When we asked on Instagram recently what the worst Leicester game of the season had been, some people had to respond twice because of the character limit.
In fact, Leicester have shown such limited character that the outpouring of catharsis deserved an article all of its own.
Err… enjoy?
10. Portsmouth (A)
Games that missed out include the 2-2 draw at Bristol City which contained one of the worst halves of football a Leicester City side have ever produced in terms of quality, a rancid Boxing Day defeat at home to Watford and the early 2-1 loss at Preston that showed this team’s most loathsome qualities throughout.
A couple of weeks before this game, it looked like a do-or-die six-pointer against a fellow relegation candidate. By the time it came around, Portsmouth were on the verge of safety following wins over promotion-chasing Middlesbrough and Ipswich.
Predictably, the only goal of the game was conceded from a set piece. With the onus on Leicester, the complete lack of urgency was telling. When the fight eventually came, it was in the form of Hamza Choudhury biting at home fans’ jibes and Harry Winks losing it as he boarded the bus home.
9. Swansea City (H)
A surprise inclusion as Leicester weren’t actually too horrendous in this one. It will have won votes purely for the nature of the goal scored by Zan Vipotnik to win the game for Swansea.
In recent years, Leicester’s creative players have developed a tendency to take it up a notch in really high-pressure situations and set up opponents rather than team-mates. See also: James Maddison’s backpass leading to Philip Billing’s goal for Bournemouth in 2023.
Divine Mukasa initially looked like an extravagantly talented youngster who might come in and make the difference for a shotshy Leicester side. Sadly, his spell on loan from Manchester City may largely be remembered for the worst corner in living memory.
8. Charlton Athletic (H)
One summary of the first half of this game in the TFW WhatsApp group reads: “Head injury, head injury, assistant tech problem, hopeless red.” Another reads: “Moron. Absolute moron.”
Leicester players took it in turns to cost points in vital games all season and it was Caleb Okoli who drew the short straw in this one, opting to commit a professional foul on the halfway line and get himself sent off after just 15 minutes.
Charlton scored twice in the final 10 minutes of the half before Jordan Ayew’s missed penalty compounded matters after the break. A glorious return for the much-loved Conor Coady.
7. Oxford United (H)
Oxford United have a remarkably unprolific striker called Mark Harris, who gets wheeled out by Wales every now and then when Kieffer Moore isn’t available and they can’t find anyone else to play up front.
After 10 goals in 95 games for Cardiff, and 6 in 54 on loan at Newport, Port Vale and Wrexham, he moved on to Oxford where he enjoyed a stellar 2023/24 in League One, scoring 19 times to help the U’s to promotion.
Harris then won Oxford’s Golden Boot award the following season with 6 goals. He had just 1 from the first 24 this season when he was awarded the freedom of the city of Leicester to score his second and help Oxford to victory.
6. Sheffield Wednesday (A)
Turning up at Hillsborough with the sun beating down, there was a genuinely optimistic mood around the away end. That lasted around 90 seconds into the game when Sheffield Wednesday led after bundling in a goal from a set piece.
Having won once all season, Wednesday had gained one point from their previous 17 games. They doubled that tally thanks to a combination of some horrific Leicester finishing and Pierce Charles’s heroics in goal.
Rarely has a draw felt more like a defeat. The confirmation we were a team that couldn’t even beat Sheffield Wednesday really hit hard.
5. Southampton (A)
For most teams, this would be number one. Leicester have charitably decided to pay Southampton back in spades for the temerity to beat them 9-0 on their own patch. This was just the latest way to make it up to the Saints (Ed – actually, it wasn’t – more of that to come…)
Bade Aluko, thrown in for his debut in a difficult away game, struggled to adapt to Southampton’s tricky wingers. He received his first yellow card in the fifth minute and by the time he got a second, Southampton had scored twice.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis doubled his own tally to make it three before half time, evading Wout Faes on his final 90-minute appearance in blue. This would be the first of three defeats to Southampton during the season, but not the worst.
4. Sheffield United (A)
“I think a really poor performance from everyone involved,” said Oliver Skipp after Leicester were blown away at Bramall Lane on New Year’s Day.
2025 had actually ended on something of a high note with a 2-1 home win over Derby, but that was swiftly consigned to the dustbin of history following this horror show.
Leicester’s solitary first half attempt was a wildly misdirected 40-yard effort from Abdul Fatawu. At the other end, the Blades battered Jakub Stolarczyk’s goal and were unfortunate to only score three. Tom Cannon took great delight in grabbing one of them…
3. Sheffield United (H)
… but perhaps not as much delight as he had taken in silencing the King Power little over a month earlier, scoring in the second minute before Jairo Riedewald doubled the visitors’ score two minutes later. Sydie Peck made it 3-0 little over half an hour in.
This catastrophe took place four days after the 3-0 defeat at Southampton. Wout Faes, Harry Winks and Patson Daka were hauled off at half time in disgrace, Winks punished with a two-month exile from the first team and Faes condemned to a villa in Monte Carlo for the rest of the season.
With Sheffield United in cruise control, the Foxes turned in one of their best halves of the season to pull two goals back. Which was an extra kick in the teeth. All too little, too late, which became the theme of the season.
2. Queen’s Park Rangers (A)
Let’s go back to the TFW WhatsApp group for this one…
0-1: “Bit unlucky that for me”
0-2: “That one is a bad goal”
0-3: “Jesus”
0-4: “****ing hell. This is the nadir. Have we ever been 4-0 down at half time. Let alone to the team you paid to leave to come manage us. What a disaster.”
Leicester had been 4-0 down at half time a couple of times in the previous decade or so, but those were at Old Trafford and the Etihad, not Loftus Road.
The funniest thing about this game is that being 4-0 down at half time against QPR wasn’t even the worst game of the season. Because another game got more than twice as many votes as this one…
1. Southampton (H)
All season long, there was a sense that, as terrible as they were, Leicester could play a bit when the opposition let them. But as soon as the other team started to run around a bit or close them down, it all got too much.
This was the case no matter who played and whoever was in the dugout. If ever there was a game that summed it up, it was this one. You can’t blame Marti Cifuentes or Gary Rowett for this game and it’s tough to even blame Andy King, who watched in horror from the touchline as this disaster unfolded.
Leicester had been brilliant in the first half. And yet, has there ever been a more inevitable defeat from 3-0 up? Even as the minutes ticked down, it was so obvious what was going to happen. Such is the mentality and culture built by Leicester City’s senior leadership. Weak, weak, weak.
The Fosse Way 