Three thousand of us travel to Sunderland for one of the most important games we will ever see. They’re all like that now. Some set off on Friday to make a weekend of it, while others head up on Saturday to go out for a few drinks. The rest of us set our alarm clocks for stupid o’clock and fish out sat-navs or dog-eared road atlases.
As we make our way up the M1, we pass by names from our past.
Junction 24: Derby and Nottingham. This is the life City left behind. The nerves of an East Midlands rivalry. The workplace one-upmanship. The clubs at either end of Brian Clough Way battling it out in the Championship.
There’s been little enjoyment recently for Nottingham Forest fans. Their team won three times in the first three months of the season, before threatening to start rising up the table with a 1-0 win over Derby. They lost at Brentford but then went unbeaten for twelve league matches. Briefly, things looked rosy for the Reds. Their manager, Dougie Freedman, appeared to be getting the best out of his players and they rose to tenth in the Championship table, within reach of the play-offs. A 2-0 defeat at home to Huddersfield Town sparked another slump though, this time consisting of eight defeats in ten games. Freedman departed in the middle of that awful run and, as City prepare to face Sunderland seemingly on the verge of creating history, life as a Nottingham Forest fan must feel bleak.
They don’t care about Leicester City, as they keep reminding us on a regular basis. They only care about Derby County, who haven’t had the season they were hoping for either. Derby’s prospects look slightly brighter. Ahead of the weekend, their expensively-assembled squad is clinging onto the sixth and final play-off place with six games remaining. There were high hopes for Paul Clement, who had previously been assistant manager at Real Madrid, but he was soon shown the door as the club’s hierarchy despaired at his inability to implement the so-called ‘Derby way’.
Some of us, crazy that we are, thought we would miss one or two aspects of life in the Football League. As our team prepares to try extending its Premier League lead to ten points, the thought of a Championship fixture against Derby or Forest is not top of our agenda.
Junction 33: Sheffield. The journey continues. The coaches roll on through old coalmine territories, past the lower-league towns of Chesterfield and Mansfield and the familiar recent venues of Doncaster and Barnsley, until the view out of the windows on the left side becomes a vast, sprawling industrial city surrounded by hills on all sides. Sheffield: another regular destination during City’s decade away from the top flight. From removing our shoes at Bramall Lane to hailing Gary Megson at Hillsborough, the steel city has provided some memorable away days in the past ten years but it has mostly brought defeat.
Sheffield Wednesday are battling it out along with Derby to secure a play-off place. Sheffield United, meanwhile, look set to miss out on the League One play-offs and remain out of the top two divisions for a sixth consecutive season – a reminder of what can happen if promotion is not achieved from the third tier at the first attempt. Thank heavens for that Wednesday legend, Nigel Pearson.
Junction 43: Leeds. If Nottingham Forest have become accustomed to failure and Sheffield United are becalmed in League One, then what is there to say about Leeds United? Leeds, historically a gigantic club with tales to tell of their feared sides of the past, have been stumbling from one crisis to another for years. Just over a year ago, it was Leicester City that appeared to be in crisis. What a difference twelve months can make. The owners, management team, players and supporters of Leicester City are, unlike Leeds, united.
The cars and coaches go on until, at long last, we reach the Stadium of Light and memories of our previous visit come flooding back. ‘That will do for Leicester. There have been some special ones, but this has to go down as the greatest relegation escape the Premier League has ever known’: the words of Match of the Day commentator Guy Mowbray at the final whistle in City’s goalless draw at Sunderland in May 2015 that confirmed our Premier League status for another year.
What a sweet sound that whistle made. Esteban Cambiasso picked up the ball and held it out in front of him. The City players congregated in celebration. Even Jeff Schlupp eventually realised what the result meant. High up above Kasper Schmeichel’s goal, we went wild with delight.
It’s not the benefit of hindsight that allows the greatest of escapes to be viewed as an opportunity for this team to kick on and make the most of their talent. It was always true. That’s what was frustrating about the majority of last season. We knew they were capable of so much more. We just didn’t realise quite how far they would take us on what has been a magical journey to this point.
A draw was the minimum we needed that day. Only a win will do today. It’s bobble hat and sunglasses weather – chilly but bright. Hundreds of fans stand outside the Colliery Tavern with pints in hand, enjoying the sun and showing no signs of tension. Sunderland are one of several clubs to follow a similar format with their so-called fan zone, a gated section outside the stadium where supporters of both clubs mingle while a local band turns the amp up to eleven only to receive general disinterest in return.
Ranieri picks his usual eleven. Sunderland’s main threat – perhaps only threat, though we cannot bring ourselves to jinx anything – is Jermain Defoe, one of the deadliest finishers in Premier League history. It’s important we don’t give him a sniff. We trust in Wes and Huth.
The first half is scrappy but there’s some strong intent from City. Shinji Okazaki is lively, although his touch lets him down at vital times – perhaps an able summary of his efforts in a blue shirt all season. The star attackers, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, are less involved and it soon becomes clear this will be a tough afternoon. Sunderland don’t offer a lot up front but their defence holds firm and there are few opportunities for either side.
Perhaps the main talking point is referee Anthony Taylor’s failure to award Okazaki a penalty after the Japanese striker takes the ball on his chest in the area only to be prevented from shooting by the home side’s right-back DeAndre Yedlin. Taylor presumably sees it as a ‘coming together’. From high up in the away end, it’s difficult to tell. Those watching on television are treated to numerous replays showing Yedlin kicking Okazaki in the chest.
The game remains in the balance into the second half. From the back of the visiting supporters’ section, we can’t see a clock inside the stadium because of the overhanging roof. It feels like time has stopped still. Occasionally we remember to check our watches or our phones but there’s so much happening on the pitch that nobody wants to tear their eyes away from the action.
To the neutral, there may not seem to be much action. You never know what might be decisive though. A routine pass or tackle in the middle of the park could prove the moment when the pendulum swings in favour of one team or the other. Perhaps we’ll play forever until someone scores.
Halfway through the second half, someone does score. Riyad Mahrez, who has scored the winner in City’s last two away games, is clearly having an off-day, one of those afternoons when defenders are closing down his usual languid lope and he begins to look lazy. There’s no joy from set pieces either – Sunderland are a giant side able to cope with the aerial threat of Morgan and Huth.
Ranieri’s men have consistently found different ways to win games, so it’s time to go back to what worked so well on several occasions last autumn. Danny Drinkwater picks up possession in midfield and plays the long ball early, stabbing at it with his right foot to ensure it holds up when it lands rather than running through to the goalkeeper. He’s tried this more than once already today with no success but this time Jamie Vardy has managed to isolate his marker, Younes Kaboul, on the halfway line. The ball drops in the left channel and Vardy is onto it in a flash, while Kaboul hesitates before giving chase. You can’t give Jamie Vardy a headstart in a race. It’s difficult enough when he starts ten yards behind you.
Vardy takes a touch and it looks too heavy, just as it did back in the summer of 2013 when his winner at Middlesbrough began to turn his career around. Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone has made the same mistake as Kaboul though. He’s hesitated. Vardy gets to the ball first and lifts it past Mannone into the net.
Leicester City have been accused of playing long ball football this season. Pundits have said it isn’t easy on the eye, while eulogising over Tottenham Hotspur’s pretty patterns in possession. Tell that to the thousands of City fans who go up and down the country every other week and watch Jamie Vardy racing onto a through ball, beating the defender with sheer pace and slotting into the bottom corner. It’s beautiful.
Nothing can beat it. The thrill of the chase you know the defender will never win; the look of anxiety on the goalkeeper’s face; the sense of anticipation as Vardy prepares to shoot: you can’t replicate that with any number of short passes in the build-up to a goal. It’s pure adrenaline and it’s addictive. Give us more. Do it again. Let’s see it.
For now, City relax. They still create the odd chance but they also slow the game down. Take the sting out of it. This is Ranieri’s influence, of course – closing out the ninety minutes rather than going for the jugular. Demarai Gray and Daniel Amartey both come on to join Leonardo Ulloa, who had replaced Okazaki prior to Vardy’s goal, and the three replacements all help to keep the ball in the Sunderland half. It’s become an art form in recent weeks. Gray, in particular, has developed a real knack for it, retaining possession at all costs.
There is one scare. An unfortunate deflection leaves Sunderland substitute Jack Rodwell in front of goal with just Kasper Schmeichel to beat and nearly the entire net at which to aim. Up in the rafters, we wait for it to ripple. The ball travels beyond Schmeichel’s reach, up and up. Up. Keep going. It’s going to hit the bar. It’s still going. Up. Up. Up. And it clears the bar and thousands of City fans collapse with relief and millions of neutrals watching worldwide must do the same.
Panic over, City return to the routine. The ball stays in the Sunderland half and there are no real opportunities for the home side at the other end of the pitch, as though Rodwell’s miss has deflated any remaining belief entirely.
City are in the process of seeing out five minutes of injury time fairly comfortably when Vardy decides to end the game himself rather than waiting for the referee’s whistle, sprinting clear from halfway to nick the ball past Mannone and roll it into an empty net.
So we can celebrate another brilliant Vardy goal and confirmation of three more crucial points all in one go, and we make a decent fist of it. There are bodies on the floor, bodies in the aisles and limbs all over the place.
Before long, the final whistle has sounded and we’re singing again like we did at Selhurst Park. It’s not quite the same this time. That was spontaneous and emotional. This feels like the continuing of a tradition. We stay and we sing about winning the league and the magnanimous among the home team’s support stay as well to clap us and our players. That takes real class when your own side has just lost an important game that could help to condemn them to relegation.
N’Golo Kanté is named Man of the Match for another incredible display of energy, enthusiasm and destructive midfield play. The question for the opposition is how to prevent him from being so effective. What can managers say to their players? ‘That guy who runs around at full pelt all game, tackling anyone in sight and charging up the pitch with the ball… try to avoid him.’
The focus has switched in the past six weeks from an inability to break down Norwich for long periods, through Riyad Mahrez’s away-day match winners, favourable refereeing decisions and the brilliance of Wes Morgan, to the fact City haven’t conceded a goal for over eight hours. Those topics have all merited discussion, but the most amazing thing of all has been overlooked. At the precise time when the pressure was meant to tell and teams were supposed to be working out how to stop Leicester City, Claudio Ranieri and his players have won five Premier League games in a row. That’s difficult to do at any stage of the season. To do it in mid-April to ensure a seven-point gap at the top with five games left is truly unbelievable. This whole season is unbelievable.
We get back into our cars and coaches and trains and we make the long journey home, feeling as though we have put in ninety minutes of effort ourselves. We listen to Tottenham’s 3-0 win over Manchester United on the way, even more relieved that our team won. Only when we have returned home do we see that Ranieri was as emotional as many of us at the final whistle.
Speaking in English to the assembled press afterwards, he says: ‘It is fantastic when you see before the match, an old lady with a Leicester shirt outside the stadium. I say: “Unbelievable. They come from Leicester to support us.” This is my emotion. It is fantastic. I was on the bus. I saw them, unbelievable, and I want to say thank you for the support. They are dreaming and we want to continue to dream.’
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport in his native tongue, Ranieri explains further: ‘They weren’t real tears, they were unshed tears. It was an emotional moment. Seeing all those people around us, entire families on buses in Leicester shirts to follow us up to Sunderland – that struck me deeply. At times like that you realised the extraordinary power of football. When our sport brings this positivity you can’t remain indifferent.’
Sunderland 0
Leicester City 2 (Vardy 2)
Team: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez (Gray), Drinkwater, Kanté, Albrighton (Amartey), Okazaki (Ulloa), Vardy
This is an excerpt from The Unbelievables: The Remarkable Rise of Leicester City.
The Fosse Way 