The Fosse Way

After a midweek 5-1 win against Ipswich, going into a home game against mid-table opposition, this was a decent chance for a win. We were 2-0 down after 20 minutes, through goals from Cathinka Tandberg and Olivia Holdt, but Sam Tierney capped off a battling performance in midfield with what turned out to be a consolation goal just before half-time.

It was a very promising start. Leicester were on the front foot and were pushing forward well. Although there was nothing that Opta could, or did, classify as a ‘big chance’ in the first 10 minutes.  

Nice interplay with Emily Van Egmond slipping the ball through Spurs’ defence on the turn ended up with Asmita Ale popping up on the left-hand side. She was crowded out and it came to nothing, but it was a promising move forward.

Compared to previous games, this was pretty end-to-end, but in the 15th minute a low cross into the box from Spurs’ right was blocked by Olivia McLoughlin and cruelly fell at the feet of Tandberg. She had time to take a few steps forward and easily score from just outside the 6-yard box.

After some good play by Leicester, it stung to have conceded like this. It was such a freak occurrence; no one was alive to the second ball after McLoughlin’s block, and it all looked a bit daft. But this Leicester team have fight, and just a few minutes later we saw Ale pop up on the left again with a decent shot at goal. I seem to remember some sort of old catchphrase, ‘Foxes never’ something?

The relevance of that old mantra was queried though after a great long pass from Eveliina Summanen at the halfway line made Leicester’s midfield and defensive lines completely irrelevant. The ball ran into the path of Holdt, who Janice Cayman seemed to have lost track of. Holdt popped up behind the defence and, as with their first goal, she had plenty of time to take her shot and chipped it over Janina Leitzig in the Leicester goal.

It felt like there was blood in the water, and the crowd at the KP may have been starting to worry about another big defeat. We’ve not quite learned to trust this team yet. They’re building a reputation throughout the league for being tough to break down, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that scoring more than one goal is a big ask for this side.

From that point on, we carried on in our Passmore-ball style, now familiar after 4 games of the season. Sitting deep, packing the middle and chasing long balls out from the back, it’s not pretty, but it’s potentially effective. Our set pieces need to improve, and a foul on McLoughlin just outside Spurs’ box gave us a great chance for some live practice. Julie Thibaud and Hannah Cain stood over the ball, slightly to the right of centre, and there was some palpable tension. I’m all for centre-backs stepping up and leathering the ball for a free kick – it’s maybe my favourite type of goal – but despite the effort, it hit the wall. This feels like a metaphor for Leicester in general.

We didn’t look too downhearted with our situation heading towards the break. We kept going forward, in our own way, and got a few corners without quite managing to feel dangerous from them. But 5 minutes before the break, Leicester’s effort was rewarded with a Tierney goal that the Spurs players pretended was in any way contentious. Cain fizzed the ball in hard and low from the touchline, and Hlin Eiriksdottir stuck a leg out to reroute the ball into the path of Tierney. Spurs’ defence will be kicking themselves; it was lax marking. Tierney’s late run into the box was rewarded, and the way she smashed it into the net, unmarked from a few yards out, must have felt a little bit cathartic. It certainly did for me.

The second half was a similar, odd mix of end-to-end but without much drama. Leicester still looked lively going forward, and there was some needle in the game. There was a yellow card for Cain and two more for Spurs throughout the half. In all the games so far this season, Passmore waited until around the 70th minute to make any changes, but today he made a few positive changes just before the hour mark. Eiriksdottir has failed to impress so far this season. 4 starts in the league has been a pretty consistent run for her, and she is certainly getting the vote of confidence from Passmore. She was replaced by Jutta Rantala, who will be a better option going forward as part of the front 3. Rantala scored 10 goals in 30 games in 2023/24, and hopefully we can see more of her this season than the 4 games she got last year before injury. 

Shannon O’Brien returned from suspension to replace an injured Cain and was largely anonymous. Cain’s injury looked like the kind of innocuous knock that can mean a long time out, so hopefully it’s not a recurrence of her previous issues. We need all the help we can get going forward, and Cain is a vital part of our front 3.

At 2-1 down, going into the last 10 minutes, we saw a big push forward from Leicester. We were getting it launched and chasing it down with real menace for the last few minutes. It left us more open, but Leicester’s defence dealt with most attacks that got through with good positioning and better luck. Rantala found the space for a big shot from outside the box and showed some real skill in finding pockets to operate in front of the Spurs defence. Ultimately, that equaliser didn’t come, not for want of trying. 

It’s very early to look at the table after only 4 games. But with one win from our first 4 games, 3 points, it’s more than many people expected us to get this far in. It’s hard to explain just how written off Leicester have been this season. With billionaire-backed London City Lionesses coming up and other teams in the league strengthening, it’s going to be a huge effort for us to stay up. But this isn’t the first time I’ve written this, and I’m sure I’ll write it many more times through the season. We really can do this, even if it won’t be the most exciting football that we play.