Nottingham Forest
12 Leicester Fosse 0
21st April 1909
Football League Division 1
A record score - and an unusual reason for it!
When Nottingham Forest met
Leicester Fosse - forerunners of Leicester City - at the end of the
1908/09 season a relegation battle was expected. Few, however, could have
expected what was to be such a memorable match.
Leicester Fosse were doomed to relegation
from the First Division.
Forest were one of a number of clubs fighting to avoid filling the second
relegation spot and would have been hoping for two points from the match
to aid that cause. A few goals would also aid their goal average, an
important consideration with things being so tight at the bottom. By the
time the 90 minutes were up that hope that been fulfilled with Forest
victorious by 12 goals to nil, the match being as one-sided as the
scoreline suggested.
The other relegation-threatened clubs
protested and a League inquiry was held at Leicester on 6th May 1909. It
came out that the reason for Fosse's poor performance was that two days
before the match the Leicester players had attended the wedding of
team-mate Turner - and that the celebrations had continued until the early
hours of the morning of the match against Forest!
Leicester escaped punishment, but then they
had already been relegated.
For the Record -
 Nottingham Forest:
Iremonger,
Dudley, Maltby, Hughes, Needham, Armstrong, Hooper, Marrison, West,
Morris, Spouncer (pictured).
Leicester Fosse: Bailey, Hedley,
Pollock, Ruddle, Gorman, Goldie, Holding, Shinton, Donnelly, Turner, West.
Goalscorers: Hooper (3), Hughes,
Morris (2), Spouncer (3), West (3)
Referee: Mr J. Howcroft
Attendance: 3000 (approx)
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