FoxHole

Chelsea 4 Leicester City 3, Wednesday 31 October 2007 (CC4)

Football really can be cruel. We played with fantastic spirit, and we were three minutes from being the first team to win at Stamford Bridge since the great FC Barcelona.

So Chelsea played a “reserve” team including the likes of Lampard, Wright-Phillips, Ferreira and Shevchenko, and the substitutes they brought on were worth more than the entire Leicester squad. Even so after just six minutes we take the lead, courtesy of a McAuley header after just six minutes. Brilliant!

OK, given the quality of their side you’d expect Chelsea to score at some point, and they did with two first half Lampard goals.

But with six thousand City fans at the match, and thousands more listening to Radio Leicester, you could sense that things weren’t over. First an equaliser and then we take the lead. Part of me kept saying this can’t be happening but the rest of me was getting really carried away. We were beating a team of Chelsea stars.

But all good things come to a painful end. The equaliser was bad enough, but that goal in injury time: tragic.

Leicester City 2 Barnsley 0, Saturday 27 October 2007

I realise there has been quite a delay since we won this match and this posting about it. But I have an excuse. Indeed, on Saturday I went straight from the Walkers Stadium to Tescos. Not exactly an enjoyable end to an afternoon of football, and an even worse place to spend one’s time than Elland Road (although to be fair, nobody punched me at Tescos). So by the time I got home I needed a drink. As for Sunday, well it must have been the switch to GMT.

But what about the match I hear you ask? We won of course, just as I predicted. OK, so the performance wasn’t brilliant. Our midfield seemed to play too deeply, and our defenders didn’t seem to go past the halfway line. This made it difficult for Fryatt and Collins John, but overall, it was a step up on Tuesday’s effort. As for the goals, well we wait for absolutely ages and then two come along at once. Cue the music.

Not surprisingly the recently departed Megson featured in some early songs - the one about him being a merchant banker proved particularly popular. But by the end of the match we were asking Gerry Taggart to give us a wave; and instead of boos, the players left the pitch to applause. It seems ages since that happened.

I’m sure tomorrow’s match against Barnsley will see a whole new atmosphere at the Walkers. For a start, Gerry Taggart will be in joint control. He will surely be among the fans’ favourite for manager along with Steve Walsh and Simon Grayson. Also, there will be some expectation of something more watchable on the pitch (and let’s face it, it could hardly get much worse).

So our visitors could find it a difficult match. And what of Barnsley?Apart from going up the M1 to watch Leicester beat them back in May, it’s not a place I tend to visit or know much about. Football-wise, they had about as poor a season as us last time; and it isn’t really a place that has produced many football legends either. Indeed, Mick McCarthy seems to be on his own while other famous Barnsley folk include Darren Gough, Dickie Bird, Arthur Scargill and half of the Arctic Monkeys who apparently went to college there.

Of course Barnsley’s brave miners did take on Thatcher (whose name I can only utter through gritted teeth!) so there is a fighting spirit in the town. But I’m confident we will get behind our team, that Gerry will have them well organised, and that we will actually win at home. Come on Leicester!

So by tomorrow morning we will be without a manager. Can’t honestly say it upsets me. But it will mean we have lost three in just 11 league games. That’s a game to manager-leaving ratio of 3.67. If we continue at this rate we will have somewhere in the region of 12.5 managers this season.

OK, I’m being silly, because the next manager will surely stay for the duration ….maybe ….perhaps ….possibly ….at least until the next Plymouth away match?

Leicester City 0 Sheffield United 1, Tuesday 23 October 2007

I mentioned the lack of excitement in the Scunthorpe game, but compared to last night, that match was inspiring. Our opponents from Sheffield were not exactly the strongest side to come to the Walkers. So our failure to take anything from the game shows just how poorly we played. It was difficult to watch.

There were the usual long balls going astray, there were plenty of botched passes, and although we had more chances than on Saturday (just about), we didn’t pose any real threat.

The first half perhaps should have been the start of something good. We had plenty of the ball and I thought that sooner or later, it will all come together. Wrong! In the second half we started to run out of ideas even before Sheffield scored. After that, we looked increasingly more desperate.

And all this while we froze in the traditional football weather. Luckily the moaning old git who sometimes sits behind us wasn’t there. I dread to think what he’d have been like watching this performance. As the minutes ticked away you could overhear quite a few fans saying that if Megson goes to Bolton it wont be so bad. At the final whistle this had turned into a chant supplemented by an awful lot of booing.

I know that fans can and should get behind their team, but when you’re freezing your balls off, you need some inspiration. By the time I got home I was reaching for the gin.

Scunthorpe United 0 Leicester City 0, Saturday 20 October 2007

Not exactly a great advert for Championship football. In fact, it’s difficult to find anything good about this game. One shot on target from each team is about all I can remember, apart from of course a sending-off and our winning goal that wasn’t.

Indeed, if football had gotten its act together, and modernised in the same way as cricket and rugby, then a video ref would have seen that Kisnorbo wasn’t off-side, and we would have three points. (Mind you, even video refs can get things wrong, because as any one who was watching later will agree, it was definitely a try).

Usually when I watch Leicester I chew my nails, check how long is left to play, and shout a lot. This match though barely registered a flicker on the excitementometer.

So tomorrow we play the team that brought the world Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence and Sir Ian Botham. Nowadays their old ground is a Sainsbury’s and their mascot is a bunny called Scunny.

But what about Scunthorpe the place? It used to be a steel town, which presumably is why the football team is called the Irons. And Greenpeace once described it as a PVC toxic hotspot.

Hopefully pollution is a thing of the past. Indeed, I’m sure it’s a nice place today. However the nearest I’m going to get to this match is the TV set. Will we win? Come on, we’re talking about Leicester here, so anything could happen.

I find it hard to believe, but Megson is being touted as a serious front runner for the Bolton job. If this is true we could be losing yet another manager, and this time without an away trip to Plymouth!

Some reports (see here) even suggest Milan will simply let him go! Frankly I’m gobsmacked.  Surely we aren’t about to see another round of speculation about another new Leicester manager….or are we?

Perhaps we should have just stuck with Rob Kelly.

Poor Crystal Palace. Warnock is their new manager. Still, the good news is that should Megson be given the Mandaric boot anytime soon (unlikely I know, but this is football after all) at least we wont have to worry about Warnock becoming City manager. What relief. We all know what an odious, nauseating etc etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. he is.

Sheffield Wednesday 0 Leicester City 2, Saturday 6 October 2007

I was walking around Christchurch harbour when this match kicked off. With no access to the radio I was using a Blackberry to get updates of the score. By the time the result came through I was in a shop watching a TV in the electrical goods section. Luckily nobody tried to sell it to me and I was able to hang around until the win was confirmed. My little dance when they flashed up the full time scores must have looked a little weird but who cares. I left the shop empty handed but with a smile on my face.