April 10th marked 11 years since Leicester’s great escape picked up steam. A late Jamie Vardy goal, who else, at the Hawthorns saw the Foxes claim a 3-2 victory to put us just three points off safety. The type of statement that gives everybody hope. A squad with commitment all over the field.
Vardy was in the stands watching on and this current Leicester side in 2026 couldn’t feel further removed from that side or that level of fight. Approaching the 10 year anniversary of our Premier League title, we’re staring down the prospect of joining a short list of clubs who have found themselves in back to back relegations from the Premier League to League One: Sunderland, Wolves and most recently Luton.
After failing to capitalise over the Easter weekend, we started the day 1 point from safety but with the worst form amongst the relegation candidates. After throwing away yet another game to a football trope of an ‘on the beach team’, and with both Oxford and Portsmouth winning, we end this game week 4 points from safety. The probability, and reality, of winning 2 or 3 from 4 when we’ve only got 2 wins in 2026 so far feels far-fetched.
For a team with just 1 win in 15 before kick-off, it was surprising to see bookmakers tipping Leicester. The more pessimistic Leicester fan could have profited from 3/1 odds on Swansea. It’s particularly surprising when we struggled to do anything against Sheffield Wednesday on Monday while Swansea spent ninety minutes frustrating the promotion chasing Middlesbrough.
If you’d taken somebody not interested in football and tasked them with working out which side essentially have nothing left to play for (notwithstanding professional pride) and which are battling relegation, they’d have struggled in this encounter. Odds are from the body language on display, they’d have got it wrong.
Swansea may not have a relegation or play-off campaign, but there’s always incentive to finish as high as possible and to keep up momentum. They also have Žan Vipotnik who is in the lead for the Golden Boot. They didn’t approach Leicester quite in the way that Sheffield Wednesday did, but they didn’t really have to. We spent large periods of the game not pressing them, not moving the ball with any urgency and generally making mistakes for them to counterattack us on.
Gary Rowett only made one change to the starting lineup, Jannik Vestergaard started in place of Caleb Okoli, who wasn’t even on the bench. While Jordan James was a welcome returning face to the bench, Ben Nelson was another noticeably missing name. When it rains, it pours because post-match Rowett confirmed Okoli and Nelson have both picked up injuries that will see them miss the end of the season.
Vestergaard’s Leicester career most resembles the shape of a rollercoaster, ups and downs aplenty. He was just about back in favour on the pitch and off it. You don’t have to like him to see that he appears to be one of the more committed players in recent weeks. Though that isn’t saying much.
What he lacks in pace and mobility, he makes up for with passing and a commanding presence at the back. However, the issue of speed is heightened when his partner, Jamaal Lascelles, suffers from the same limitations. Given the pair are now our only fit actual centre backs, it’s another worry to add to a growing list. Other teams will press that weakness more than Swansea did.
In hindsight, given the chances we failed to convert in the first half, the Dane might have been more effective up front. After hinting that we might turn to him, or even Harry Souttar, finally back in the matchday squad, we played it safe and kept him in the defensive line and didn’t deploy Souttar at all.
Continuing the theme from recent games of plenty of shots but little in the way of conversion, we had 19 shots in the whole game, 6 on target and 4 of those coming in the first half. We don’t have players you trust to score though. Much like the big chances at Hillsborough, the man you might trust to bury them wasn’t on the pitch. The best chance was one cleared off the line, Oliver Skipp the unfortunate player yet again.
Despite the chances, the away side didn’t look hugely troubled. We weren’t performing especially well. They’d been creating things but not quite been able to get Vipotnik involved and we were fortunate on several occasions. Not least when it looked like Luke Thomas could have given away a penalty. Fortunately the officials appeared to be getting a number of things wrong and didn’t catch it.
The overarching theme for this Leicester season has been the ability to constantly shoot ourselves in the foot. Not content with having gifted QPR and Preston a few goals each recently at the King Power, we handed Swansea a perfect counter attack.
Divine Mukasa’s corner kick was presumably an attempt at a practised routine, but the loanee put the ball straight to the feet of Eom Ji-sung and the Swans were off, Vipotnik smashing the ball home in a lovely counter-attack. One for which our players appeared to be playing walking football, no tackles, no real panic.
For the second game running, the winning side made changes before we did. We were once again waiting for the 62nd minute before the double substitutions of Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid. While the pair did make an impact on Monday, that was a one-off. It had initially looked to be a triple change including Jeremy Monga who’s had his minutes limited under Rowett.
Leicester had cruelly dangled a Jordan James carrot at half-time. The Welsh international was being put through his paces at the break in what looked like it had to be a half time change. Perhaps that should have been the red flag, not once this season, regardless of how bad it’s been, have we made a change at half time that’s not been dictated by injury. When the half resumed, all eleven players resumed. We had to wait until the 73rd minute to finally get James on at which point the game was already looking out of reach.
Rowett’s decision making is understandably under fire. We’re in a worse position in the league than when he took over, you have to add some context to one part of that. The point deduction plays its part but our position had flattered to deceive our form for months.
This game did little to ease the biggest question mark around his insistence and faith with the same old names alongside how long it takes us to pull the trigger and make changes with substitutions. We’ve struggled to find a midfield duo that don’t seem to have something missing from their collective game. Skipp and Winks don’t appear to be a winning combination, but we’ve stuck with it instead of rolling the dice and doing anything else.
Some would say that until relegation is confirmed, you need to put out your best side, regardless of their contracts, age. The counterargument to that is those alleged players have already been on the pitch in most games and contributed to our current predicament.
There’s also a number of players out there who know they’re moving on at the end of the season regardless of whether we survive. Others may be starting to talk to their agent about getting out. All of this to say, there’s a big question mark over how much any of them actually care and the way that they’re collectively performing isn’t doing much to reassure anybody.
The ‘back the lads’ discourse has been raging all season and the likes of Becky Vardy joining in post-match to question the fans’ approach is interesting. Some of the reaction to the players didn’t seem particularly constructive, but when we have backed them for the full game, we’ve not been rewarded either so it’s hard to chalk up any fan chanting to breaking a team whose resilience has never seemed anything but paper-thin.
It’s also impossible not to reflect on this rag-tag squad as anything but a failing from the recruitment team and all of past poor decisions coming home to roost.
Other managers might be starting to phase out those who won’t be at the club next year, relying on those still in contract and the younger players. If we do go down, money will surely be an ongoing challenge and those younger players will be the core of our squad. Why not bed them in now and get them ready?
Anger and unbridled frustration were the theme of the day in the stands. Those who haven’t worked social activities, pre-match coffee or lunch with friends, or a cinema trip, around the game to make it all seem a little less grim were completely out of patience early on and the side on the pitch did little to lift that mood at any stage. Nor did the timing and personnel involved in the changes when they did eventually come.
The atmosphere was strange and initially the ‘Rudkin out’ chants felt a bit half-hearted. What did catch on was more to do with the glaring absence of Top. Chants focused on questioning where he was and ‘Top’s playing polo, we’re playing Crewe’ (please can we at least pick a team in the play-offs?) were much louder as was the ‘sack the board’ chant. It’s felt like pointed pockets doing this previously, but today felt like more fans are catching on and accepting that the issues that run a lot deeper than just Rowett or the players.
While already relegated Sheffield Wednesday frustrated the wannabe champions, Coventry, it’s still looking like a three way fight for which two teams will join them, assuming West Brom and Blackburn keep up recent form. Oxford travel to play-off hopefuls Derby next weekend. Portsmouth play their game in hand this Tuesday, against Ipswich, before we travel to Fratton Park to play them.
This is the ultimate six point game. Win, and it’s still a huge uphill battle you don’t trust us to succeed in, but lose and you may as well just slap the R next to us.
The Fosse Way 