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Jeremy Clay

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They dish out justice in the courts on the one in Philadelphia; the one in San Francisco s-bends itself into the steepest road in town.

But there's only one real Filbert Street: that half-comical collision of little and large stands in a warren of back-to-back, two-up, two-downs on the edge of Leicester city centre.

Like Roker Park, the Baseball Ground, Ayresome Park and the Dell before it, Filbert Street has lost its place in that evocative roll-call of English football grounds.

It may seem odd to mourn: it was a source of ridicule to away supporters and guilty embarrassment to Leicester City Fans.

"A fantastic stand, an adequate stand, and the other two stands are Vauxhall Conference," was Martin O'Neill's withering but accurate assessment of Filbert Street, joking he would lead new signings out backwards from the Carling Stand so they couldn't see the rest of the ground before they signed.

Yes it was home. And like home, you can't wait to leave when you're stuck there, but you muss it like hell the moment you go.

We first hit upon the idea of chronicling the final season at Filbert Street in 1997 when whispers of a move could be heard under all the talk of redeveloping the East and North stands. It proved to be a long wait before we could start. Finally, work did begin on a new stadium and the Leicester Mercury joined forces with Leicester City to document the end of a Leicestershire landmark.

For a newspaper that works like any other, with an eye on the clock and rolling deadlines, this was a new move: a slow-burning assignment with 10 months of work culminating in one single result.

Leicester 'Til We Die is a love letter to Filbert Street that came close to being a Dear John note, as City plummeted to the foot of the table. It's not the whole story of the final disastrous season, nor is it the definitive portrait of life on the terraces or behind the scenes of the club. But we think it captures the flavour of Filbert Street, the ground that has been leicester's centre of gravity for 111 years.

Jeremy Clay, Leicester, May 2002

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