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Filbert Street
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=== Early years === [[Leicester City F.C.|Leicester City]] was formed in 1884.<ref name="Inglis207">{{harvnb|Inglis|1996|p=207}}</ref> The club was then named ''Leicester Fosse'', as its founders mostly lived in the west end of the city, through which the [[Fosse Way]] ran.<ref name="Inglis207" /> In 1884β85 it played at a ground known as the Racecourse, before sharing [[Victoria Park, Leicester|Victoria Park]] with the [[Leicester Tigers]] rugby club for two years.<ref name="Inglis207" /> Leicester Fosse played at the Belgrave Road Cycle Track for a year, but returned to Victoria Park after the rugby club offered a higher rent to the owners of the Cycle Track.<ref name="Inglis207" /> Leicester Fosse became a professional club in 1889 and laid out its own ground at Mill Lane, just north of Filbert Street.<ref name="Inglis207" /> The club was soon forced to move, however, as the local Corporation requested the land for development.<ref name="Inglis207" /> The site of what was to become Filbert Street was prepared during the summer of 1891, while Leicester Fosse temporarily played at the [[Aylestone Road]] Cricket Ground.<ref name="Inglis207" /> Local legend suggests that the new ground was identified by a Miss Westland, the niece of one of the club's founders, Joseph Johnson.<ref name="Inglis207" /> The stadium was initially known as Walnut Street, being the closest road to the ground at the time.<ref name="Inglis207" /> The first game Leicester Fosse played there was a game against [[Nottingham Forest F.C.|Nottingham Forest]]'s reserve team on 7 November 1891.<ref name="Inglis207" /> The stadium initially consisted of simple earth banks and a small main stand on the west side, until 1921, when a new and much larger main stand was built. The Main Stand opened 24 November 1921.<ref name="Inglis207" /> In 1927, a new stand was built at the south end (known as the [[Spion Kop (stadia)|Spion Kop]]), and became known as the "Double Decker" although was officially the South Stand. The roof which had previously covered the Kop was rebuilt at the north, or Filbert Street end of the ground. It was in this form that Filbert Street saw its record attendance of 47,298 for the Fifth Round [[FA Cup]] tie, a 3β0 defeat against [[Tottenham Hotspur F.C.|Tottenham Hotspur]] on 18 February 1928.<ref name="Inglis208" /> This game also saw many more spectators watch the match from the roof of the Filbert Street end. Despite the defeat, the stadium saw more FA Cup action that season when it was selected as the neutral venue for the semi-final between [[Blackburn Rovers]] and [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] on 24 March 1928 where eventual winners Blackburn Rovers won 1β0.<ref name=ips>{{cite work|title=Leicester City versus Ipswich Town programme|date=12 August 2006|pages=28-29}}</ref> The first phase of ground development concluded with the covering of the East or Popular side in 1939.
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