LEICESTERSHIRE FOOTBALL – the early
days
The inclusion of the Leicestershire Senior
League on site has been made relatively recently,
but already new information has come to light
about the early days of football within the
county.
It appears that there was a ‘Leicestershire
League’ competition during the 1890-1891
season with eight teams taking part. Although the fixtures were not completed,
it was possible to declare Gresley Rovers
as champions, the league table below providing
‘major clues’ as to the reason
for this:
|
1 |
GRESLEY ROVERS |
10 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
37 |
10 |
18 |
|
2 |
SHEPSHED TOWN |
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
26 |
11 |
10 |
|
3 |
HUGGLESCOTE ROBIN HOOD |
10 |
5 |
0 |
5 |
18 |
18 |
10 |
|
4 |
MELTON ROVERS |
8 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
14 |
18 |
7 |
|
5 |
SOUTH WIGSTON |
10 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
18 |
26 |
7 |
|
6 |
LEICESTER TEACHERS |
6 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
13 |
11 |
5 |
|
7 |
COALVILLE TOWN |
7 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
12 |
5 |
|
8 |
SYSTON WREAKE VALLEY |
6 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
33 |
2 |
|
|
|
64 |
27 |
10 |
27 |
139 |
139 |
64 |
The above table was passed to the website
by Ron Price, who acquired the information
from Tony Prior and therefore credits Tony
for the provision of the information. Thanks to both of you.
Ron has also supplied a copy of the 1894-1895
final table for the Leicestershire &
Northamptonshire League as appeared in the
‘Athletic News Annual’, except
possibly for the column totals.
|
1 |
FOSSE ROVERS |
20 |
17 |
1 |
2 |
75 |
20 |
35 |
|
2 |
FINEDON REVELLERS |
20 |
14 |
2 |
4 |
74 |
32 |
30 |
|
3 |
KETTERING RESERVE |
20 |
13 |
2 |
5 |
77 |
32 |
28 |
|
4 |
LOUGHBOROUGH ATHLETIC |
20 |
11 |
3 |
6 |
44 |
34 |
25 |
|
5 |
WELLINGBOROUGH TOWN |
20 |
10 |
4 |
6 |
46 |
35 |
24 |
|
6 |
HINCKLEY TOWN |
20 |
8 |
1 |
11 |
51 |
51 |
17 |
|
7 |
HUGGLESCOTE ROBIN HOODS |
20 |
7 |
3 |
10 |
46 |
61 |
17 |
|
8 |
SHEPSHED TOWN |
20 |
5 |
4 |
11 |
35 |
55 |
14 |
|
9 |
LEICESTER YMCA |
20 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
22 |
40 |
12 |
|
10 |
SILEBY RANGERS |
20 |
2 |
7 |
11 |
33 |
60 |
11 |
|
11 |
MELTON TOWN |
20 |
2 |
3 |
15 |
19 |
102 |
7 |
|
|
220 |
93 |
34 |
93 |
522 |
522 |
220 |
This solves the mystery of the ‘missing
team’ mentioned on this site’s
Leicestershire Senior League opening page
and also provides an interesting example
of team-naming in the early days of league
football in the country. ‘Fosse Rovers’ were in
fact the reserve side of Football League
2nd Division Leicester Fosse. The ‘Athletic
News’ would have missed out the ‘Leicester’
part of the name as everybody following football
at the time would have known where ‘Fosse’
came from. It was common at the time
for reserve teams of professional clubs to
use the name ‘Rovers’ for their
reserve teams as this distinguished them
clearly from the senior, professional side.
Other names used for reserve teams were ‘Swifts’,
e.g. Stoke F.C.’s Midland League side
1894-95, and ‘Wanderers’, e.g.
The Wednesday’s Sheffield League team
1893-94. It is important to note, however,
that not all ‘Rovers’, ‘Swifts’
or ‘Wanderers’ were reserve teams
– Blackburn, Burton and Bolton providing
proof of this in the 1890s.
The Leicestershire League mentioned above
was run by the county F.A., whereas the Leicestershire
& Northamptonshire League (1894-1896)
was run by the clubs. The official name of the league 1896-1901
was ‘The Leicestershire League’,
not the Leicestershire Senior League as mentioned
elsewhere.
