544Leicester City4220121079531.49525Wolverhampton Wanderers4220101293651.43506Sheffield Wednesday4219101377631.2248 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) ()
Appearances Pos.Nat.NameDiv 1FACLCTotal 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
Goalscorers Pos.Nat.NameDiv 1FACLCTotal 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 1Own goals 3 0 0 3
References