1985: A Bright start to the season for Mark

We here at Fosse Posse love to bring you the latest news and opinions on our great football club, which we all love, Leicester City. But we also like to reminisce and look through blue tinted glasses at how our team have come through the last 133 years.

We’ll delve way back and highlight the likes of Arthur Chandler, Frankie Wortho and others, as well as Cup Finals, landmark achievements and moments that have just filled us with joy (and sometimes despair)!

Welcome to another look back at moments that happened in Leicester City history.

This week we’re going 30 odd years back to a time when football was simpler and the only football on TV you could watch was Match Of The Day or The Big Match.

Time to go back, way back to the start of the 1985/86 season.......

Saturday August 17th 1985

Leicester City 3 Everton 1

After a tough season last time out, in which the foxes managed to steer themselves to safety after a slow start to the campaign, they now faced the champions Everton in their opening game of the 85/86 season.

Safety had no doubt been achieved with the help of the goal scoring exploits of Alan Smith and Gary Lineker. However the 28 goal haul by the local lad Lineker also attracted attention from the bigger clubs in the top flight.

Everton were the ones to take the plunge and the transfer of £800,000 was completed during the summer of ‘85. Fate (and the fixture computer) would then see Leicester's favourite son make an immediate return with his new team to Filbert Street.

Everton fans hadn't completely taken to their new kid on the block though, mainly due to the sale of fans favourite Andy Gray to Aston Villa to make way for the fox in the box.

Gary must have had conflicting interest himself on his return to Filbo but soon found out what life would be like now he wasn't a fox.

City started slowly the last 2 campaigns in the top flight, taking 11 and 5 games to record their first wins, so everyone was expecting a win for the newly crowned champions.

Mark Bright and Leicester, though, had other ideas. Gordon Milne started the young striker with Smith, as well as a debut for new signing Russell Osman.

Bright had been bought from Port Vale in June 1984 for the odd fee of £33,333, but had been waiting for his chance behind Smith and Lineker. Moving nicely out of Lineker's shadow, Bright hit two wonderful goals along with one from Bobby Smith to help Leicester celebrate a 3-1 victory in style.

This seemed to be his breakthrough, with hopes of heading towards Leicester legend status but in fact it was a false dawn.

He only scored six goals for the foxes before moving onto Crystal Palace for £90,000, where of course, he did become a legend!

Lineker himself remembers the day well in an interview on the bbc website back in 2001 :-

My first game for Everton was actually at Filbert Street. Leicester won 3-1 and my replacement, Mark Bright, scored two fantastic goals, so I got all the 'What a waste of money' chants from the home crowd.

I got slaughtered when I got home to by the in-laws, who were all Leicester fans!

Mark Bright will never be regarded as a City legend but he will always have that day, when nearly 17,000 fans witnessed him ruin Lineker's Everton debut and start City's season off with a bang.

Also in 1985 this week

• Mary Decker Slaney runs mile in world record time of 4:16.71
• The US number 1 single was Tears For Fears with Shout
• The Prime Minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher and US President was Ronald Regan

Coming up soon, we have the story of how Peter Taylor somehow got us to the top of the Premiership in 2000 and the month with 3 different managers from the 2007/08 season.

If you want us to highlight anything in this series, feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll be more than happy to oblige.