The Fosse Way

What happened at around quarter to four last Saturday afternoon in LE2 has led to lots of conversations about the best Leicester City goals scored at our home of 23 and a half years.

My three favourite Leicester City goals on Filbert Way were all scored by Jamie Vardy, but none are the famous goal against Liverpool. Instead, I’d pick out that over-the-shoulder volleyed lob against Tottenham, the calm finish after a ingenious assist from Riyad Mahrez against Manchester City, the calm finish after an ingenious assist from Riyad Mahrez against Manchester United.

I can see the case for Nalis against Leeds and Gallagher against Crystal Palace, but Joey Gudjonsson against Hull? It’s confession time. I’ve always thought goals from the halfway line were a bit overrated. Hit and hope. Not as aesthetically pleasing as a team goal or something involving delicate touch and technique.

One of the best things about supporting Leicester City over the past few decades – and perhaps this is true of every team – is their incredible ability, just when I think I’ve figured this ridiculous football club out once and for all, to prove me so, so wrong. This is just the latest example.

Now I appreciate the beauty of the ultra long-range goal.

There are a few differences between Gudjonsson’s goal and Abdul Fatawu’s hit last weekend if we’re comparing the two. 

In Gudjonsson’s favour, we were already leading when Fatawu scored and Gudjonsson’s went straight in whereas Fatawu’s bounced before hitting the net.

In Fatawu’s favour, his was from further out and, of course, Gudjonsson didn’t nutmeg anyone before he let fly.

But for me, the key difference is that I was there for Fatawu’s. And that’s totally changed my thinking about goals scored from the halfway line.

Being there gives a completely different perspective because what I will remember forever about Fatawu’s goal is how I felt before the ball crossed the line: this real-time realisation that I was watching something truly special; something I hadn’t previously seen in hundreds of live games across several decades. Few players try it across their whole career. Even fewer try it as often as Fatawu does. And barely anyone else has ever scored from the distance Fatawu did.

The crime is that if he’d done it in the exact same fixture earlier this year, he’d have gone mega-viral. That’s the curse of playing in the EFL for you, forever doomed to go micro-viral instead. Just wait until he does it in the World Cup.

From my vantage point in SK1, it looked initially like the ball would be troubling the corner flag more than Christian Walton in the Ipswich goal. But very quickly, it became apparent that Walton was worried. And that’s another great thing about watching a goal from past the halfway line happen in front of you: the goalkeeper is brought into the storyline more than for any other goal. 

Looking at replays, I’d say it took around four seconds for the ball to travel from Fatawu’s foot into the net. That’s quite a long time, especially compared to almost any other type of goal you could imagine. The comic element of a goalkeeper wildly scrambling back towards his own goal to save his blushes is, it turns out, great entertainment. 

The moments then come quite quickly, probably in this order: the moment when you realise the ball might actually be on target; the moment when you realise Walton is in serious trouble; the brief moment of doubt when it looks like the ball might bounce over the bar.

Then it is in and now come the celebrations: far more exuberant scenes in the stands than you’d usually see for a second goal just before half time in a Championship home game, with a touch of incredulity thrown in for good measure. Goal! But also: we’ve all seen something special today!

It probably helped even more that our club’s fate is intertwined with Ipswich for the third season in a row. And that expectations were low. Just 16% of respondents to our pre-match Instagram prediction poll thought Leicester would beat Ipswich, let alone that they’d see Abdul Fatawu score from somewhere near the Saff.

I could barely be bothered to drag myself along to the game after the abomination of the second half at Ashton Gate the previous Wednesday. And the familiar collapse against Bristol City sets another important part of the scene ahead of Fatawu’s strike.

This squad hasn’t come across as the same band of brothers we heard about in Vardy’s heyday. There are demonstrably disruptive characters in this dressing room, or perhaps now outside of it. We’ve been searching for clues as to whether the squad is backing Marti Cifuentes or not, whether each player wants to be here or not.

Fatawu in particular hasn’t looked himself in recent weeks, perhaps frustrated with his own fluctuating form. When such an effervescent character fails to celebrate goals, it stands out.

His own reaction to his goal last Saturday was reassuring, his team-mates’ reaction even more so, with every outfield player joining him in the Ipswich penalty area. It was a show of unity and genuine joy for one of their own that was reminiscent of the celebrations for Vardy’s record-breaking goal against Manchester United in 2015.

We get these moments every now and then. The terrifying thought that I would have missed a Leicester player scoring from 70 yards is one of the things that will keep me coming back. Given how often Fatawu tries it, he might even do it again. After all, he came close enough at Swansea to merit another few tries. It’s wonderful that there would have been so many Leicester fans groaning when he made his most recent attempt.

What’s even more wonderful is that even after an indescribable decade or so following this club all over England and Europe, when you think you’ve seen it all, they had managed to conjure something else entirely fresh and new to bring us joy. Well, Abdul did anyway.

And if we’re brought crashing back down to earth at Loftus Road this weekend, at least we can rewatch Fatawu’s goal on YouTube once more.