Remembering When City Shocked Lineker's Everton
A summer of headline comings and goings was dominated by one deal in particular – the departure of Gary Lineker to league champions Everton for a Club record £800,000.
While that transfer, settled by an independent tribunal, did much to replenish City’s coffers, there was work to be done in the market as legendary goalkeeper Mark Wallington and popular midfielder Andy Peake – two players synonymous with their eras – also departed Filbert Street before the new season.
Manager Gordon Milne – into his fourth year in the Foxes hotseat – had a handsome sum of £1.3M to inject back into his squad and the Scotsman invested wisely on three players.
The acquisition of defender Richard Osman from Ipswich Town was followed by a double deal for Motherwell pair Ali Mauchlen and Gary McAllister for a combined fee in the region of £350,000.
City’s books were in rude health, but consecutive 15th-placed finishes in the old First Division, combined with the departure of only the sixth player to reach a century of goals for the Club, cast a shadow. Fate threw up an opening day clash with Lineker’s Toffees on the opening day of the 1985/86 season at Filbert Street and Leicester’s former striker lined up in attack for the champions.
A crowd of 16,932 watched on in wonderment, though, as Mark Bright – the man who’d spent much of his first season at Filbert Street behind Lineker in the pecking order – stepped up with an excellent brace which was added upon by Alan Smith in a 3-1 success for the Foxes.
Just a week earlier, Mauchlen and McAllister had starred in Motherwell’s season opener, but they were in the stands for City’s maiden outing of the new campaign on 17 August, 1985.
“After we’d signed, Gary [McAllister] and I watched Leicester beat league champions Everton 3-1,” Mauchlen said in a recent conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson. “The money Leicester got for selling Lineker had bought me and Gary in. I looked at him after that game and said: ‘How the hell are we going to get in this side?’ It was quite daunting!
“It was a big move for Gary who was 19. I was 25, married and had two children. I bought a house in Ibstock and Gary moved into the spare room. He was no trouble and our friendship grew on the basis of that.”
That excellent season opener proved to be somewhat of a false dawn for Milne’s men, though, who went on to win just one of their next 13 games, a run which included a humbling 5-0 reverse against newly-promoted Oxford United at the old Manor Ground in late August.
Milne’s position was becoming increasingly precarious and a disappointing 2-2 draw with bottom club West Bromwich Albion in October saw just 7,237 people turn up at Filbert Street. That figure equated to the Club’s lowest home gate since the war, prompting Milne to secure loan deals for Danish forward Tommy Christensen and England’s Laurie Cunningham.
The damage caused from a defeat to Third Division Derby County in the Milk Cup also prompted Leicester to decline an offer to participate in the Full Member’s Cup, a replacement for European competition.
A 3-0 success over Manchester United in front of a large home crowd lifted spirits, however, ahead of a daunting trip to Merseyside for round two against the Toffees a month later. Everton were locked in a tense title race with rivals Liverpool and, despite having scores to settle with the Foxes, Milne’s men completed a superb double in style at Goodison Park.
Efforts from Smith and McAllister sealed a 2-1 victory to provide another fleeting moment of hope for the Club’s supporters who, after a similarly encouraging 3-1 win over Aston Villa, had to endure a six-game winless streak, including an FA Cup humiliation by Bristol Rovers.
City’s top-flight status was secured by the end of the season, though, when a final day success against Newcastle, coupled with favourable results elsewhere, proved to be just enough.
A 19th-place finish in the 22-team First Division was undoubtedly a disappointment and the Club even considered replacing Milne with Swindon Town’s Lou Macari in the summer of ’86. It would take the Foxes another 31 years to do a league double over Everton – a feat they will be hoping to replicate once more this term with victory on Wednesday.
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