Birmingham City 2 Leicester City 3: LCFC serve up a KFC
A cold Monday night in Birmingham? Sign Jamie Barnard up - this sounds ripe for a Leicester City masterclass.
These changed kick-off times for television can wreak havoc with your away day. Train timetables don’t run as you’d hope and a pre-match pint can be hard to come by when the rest of society isn’t up for a drink. After a pub near Birmingham New Street, it’s slim pickings.
Cut to a swanky hotel with plush red velvet sofas and marble floors, we’ve found somewhere we can get a final pre-match tipple. The round might be £17 for just two drinks but relative beggars can’t be choosers.
Jack, John… and Tom
We’re not on our way to St Andrew’s, though. It’s Saturday 2nd December and we’re on our way to The Hawthorns. It’s a couple of weeks before Leicester are back in Birmingham for another pre-Christmas away day but we are joined in the bar by a Birmingham City-clad contingent who my dad recognises as “those Americans that have just invested in Birmingham City”.
They walk past the table where we’re sat and we strike up a conversation. They are indeed ‘those Americans’ and we talk about Leicester’s upcoming trip to St Andrew’s. They don’t seem quite so clued up on the fixture list but, then again, they probably won’t have to plan for train timetables or pre-match pubs.
My intrigue gets the better of me. These American consortiums are flooding into the English game and I want to know why. “Fun and winning” the chap we’re talking to responds. I’m not having it: “Come on, it’s not really about fun and winning is it?! What’s the real reason?”. He’s suddenly ushered away by the gentleman behind him as the questions are getting tougher.
Midway through the first half at West Brom, we realise that the man I’d been questioning about his intentions with English football was recent Birmingham City investor, Tom Brady…
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I don’t know if my mate Tom’s found his way back to Birmingham for a reunion but 2,000 Leicester fans have. Tonight’s pre-match quest is less about a pint and more about finding somewhere to eat. The only establishment we can find near the ground is a place named ‘Big John’s’.
I’m not sure who Big John is. He might have played centre half for Birmingham in the 70s, or he might be the controversially sacked John Eustace, but, judging by the options of burgers, fried chicken, pizza, fish and chips or kebabs - all offerings that were very much ‘functional’ - he should be called Big Jack. Big Jack of all trades.
Strange beasts and counter feasts
To the football. The first half brings an entertaining affair. Just 8 minutes in and Mads Hermansen has made two saves in quick succession to keep the game goalless. One a quick reaction with his feet, the next to tip a dangerous effort over the bar. They’re further little glimpses of a keeper that is a difference maker and who can keep us in games when it really matters.
What follows further demonstrates how Maresca’s Leicester can be a strange beast at times.
The system is all about control and building patiently from the back. The team is the embodiment of a tactics board on the pitch. Each player has a specialised role and a place to be as we do things in ‘phases of play’ such as ‘transitioning through the thirds’ and ‘baiting the press’.
I’m going to level with you, though: at times it can be boring. The most exciting part of the approach is often the mavericks out wide. The team is built to bring control in the middle and chaos on the wings. On the days where we can’t produce the chaos, it can feel like a grind.
But every now and then, you get a little glimpse of that old friend. The counter-attack goal. You know that Maresca will view these goals like a personal trainer views a KFC. They’re dirty, we’re better than that, and they undermine all of the good work we’ve been doing lately. But, my God, they’re delicious, aren’t they?
James Justin smashes a defensive clearance against his own bar, the ball falls kindly, we’re away, and Fatawu feeds Stephy Mavididi who puts a neat chipped finish away to give us the lead.
Birmingham look like they have chaos of their own to offer. Stansfield is busy and problematic upfront - the kind of striker Brendan Rodgers might describe as having that ‘devilment’ in his game - and Jordan James looks neat. Just four minutes after Mavididi’s opener, James pulls Birmingham level with a smart finish after taking the ball on the half turn. Game on.
Leicester look the better side. Birmingham are playing a dangerously high line and opportunities are opening up in the pockets of space in front of their back four. It feels, however, that any momentum is being curtailed because any time the Birmingham players feel any pressure, they hit the deck and the referee blows for a free kick (by the time the night is up he’ll have given a total of 17 against Leicester).
With the clock on 21 minutes, the game has its third goal. Again, that high line is looking suicidal for Birmingham and Dewsbury-Hall strides through the middle of the pitch, from another Fatawu pass, to tuck away a calm finish past Ruddy and put Leicester back in the lead. Those counter-attack goals, you wait ages for one and then two come along at once…
At this point, an equaliser for Birmingham or a third goal for Leicester both feel entirely plausible. If not for a generous first touch, and a reluctance to get a shot away quickly, Daka alone could very easily have made it three goals on the bounce before half-time.
Domination in flashes
Onto the second half and we see glimpses of the ruthlessness we believe to be lurking just below the surface of this Leicester side. It’s what has us saying we’ll give someone a pasting sooner or later, or feeling that we haven’t even hit top gear yet. But nights like this have you question if it’s just a mirage. That we’re already in top gear and there’s nothing more just beyond the horizon.
In flashes, we see total domination by Leicester. Any combination of Mavididi, Daka, Dewsbury-Hall and Justin down our left wing overwhelms the Birmingham back four to the point that their right-sided centre half cramps as the game draws a conclusion. And Mavididi cuts in from the wing on 50 minutes to curl home his second goal and make it 3-1 with relative ease, having toyed with the right-back like a cat with a ball of string.
But the real ruthless finish never arrives. In spite of Leicester dominance, the game is put into a critical condition rather than being killed off. 74 minutes down and, seemingly from nowhere, James has his second to make it 3-2 and the game is delicately balanced. An assault of long throws and set pieces trigger the Sheffield Wednesday away PTSD. Cutting edge has turned into ‘on a knife edge’.
Maresca sends in the heavies. On come Casadei and Souttar for the aerial reinforcements we’ll need to see this through. It’s reassuring that, although he’ll never waver from the plan to play from the back, he’s not averse to some needs-must brutality. Those with a nervous “get rid of it!” tick are soothed. Another old friend, the head it and kick it one, is back, and Maresca has a second sin to atone for in the Church of Pep.
We get the job done. And at this stage of the season, with games coming thick and fast, that’s all that really matters. Our last trip to St Andrew’s in the 2013/14 season felt like the beginning of something and, here again, as Maresca rounds the troops to celebrate with the away end, it feels that way.
It’s great, this fun and winning in football. Tom Brady really should try it some time.
12 Days of Christmas at The Bridge
For the past 10 years, The Bridge Homelessness to Hope has served a 3-course Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings to hundreds of people in Leicester who are experiencing homelessness.
This year, they want to go one better and offer their guests (service users) not just one day of celebrations but 12 days of festive events over the month of December.
If you’re enjoying The Fosse Way, please consider donating to The Bridge’s Christmas appeal:
