The Fosse Way

Leicester City have played in some enormous games over the past ten years. The nerve-janglers of a Premier League title chase. An FA Cup final. Games played hundreds of miles away from these shores in the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan, the Vicente Calderon, the Stadio Olimpico.

Tuesday nights under the lights at home to Bristol City may not have the same ring to it, the pre-match fire-and-light show played out to sparsely-populated stands, but each game now is beginning to feel even bigger than the last. This team has been plummeting towards League One with a vast wage bill and the need for that elusive clean sheet, to remember how to win, has become more pressing with each passing week.

On the same night, three ex-Leicester players made appearances in the four Champions League knockout encounters with Yunus Akgun coming off the bench for Galatasaray against Liverpool and one-time left-wing rivals Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman starting for Newcastle and Atletico Madrid respectively. Harry Kane and Trey Nyoni made it five former Foxes in matchday squads.

Meanwhile, Gary Rowett picked Jordan Ayew and Bobby Decordova-Reid in the same starting eleven. Our previous heights and heroes have rarely felt so far away.

It’s been a particularly baffling decision to drop Divine Mukasa, who had the temerity to score twice and assist three times in his first three league starts. One below-par performance against Norwich and he’s been consigned to the bench twice in four days, while Patson Daka finally steered home an accomplished finish on Saturday only to be thrown back out of the team here.

On the bright side, the return of Jordan James to the starting lineup brought a boost to all Leicester fans. If he can stay fit and restore his form from the first half of the season, Leicester can and probably will stay up. There were eyebrows raised that he replaced Harry Winks rather than Oliver Skipp, but we would see a vital all-action display from the most recent of our Tottenham midfield buys.

Since Bristol City last visited Filbert Way and a hero’s welcome was given to Nigel Pearson, Andy King and Matty James, James has moved on to promotion-chasing Wrexham, King has taken charge of Leicester on several occasions and Pearson is a whisper you hear across the Soar every few months as another manager packs his belongings into a cardboard box. So it was Gerhard Struber in the away dugout this time and no names of any consequence to us in the visiting squad.

Although the Robins had fallen away from play-off contention a little with one win in six, they had won two of their previous three away games. The last time Leicester had won at home, Donald Trump had just ordered a raid in Caracas to capture the Venezuelan president. Although it seems a lifetime ago in the context of both Leicester City Football Club and geopolitical events, that was only two months back.

A frantic opening saw Leicester pile bodies into the opposition box in the first minute of the game. Too many bodies as it turned out, blue shirts chaotically blocking their team-mates’ attempts in a crowded area. That bright start lasted around 75 seconds with the visitors winning four corners in the following three minutes and Jakub Stolarczyk at full stretch more than once. Straight up the other end Leicester went with Stephy Mavididi’s shot saved by Radek Vitek with Decordova-Reid inches away from turning the ball into an empty net.

From there, things finally settled and Leicester were able to exert some control with Abdul Fatawu promisingly lively. And it was a trademark Fatawu dance in from the right that won a free kick which was delivered by Jordan James and nodded in at the back post by Ben Nelson for a precious lead.

Always seeming desperate to invite pressure, Luke Thomas and Mavididi both misplaced simple clearances to invite Bristol City to attack. But although panic stations never seem far away and the route to that almost mythical clean sheet is always treacherous, the visitors looked fairly useless and were there to be had.

And have them we did, a flurry of chances eventually leading to a second goal. Fatawu again motored away down the right and turned inside to find Mavididi with an excellent crossfield ball. Mavididi’s effort struck the outside of the post. Soon after, the cross came from the other side through James and Decordova-Reid’s failed bicycle kick attempt landed with Fatawu whose right-footed volley snuck through Vitek’s grasp.

It’s at times like these that you can’t help wondering how this team is where it is in the league table. It’s not that there are too many good players, because the goalkeeper is still shaky, the defenders are all calamity-prone and we have no real presence up front. None of that was drastically different to normal. But this team has had Jordan James and Abdul Fatawu available for vast swathes of this season and failed to back up their clear talent with any kind of reliable competence in other areas of the pitch.

So it was an interesting challenge for the other nine players on the pitch as James continued to drive through midfield like a man determined to make up for his injury absence and Fatawu tormented the Bristol City back line. Could they do the basics well enough to keep Bristol City at bay and ensure Leicester stayed above the dreaded dotted line at the final whistle?

At this point we should mention how the evening was going for Tottenham Hotspur who kicked off against Atletico in Madrid a quarter of an hour after Leicester. Essentially, they were 3-0 down and the goalkeeper they’d brought into the side had been so bad he was substituted before the 20-minute mark. So on one hand, they’re in the Champions League and we’re staring down the barrel of League One. But on the other, we might be playing them in the league again next season and it’s always funny when other teams go 4-0 down after 22 minutes.

Back in LE2, Bristol City had upped it slightly without unduly troubling Stolarczyk and Leicester were able to go in at the break with a 2-0 lead against these opponents for the second time this season.

The only trouble is that if this team hadn’t conceded four goals in the first half at Queen’s Park Rangers, another four to lose from 3-0 up at half time against Southampton and three in the first half at home to Sheffield United, there would be a strong argument that the second half of the trip to Ashton Gate in December would be the worst half of football this season. So many to choose from!

They came out for the second 45 that night as if they’d never seen a football before, let alone met each other before the game. One of the main issues was a recurring one this season: a non-existent second half goal threat, with barely a shot or a foray over the halfway line. That was also the story at Ipswich but it still resulted in a point.

There were no shots in the first ten minutes of the second half but there were almost two goals. At one end, Hamza Choudhury effected a clearance when a goal felt probable. At the other, Fatawu must have hesitated when a dangerous break seemed to necessitate trying to play Ayew through on goal with a fair way still to travel. His attempted centre was fired behind, just off target, by a retreating defender.

If Leicester’s three managers this season all seem to have instructed their players to sit back and do nothing from an attacking perspective after their fifteen-minute break, then surely every single opposition manager must be telling his own charges to, paraphrasing Harry Redknapp, “just run around a bit”. That normally does the trick.

Within moments of surprisingly bringing off their top goalscorer, Bristol City set off on a routine attack which caused absolute havoc among the Leicester defence and Nelson’s clumsy challenge resulted in a penalty. But in a shock twist, Emil Riis struck a weak, low penalty and Stolarczyk guessed the right way. It was a double let-off because a better through ball would surely have brought a goal without the need for a penalty to be awarded.

Roused into action of his own, Rowett responded by replacing Choudhury, James and Ayew with Ricardo, Winks and Daka, a triple substitution that again makes Leicester’s league position look ludicrous to some.

Late substitutions are a lingering question mark over Rowett, a hangover from the Cifuentes days, and who knows how this game might have played out had Stolarczyk not gone the right way. But Leicester haven’t had things go the right way for a long time and it’s easy to embrace when they do rather than focusing on the negatives.

The key difference between this game and so many others was that Bristol City were made to worry about another goal going past Vitek. Fatawu’s familiar cut inside led to a shot which dropped onto the roof of the net, then Nelson flicked on a Thomas long throw but there was nobody following up.

Shortly after, Fatawu nutmegged his marker and his shot flew narrowly wide at the far post with Okoli close to heading in. Fatawu in unplayable mode is a glorious sight.

With thirteen minutes remaining, we finally saw Mukasa replace Decordova-Reid. One of his first actions was to swivel outside the box and find Mavididi whose low centre wasn’t quite close enough to Daka.

The closing stages were seen out quite comfortably thanks to the addition of Winks and Mukasa, while Nelson recovered well from the penalty concession. And although the much-maligned Ayew didn’t contribute a huge amount, there were improved performances again from players who have faced criticism. Stolarczyk overcame a shaky start to deserve his clean sheet, Thomas is putting in more consistent displays and Skipp rivalled Fatawu for the man of the match award. 

Our star players will keep scoring under any manager but bringing others up to a standard we know they are capable of on a more consistent basis is what will keep Leicester in this division, and Rowett deserves credit for stopping the defeats, bringing a first clean sheet for 31 games and lifting the side out of the relegation zone.

The noise as the final seconds ticked down shows that Leicester City players shouldn’t be scared of playing at home. Put in the performance and the crowd will respond. There’s another opportunity this Saturday. Another win would make this a wonderful week. So what toppings do you want?