Former Player Remembers: Larry May (Part One)
Speaking over a two-part interview with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Larry explains his Foxes journey, which involved two promotions, playing in the old First Division and reaching an FA Cup Semi-Final, as well as several injuries.
After making his debut for City as an 18-year-old in the top-flight in March 1977, May went on to make over 200 league and cup appearances until he left Filbert Street in August 1983. At Leicester, he was hugely popular with the Foxes faithful and the fans were shocked and surprised when he left in August 1983, a move he came to regret.
Born in Sutton Coldfield on Boxing Bay in 1958, Larry came to Leicester as a 16-year-old, becoming an apprentice at Filbert Street and would begin his professional career at the Club.
Thinking back, Larry said: “Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion wanted me as well, but I’d been on a couple of trials at Leicester and I wanted to go there. I stayed in digs there in a big house on Aylestone Road where the apprentices used to stay. It was too far to travel from home to Leicester every day. I liked it there and we had a bit of fun.
“Other apprentices in the house were Tommy Williams, Peter Welsh, Trevor Christie and Steve Bicknell. Most of us joined at the same sort of time, although I think Tommy was already there. He's a little bit older than me. We’d get changed at the stadium and the minibus would take us to Belvoir Drive for training. We all played in the same youth team, managed by George Dewis (an ex-Leicester centre-forward).
“When I was 17, I signed as a professional, and I got £25 a week as opposed to £8 as an apprentice. I managed to get myself a little car and drove in from Sutton Coldfield every day. I’d loved my youth team days. Then I ended up training with the First Team, but we didn’t lose friendship or anything like that.
“The Manager when I first went to Leicester was Jimmy Bloomfield and I could tell he rated me because, when I was only 18, he gave me my First Team debut at Bristol City. He could’ve played others who had played more reserve games than me.
“It was a 0-0 draw. It wasn’t a great game, but I was quite happy because I played well, and we didn’t concede. Me and Alan Woollett were the two centre-backs that day. Dennis Rofe and Steve Whitworth were the full-backs.”
At the end of the season, in May 1977, Bloomfield left Leicester despite the team finishing 11th in the old First Division. He was replaced by the ex-Leicester City, Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers star, Frank McLintock.
“You hope that when a new Manager comes in, he likes you as a player,” Larry continued. “When Frank McLintock came in, I liked him. He quite fancied me as a player and he picked me for the First Team a few times.
“Many years later, when I was working for Surrey County FA, I met him at a function and he told me: ‘When I was Manager at Leicester, I told the Board of Directors that the Club had three decent players. These included Larry May and Tommy Williams’. It was a nice thing for him to say.”
That season (1977/78), after six seasons in the top flight, City were relegated. Larry was injured, went on loan to the USA, and then suffered another serious injury.
“After I’d injured the cartilage in my right knee with about three months of the season to go, Frank McLintock suggested as part of my recovery I should go to America to play for the New England Tea Men in Boston,” he explained. “I wondered if he was trying to get rid of me but he said it would be a good experience, and that I’d get more money too.
“At that time, America was developing football and older English players were going out there, but they also wanted some younger players, so I went to get myself some more games after my knee was fixed. I played about four games and then I damaged my other knee, my left knee. I damaged my cruciate ligament on the astroturf. In those days, the old astroturf was like concrete.
“I was out there, on my own with a Plaster of Paris cast right up my leg with my knee bent. I wondered if I was ever going to play again. It was serious. In those days, they weren’t really sure how to fix a cruciate but luckily the medical centre at Boston was one of the best in the world and they managed to repair my knee and I was able to play again.
“When I got back to Leicester, they had a new Manager, Jock Wallace. It was pre-season, but I was still injured and needed to do rehab. Quite early in the season though I started playing in reserve games. My knee was still giving me a bit of trouble, but I thought I just had to try and persevere and keep persevering.
“Then Jock Wallace picked me (in September) to play alongside Steve Sims in the First Team. My knee was still hurting but I did alright because then I hardly missed a game for the rest of the season. That season, Jock Wallace started to play a lot of young players, like myself, Tommy Williams, Mick Duffy, Dave Buchanan, Pete Welsh and Gary Lineker.
“We were towards the bottom of the Second Division and I remember we had to go to Notts County and I think we won 1-0 and that really helped us to stay up. I remember going to that game thinking: ‘We’ve got to win this one!’ We stayed up and, the next year, we won the Second Division title.”
In that title winning season (1979/80), three players played in every game: goalkeeper Mark Wallington, Larry at centre-back and new signing Alan Young at centre-forward.
Thinking back, Larry continued: “Mark never got injured. I always think a good side needs a good goalkeeper, a good centre-back and a good centre-forward. You can build your team around that. I played alongside (Northern Ireland international centre-back) John O’Neill.
“He was a good solid player. He used to head, tackle and defend. We liked defending. It’s a bit different now with centre-backs. Its more about passing the ball around. I could play the ball round a bit, but we did like to defend!
“We had a good run towards the end of the season (winning eight and drawing one of the last 10 games). If I remember rightly, we were promoted anyway before the last game at Orient but, by winning that last game 1-0, when I was lucky enough to score the goal, we won the championship.
“I’ll always remember that game. There were thousands of Leicester fans on the M1 going to Orient for the game. I think we took something like 8,000 to 10,000, if I remember rightly. As players, we were all up for the game which was a tense one.
“I scored when a free-kick on the right-hand side reached me at the back post and I got my foot to it. A lot of people thought I'd headed it, but I didn't. I actually got my foot to it at the back post and slid it in along the ground.
“The whole stadium went mad. It was one of the best days of my life. Winning the title and getting back to the First Division was a team effort. Great, great memories! It was great to be part of that really. After the game, all of our fans were on the pitch celebrating. It was absolutely brilliant.”
In part two of this interview, Larry talks about playing in the First Division, doing the double over league champions Liverpool, who won the European Cup that year, playing against the best players in England, getting relegated, starring in the 1982 FA Cup Semi-Final and then getting promoted again.
He goes on to explain why he left Leicester City, going on to play for Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton & Hove Albion. He concludes by talking about his career in football after he finished playing.