FoxHole

Leicester City 1 Charlton Athletic 1, Saturday 29 December 2007

This was one of those games where you can almost grasp the three points, only to have them fall over the edge into the abyss of a sickening 1-1 draw. After out-playing Charlton in the second half, taking a one goal lead, and thinking that maybe we’ll actually win two matches on the trot, they scramble an equaliser with just two minutes to go.

Suddenly euphoria turns to nausea, and the icy cold wind reminds us that it’s winter. I left the ground with mixed feelings. Extremely disappointed to have just one point. But considering Charlton’s credentials, delighted with the way we dominated them in the second half. If this form can be repeated in the games to come then relegation wont even be on the agenda.

Leicester City 2 Ipswich Town 0, Boxing Day 2007

We drank some beer after this game (nothing new there) but unlike most matches this season, the conversation included rare expressions such as “they all played well” or “we deserved to win”. (Usually someone mutters “what a load of crap” and the conversation quickly moves onto something other than football).

When we arrived back from the match, my wonderful grandson, who was born a Leicester City supporter, seemed oblivious to our great victory over Ipswich. But since he’s only one year old this is understandable. Indeed, he’s also been pretty oblivious to Christmas itself, finding the remote control just as interesting as a present. Still, while he played, we looked back on a great result.

So Boxing Day was cheerful for more than the usual festive reasons. City played well, worked hard, and yes, they deserved to win.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Leicester City 1, Saturday 22 December 2007

If you watched the game on TV you’d have noticed an improvement in our play, but still too many incomplete passes, miles too many long balls, and a failure to close down the Wolves strikers. Indeed, I thought we were lucky to come away with a point as they out-played us in the second half. (And why didn’t Kisnorbo look up at that crucial moment. He’d have surely seen the danger?)

So it will now be a long struggle to save our skins. Hopefully it will start this afternoon and then our traditional post match boxing day booze up will be one of festive cheer instead of festive fear (relegation that is).

Hull City 2 Leicester City 0, Saturday 15 December 2007

What can I say. We lost again, and by all accounts, our team were rubbish. We just gave up. Perhaps the players should look at the league table. That’s right, we’re just one point ahead of the team in last place!

D:Ream said that Things Can Only Get Better. It might have worked for Tony Blair in 1997 but I’m thinking a miracle might be needed now.

Ipswich Town 3 Leicester City 1, Tuesday 11 December 2008

“Padoobies”, according to Leicester City manager Ian Holloway. Despite another defeat, he seems remarkably upbeat, highlighting the positives and leaving his more unusual ollyisms to deal with poor refereeing decisions. Given that we seem to have entered a losing streak, I admire his ability to remain so calm. I have tried to look on the bright side (see my last posting), but personally, I’m wondering where our next point is coming from.

Clearly the penalty and a red card for Patric Kisnorbo with the scores level was a crucial turning point. Ten not all entirely fit players against a confident home team was never going to be easy, and so it proved.

The fitness of our team has certainly not gone unnoticed, prompting Ian Holloway to tell the Leicester Mercury “To play for me you need to be fit, to get around, and there were too many of them looking like they were going to go down at the end like skittles.”

So what next? Given that we are only a couple of points above the relegation zone and seemingly incapable of winning at home, should we start to panic?

How will we do against the Tractor boys this evening? Surely our fortunes must change for the better sooner or later.

And let’s look on the bright side. At least Ipswich don’t have any players called Pele (unlike West Brom, which is the clearly the real reason why we lost to them on Saturday).

We play the team from West Bromwich today. They had Jeff Astle and Bryan Robson, we had Peter Shilton, Frank Worthington, Gary Lineker….

They gave us Robert Plant and Phil Lynot, we produced Cornershop and Kasabian. They have Frank Skinner, we have Graham Chapman, Sue Townsend, Parminder Nagra, David Neilson, Richard Attenborough and quite a few others apparently (although other than David Neilson, I’ve no idea if the other famous Leicester folk are city fans).

And there’s more: They have the M5, we have the M1 and the M69. They have a black country dialect, we say things like cob, mardy, and “me duck”.

And finally, they seem to have a better football team than us. We’ll know for sure later.

My wonderful grandson reaches the age of one this week, and his party (or should that be our party?) is being held on Saturday afternoon. OK, not the best bit of planning as three season ticket holders, including me, his mum and his other grandad wont be able to get to the West Brom match as a result.

But family comes first, so while we celebrate, let’s hope Leicester put some icing on the (birthday) cake day with a long awaited home win.

It will be a tough task, especially on recent form. But Ian Holloway says we are only a home win away from being a decent side. If we beat West Brom then he may well be on to something.

Burnley 1 Leicester City 1, Tuesday 4 December 2007

Full Time: We escape with a point. We were definitely lucky, and our game certainly needs to improve. But we played five minutes of good football and scored an unlikely equaliser. As for the rest of the match, ask a Burnley fan what they thought…

21:28: Another fine save by City keeper Fulop means Leicester hang on again as Burnley spurn another chance. I may need a stiff drink to calm my nerves (PS. What exactly is stiff about an alcoholic liquid?).

21.25: Oh the joy. We have just equalised having played just a little bit better in the second half. Can we hold out?

Half Time: Listening to the match commentary on Radio Leicester one can appreciate the size of the task facing Ian Holloway. It sounds as if we’ve continued where we left off on Saturday - playing poorly. Indeed, the view from the Radio Leicester guys is only one team in it, and it isn’t Leicester. First half goal scoring opportunities: Burnley at least 5, Leicester 0.5!

Leicester City 1, Southampton 2, Saturday 1 December 2007

“Thank you for your endurance” is what they should have said when we were leaving the stadium rather than the usual “thank you for attendance”.

This was not a good afternoon. While we froze in a wind chill with a factor that could have been minus fifty, our team played like they were walking through snow. There was no movement, no organisation and no passion. To be frank, we were shit. The Saints on the other hand were also shit, but played shit with more commitment, making tackles and moving off the ball.

After the kick off, it all looked quite promising - for the first ten minutes - but after that we played progressively worse. We’ve seen it before of course. Long balls, poor passes, and defenders who don’t seem able to pass the ball forwards out of defence. When Southampton had the ball we seemed unwilling to close them down.

To be fair (a good football cliche), it wasn’t all bad. Andy King’s goal from well outside the penalty box was terrific, and the other young players showed signs of things to come. The fans were rather scathing of Carl Cort, but he had very little service or support, and I thought he did as well as expected in the circumstances. Indeed, his substitution made no difference at all as long ball tactics continued to fail.

Southampton’s winner from the penalty spot was somewhat controversial to say the least, prompting Ian Hollway to describe it as the worst decision he has ever seen. Not the greatest of Ollyisms I know, but there wasn’t really much else to get excited over in this match.