Roger (69) attended his first match in the mid-1940s

The Corby family have been supporting City for a century – Roger's late father, Sidney, was a regular at Filbert Street before the First World War when they were called Leicester Fosse.

"The first game I can remember was in 1949 but I went to matches before then," recalled Roger. "They used to lift us young ones over the top of the crowd so we could sit on the wall at the front of the stand. When you think how heavy the ball was in those days it would have been quite dangerous if it hit you. I have been supporting City every year since, except for one year when I was ill."

He inherited his love for football, and more specifically for Leicester, from his dad, who experienced his first match in 1909.

Sidney served in the Middle East during the Great War but his passion for the Foxes remained undiminished when he came out of the forces.
Roger said: "When he started watching City dad used to ride a push bike from Empingham to Leicester to watch the matches.

"Father was a City fanatic. During harvest time we would break off from harvesting to go to the games and continue with it when we got home at night."

Roger's favourite era, as John's was, came about in the 1970s when Jimmy Bloomfield assembled a swaggering team full of skillful players such as Frank Worthington and Roger's top City player of all time, Keith Weller.

One of his most treasured memories was the day Leicester went back to the Premiership when Steve Claridge scored the play-off winner against Crystal Palace in 1996.

He has an autograph book full of signatures from some of the club's greats, including all-time top goalscorer Arthur Rowley.

"I feel honoured to have seen men like Stan Matthews and Nat Lofthouse play but the best player I ever saw was probably Tom Finney," said Roger.

In the early days he would attend matches with his father and late brother Henry. Now it is wife Heather and, occasionally, son Jonathan who accompany him to the Walker's Stadium.

The club is on the up now, of course, with Nigel Pearson's Foxes away and clear at the top of the League 1 table and looking certainties to return straight back to the Championship.

Roger added: "We were lucky when Milan Mandaric came in as chairman. If he hadn't taken over goodness knows what would have happened to the club."