The 1964 Football League Cup Final, the fourth to be staged since the competition's inception, was contested between

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, both of the First Division, over two legs. Leicester City won 4–3 on aggregate.

Match review

First leg

The First leg was played at

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

and was a very exciting encounter.

Peter Dobing Peter Dobing (born 1 December 1938) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City and Stoke City. Career Dobing was born in Manchester and came from a sporting family, his father play ...

hit the post early on and John Ritchie had a shot brilliantly cleared off the line by

John Sjoberg John Sjoberg (12 June 1941 – 2 October 2008) was a Scottish footballer who played 15 seasons for Leicester City between 1958 and 1973. Sjoberg joined the Foxes from Scottish amateur side Banks O' Dee in August 1958, and went on to play 413 f ...

. After a goalless first half

Keith Bebbington Keith Richard Bebbington (born 4 August 1943) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Oldham Athletic, Rochdale and Stoke City. Career Bebbington was a quick left winger who came through the youth team at Stoke Ci ...

broke the deadlock putting Stoke ahead after 62 minutes after

Bill Asprey William Asprey (born 11 September 1936) is an English former football player and manager. A defender, he made 418 league appearances in a 15-year career in the Football League. He then had a 25-year career as a coach. He spent 1953 to 1965 at ...

's 30 yard shot was parried by the Leicester 'keeper

Gordon Banks Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...

, but Bebbington was fastest to the loose ball. In front of a crowd of 22,309 Stoke went out for a second goal but Leicester's defence held firm and against the run of play they got an equaliser. A poor clearance from

Eric Skeels Eric Thomas Skeels (born 27 October 1939) is an English former Association football, footballer. He played 512 games in the English Football League, Football League, 507 for Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. He is Stoke's record appearance holder ha ...

rebounded off

Terry Heath Richard Terence Heath, (17 November 1943 – 25 January 2011) was an English footballer, who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Scunthorpe United and Lincoln City. Playing career Leicester City Terry Heath joined his hometown club Lei ...

into the path of Dave Gibson who lobbed the ball over

Lawrie Leslie Lawrence Grant Leslie (17 March 1935 – 4 June 2019) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Hibernian, Airdrie, West Ham United, Stoke City, Millwall and Southend United. Internationally, he represented Scotlan ...

and into the unguarded net to set up a winner takes all 2nd leg.

Second leg

For the Second leg at

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively b ...

Stoke manager

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progre ...

had to change his goalkeeper with Leslie out with an ankle injury Bobby Irvine taking his place. He was unable to prevent

Mike Stringfellow Michael David Stringfellow (born 27 January 1943 in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire) is an English retired footballer who played 14 seasons as a winger for Leicester City in the 1960s and 1970s. He is the uncle of fellow footballer Ian Stri ...

from scoring after six minutes following a defensive error. Stoke hit back and a perfect pass from

Jimmy McIlroy James McIlroy (25 October 1931 – 20 August 2018) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, who played for Glentoran, Burnley, Stoke City and Oldham Athletic. He was regarded as one of Burnley's greatest players, having played 497 matc ...

cut through the Foxes’ defence and

Dennis Viollet Dennis Sydney Viollet (20 September 1933 – 6 March 1999) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disa ...

levelled the scores. This put Stoke into the ascendency but then a nasty leg injury to

Calvin Palmer Calvin Ian Palmer (21 October 1940 – 12 March 2014) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Crewe Alexandra, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Stoke City. Palmer began his career with Nottingham Forest making 101 ap ...

saw him stretchered off and thus put Stoke down to 10 men. Leicester capitalised on the situation and before Palmer was able to get back on the pitch Gibson headed in a Howard Riley corner. With not long left Stoke pushed forward and left a too big a gap in defence and Dave Gibson made it 3–1. Stoke to their credit fought on and pulled one back through

George Kinnell George Kinnell (22 December 1937 – 16 October 2021) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Middlesbrough, Oldham Athletic, Sunderland and Stoke City. Career Born in Cowdenbeath, Kinnell started his career in Scotl ...

but it was too late as Leicester won the tie 3–2 giving them a 4–3 aggregate win and with it the League Cup.

Players and officials

First Leg

Second Leg

Road to the Final

''Home teams listed first. ''

References

External links

League Cup 1964
at RSSSF {{Stoke City F.C. matches League Cup Final League Cup Final EFL Cup Finals League Cup Final 1964 League Cup Final 1964 Football League Cup Final