The most interesting thing about Leicester City at the moment is the divide among the fanbase between the King Power loyalists and the anti-board protesters. This conflict spilled out from social media and messageboards into real life during the first half of this game, with one supporter presumably so exercised by his love of a duty free company that he felt the need to attack a drum. All human life is here.
We’re headed for a reckoning. A boycott is slated for the first home game of 2026 against West Bromwich Albion and we’ll soon learn whether the Foxes Trust Reform campaign has been successful in refreshing the Trust’s leadership. There’s also the small matter of the points deduction verdict and the inevitable ensuing fallout.
This game gave us no decisive answers about any of that, or the fate of Marti Cifuentes, or whether Leicester are going to end up closer to promotion or relegation. It was merely a routine win over a team that we always beat, which was much-needed three days after losing to the other team we always beat.
Derby, chastened by defeat earlier in the month to the worst Leicester City side in nearly two decades, set about their task with relish.
It took them 12 seconds to fire the ball over Luke Thomas into space down the Leicester left.
It took them 14 seconds to get the ball into our six-yard box.
It took them 37 seconds to win a corner and 93 seconds to have a shot.
In fact, much like in the Boxing Day defeat to Watford, Leicester had done nothing for the first six minutes and then took the lead out of nowhere. Abdul Fatawu, faced with two Derby defenders, simply beat them both for pace down the outside and delivered a simple low cross for a bizarrely unmarked Bobby Decordova-Reid to sweep into the net. It was very similar to his goal at Bristol City, memories of which perhaps tempered any threat of excitement.
Sure enough, there was little time to revel in the early opener because Derby levelled before the game reached the ten minute mark. Again, it was a simple goal. Hamza Choudhury was exposed, former Fox Callum Elder cut the ball back and Rhian Brewster steered it in past Luke Thomas on the line. That’s now 18 games without a clean sheet. No pizza parties for this lot.
So that was the first ten minutes and those of you with plans may wish to fast forward to the 41st minute Jordan James winner and then head off into the sunset. Because the final 80 minutes of this match were a grind.
Leicester’s best effort with the scores level was a low Luke Thomas shot across the face of goal. Their most ridiculous wasn’t even the Choudhury drive from 30 yards that flew miles over the bar; it was Fatawu inventing a new kind of attempt at a shot when it would have made more sense to keep the pressure on.
Moments like that from Fatawu are a reminder of how good Enzo Maresca was for him, a young and often overenthusiastic player being tutored by an elite manager. For whatever reason, Marti Cifuentes isn’t getting the best out of Fatawu on a regular basis. Partly, it’s because of the 66-year-old front two. But we’ll come to that later.
Ten minutes before half time, Derby’s six-foot-three makeshift right-back Sondre Klingen Langas left Luke Thomas flailing and delivered for Brewster to head wide.
Thomas picked himself up and soon delivered the match-winning assist. It was the same Thomas-to-James combination that produced the third goal at Pride Park. If we’re being really optimistic, there’s still a faint glimmer of hope that Luke Thomas can reinvent his Leicester career as a creative attacking left-back at Championship level in the vein of Leif Davis or Harrison Burrows.
That’s not to give him undue credit for what was essentially a hopeful punt into the channel but he appeared to spot Jordan James peeling off his marker and he put the ball in the right area. James did the rest, shrugging off Liam Thompson before guiding his shot into the far corner of the net.
It was a fantastically calm finish, which we have come to expect. Gerrard, Lampard, Andy King: whatever your reference point for goalscoring central midfielders, Jordan James is keeping Leicester competitive at the moment. In fact, Fatawu’s goal against Ipswich aside, our loan star has been responsible for pretty much all of the best moments of the season so far. January revolves around whether we can move to tie him down permanently.
Half time in the first game of the second half of the season and Leicester were, as ever, three points off the play-offs. Accused by the away fans of residing in a library, the response of 2-1 to the library boys was pretty sharp for our usual attempts at witty repartee.
The second half had barely begun before we were treated to a rare sighting of the lesser-spotted Midweek Ricardo Pereira, on for the stricken Choudhury. Ricky has struggled of late but this scenario suited him perfectly. He helped keep possession high up the pitch and wasn’t troubled going in the other direction.
Although we were braced for the standard second half opposition equaliser, Derby failed to gain any real momentum. When they did briefly threaten just before the hour mark, Ben Nelson stepped in to cover for Luke Thomas and then headed clear the subsequent set piece. As with many of Cifuentes’s decisions, it took too long to get to what seemed obvious for most fans but we are there now with Nelson. This was a confident performance, which would have been worthy of the man of the match award if Derby hadn’t been so weak going forward.
Derby have had the fewest shots in the division, the only side to average fewer than ten per game. But the fact there are nine Championship teams to have had fewer shots than Leicester this season says everything about this league’s quality. Leicester had just eight shots again in this game. Across the two games against Derby this month, Leicester scored five goals from thirteen attempts. The sum total of the two second halves was an off-target Jordan James drive from distance halfway through the second half last night and three blocked shots from Mavididi. Only three teams take their shots from a further average distance.
There are a number of reasons for the discontent at present but a more entertaining and cohesive side in attack would help. Everything looks very laboured in possession and it’s hard to see what is being coached.
A series of substitutions helped make the game scrappy, with Silko Thomas and Aaron Ramsey coming on to be closely followed by Jeremy Monga and Louis Page. Ramsey lasted just a few minutes before he was replaced in the second double sub, having waited on the touchline for several minutes to come on in the first place. It looked amateurish all round and while you could just label him unfortunate with injuries, the sharper take is that it reflects poorly on a number of people at the club.
The remainder of the game ticked by largely without incident, the youngsters’ pressing noticeably more energetic and effective than that of Ayew and Reid. Silko Thomas did especially well to set up the one decent attempt Leicester had in the second half. The now-established midfield pair covered when needed too, James taking a cynical yellow to prevent a dangerous counter attack after a terrible Mavididi pass was intercepted and Oliver Skipp stopping an attack from Derby substitute Corey Blackett-Taylor down the right with five minutes remaining.
Derby’s best chance to equalise came halfway through an unfathomable seven minutes of injury time and if it had gone in, it wouldn’t have looked out of place this season. Monga was easily beaten out wide and when the ball came in, Andreas Weimann shot wide with Lars-Jorgen Salvesen just failing to make contact to deflect the ball on target.
The defensive contribution of the young players in the final half hour was so well-received that it would have been interesting to note the mood had that late Derby chance found its way in. Monga is certainly going to have to improve the defensive side of his game at some stage, whether with us or after getting his big move to a Premier League giant.
But add together Ben Nelson’s presence at the back, effort from Oliver Skipp and Jordan James in midfield and the exuberance of Louis Page and Silko Thomas in leading the press and there was a faint blueprint in the final stages here of the kind of side a lot of Leicester City fans would like to see. In a way, that’s more important right now than three points.
The Fosse Way 
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