Leicester continued to improve under Gillies and the following season, they finished 6th in the league, the club's highest league finish since finishing league runners-up in 1928–29. The club also reached the 1961 FA Cup Final in which they faced a Tottenham Hotspur side chasing the double. Gillies made the sensational decision to drop striker Ken Leek who had scored in every round of Leicester's cup run due to his drinking problems. In the final itself Len Chalmers received an injury early in the game and had to hobble for the remaining 70 minutes or so, meaning Leicester were effectively down to 10 men and Leicester went down 2–0 as Tottenham clinched the double. Though this did mean Leicester had qualified for Europe for the first time in their history. The club were knocked out in the first round of the European Cup Winners' Cup though 3–1 on aggregate to eventual winners Atlético Madrid after beating Glenavon 7–3 on aggregate in the Preliminary Round.