Fosse Victory …. Nine Players …. Lost Kit … Magenta Shirts …. No goals scored by Fosse players ….. Missed Connection …. and more!
Saturday’s game at Grimsby, when Fosse broke their long sequence of defeats, was an extraordinary one, and the incidents attending the travels of the team made the day one to be long remembered. Owing to the awkward railway arrangements, an early start had to be made, and Leicester was left at 7.10. Players were picked up at Loughborough and Nottingham, and altogether nine men made the journey. The Grimsby secretary had been written to and asked to arrange for one or two assistants, and these were found in the persons of “Punch Padley” who used to play for Worksop and is now working at Grimsby, and a local youth named Stainsby. Previous to arrival, however, the adventures of the Fosse had begun. At Woodhouse, near Sheffield, where the team had to change, a misunderstanding resulted in the “skip” which contained the kit going astray, and a telegram had to be dispatched to Grimsby asking for assistance in this respect. The local authorities responded gallantly and rigged the Fosse out with brilliant magenta coloured jerseys, and stockings, knickers, and boots. Then the finishing touch was put on by the fact that the two first Fosse goals were put on by Padley and Stainsby, the borrowed players, and Webster, the Grimsby back, put this third through his own goal. Four goals were scored during the afternoon, all by Grimsby men, but three of them were on the Fosse score sheet. It was only another incident in a remarkable day that Fosse missed their connection at Lincoln on the return journey by two minutes. and had to go right back to Sheffield, finally reaching Leicester in the early hours of Sunday morning.
As to the game itself, this was one of the most astonishing matches the Fosse hale participated in for years. The home team, according to the form they showed in the first half, looked as if they. and not Fosse, had had a long and tiring railway journey. They were the weariest looking lot of men from a playing point of view, that I have seen for years. Neither of the Fosse goals ought to have been scored. In the first case, Stainsby, getting the ball close in, apparently tried a shot. but the ball curled off the side of his foot to where Padley was standing at the other side of the goal, with nothing to do but place it in the net. On its journey so Padley it passed two Grimsby defenders, either of whom had simply to stick out a foot to avert the danger. Neither did, and the goal became an accomplished fact. In the second case Padley placed across goal to Stainsby. If the Grimsby goalkeeper had come out, he could have punched the ball away before it got to Stainsby, but he did not, and again the effort was a simple one. The third goal was a result of Webster trying to place back for the goalkeeper to clear. and he hit it too hard, with the result that Sutcliffe could not get to it. When it was too late Grimsby woke up but they realised the oft-repeated proverb that he who wastes an opportunity seldom has another chance, and although they were bombarding the Fosse goal for quite three-parts of the second half, they could only score once, this being from a beautiful shot by T. Nippon. Bown kept a fine goal, but the principal credit for the victory belongs to Draycott and Currie, who played a remarkably fine game. Charley Storer, too, was a revelation at centre-half, doing a tremendous lot of useful work, and his brother also did excellently. Atterbury gave Colebrooke too much rope, and the forwards were very moderate, but it must be remembered that only ono of them had appeared in Fosse colours before, and that Goddard (formerly of a Mansfield is an inside man, and only reluctantly consented to play outside. Pykett has played at centre-forward for Notts County. of have had hard luck in the past, but a big slice of it was wiped out on Saturday.
Teams:- Fosse: H. A. Sown: G. Draycott and S. Currie; S. Storer, C. Storer, and S. Atterbury ; J. W. Goddard, C. Stainsby, B. Pykett, G. Padley, and E. Marriott.
Grimsby: Sergt-Instructor J. Sutcliffe: S. Webster and J. McQuillon, W. Rushby, W. Johnson. and G. Whitchurch: W. Colebrook, T. Nippon, C. Young, W. Rippon, and A. Huxford.
Leicester Daily Post – 8 January 1917