Milan, is a Leicester Fan!

Since the arrival of Milan Mandaric in 2006 Leicester City have certainly had their ups and downs. Who can forget his three year promise to get the club out of the Championship? What he failed to mention though, was that they would be going down instead of up!

There has of course been all the problems with managers as well since his arrival, having had five official managers serve under him and the numerous temporary managers. Then there is the money that some fans would suggest he wasted on signings such as striker DJ Campbell, who in his first season cost the club £800,000 a goal.

It has not been the smoothest ride under Mandaric but now things are finally starting to look up for him and the club as they find some consistency. City now also have a stable manager under Nigel Pearson, and also a manager that is not going to fall out with the chairman.

Mandaric has stayed faithful to the club throughout the good and the bad, as have the fans, and this has not gone unnoticed with the chairman. He said: "I can't thanks the fans enough. Of course I know how loyal Leicester fans are, but the atmosphere on Saturday was great again and they played a huge part in helping the team to that very convincing win."

If Leicester are to ever get back in to the Premiership then the only way to stay up there is with a good financial backing, as teams like Sunderland have shown. The Foxes fans will hope that if that day does come, then Mandaric will be with them every step of the way.

Cardiff Preview

When Cardiff fans here that Leicester are coming to town there is usually a real buzz around the capital, however that is because it usually means that two of the greatest rugby teams in Europe will be playing one another.

This Saturday though Leicester City will be travelling to face Cardiff in a bid to maintain their promotion push as the crucial Christmas period approaches. Leicester will still be without suspended striker Martyn Waghorn, who this week even helped out in the ticket-office with his time off.

City fans may be thinking this would be a particularly bad time to play Cardiff as they have won their last three league matches. However Cardiff did lose three in a row before that, so if they carry on their lose three win three mentality the points will be Leicester's this Saturday.

One of the biggest threats Cardiff boast is there strike force and midfield, as they currently have two of the most prolific attackers in the league. They are Peter Whittingham and Michael Chopra who already have 23 league goals between them. Leicester striker Matty Fryatt currently has 10 goals, but after that their second top scorer is the suspended Waghorn with five.

The last two times Leicester played Cardiff were during their infamous relegation season where they drew 0-0 at home and beat them 1-0 away, thanks to a Darren Purse own goal. That season Cardiff finished 10 places above the foxes but now only two places separate them, and a win for Leicester would see them jump Cardiff in the table.

Leicester have one of the best away records in the league despite that thumping at Forest, having only lost twice all season. Cardiff have a strong home record as well though having only lost three. So the travelling fans will have to hope that the two sides do not cancel one another out this Saturday.

To attend, or not to attend?

Leicester are currently experiencing on average their highest attendance's in the last five seasons. This is on the back of their promotion surge from League One last season, and now the Blue Army are back in force.

The highest attendance this season so far has been against Derby County with 28,875 turning out to one of the most boring matches of all time. The lowest attendance is currently against Bristol City where just under 20,000 spectators turned out, however that was on the back of a thumping away at Nottingham Forest.

Surprisingly the lowest attendances Leicester have experienced in The Walkers stadium were last season during their successful promotion campaign. However the biggest crowd of that season did come on the last home game, where 30,542 fans turned out to see the boys lift the League One trophy.

As good as the support has been this year, it is still nothing when compared to the support given when the ground first opened. In that first season there was an average of just under 30,000 fans turning out for every single home game. Better still, in the 2003/04 season and our last year in the top flight, the average was almost 31,000 every match just 1,500 short of full capacity.

Leicester currently have the fourth highest home attendance in the Championship, which is very good, but we do have the joint fifth biggest stadium in the league as well. The stadium that has exactly the same capacity as The Walkers is the Ricoh Arena, home of Coventry City, which is a carbon copy of The Walkers.

If as many people turn out as they did from 2002-04 then Leicester will have the second highest attendance in the league, only behind Newcastle United. Perhaps that is what the boys will need if they are to ever return back to the dizzy heights or Premierleague football.

We've got our Leicester back!

Third time lucky for The Foxes, as they see off Sheffield Wednesday with ease at the Walkers Stadium.

After conceding eight goals in their last two matches, it was imperative that City kept a clean sheet against The Owls. Not only did they get the clean sheet, but also scoring three goals helped repair some of the recent damage done to their goal difference.

Steve Howard put the home side in front with a towering header off of a Matty Fryatt cross to make the score 1-0, and also gave him his first goal in over 20 hours of football. Andy King then doubled The Blues advantage with a composed finish in to the top corner after a goal-mouth scramble.

Going in to half-time City looked confident again and there was a different vibe around the stadium, with a sense of belief that they could hold out and win. However shortly after half-time Wednesday had their best chance of the match as Sean McAllister came close to pulling one back, only to see Leicester defender Michael Morrison clear it off the line.

Then with just under 20 minutes left on the clock King bagged his second of the match securing all the points on offer, and giving Leicester their first victory of the month.

Everyone involved in the club was delighted for Howard as he got his first goal of the season, but no one more so then Leicester's assistant manager Craig Shakespeare, who said: "All the staff are delighted for Steve Howard, and we hope he can kick on from here."

That victory moves Leicester to fifth in the league and back in the play-offs, with their next match coming up away against fourth place Cardiff City.

Chandler, Rowley, Lineker..... Fryatt?

This is now the sixth season since Leicester City have graced the top flight of English football, however already this season they look closer than ever to getting back up there.

Since being relegated from the Premiership in the 2003/04 season, the closest City have come to getting back up is finishing 15th in the Championship. They have since won a league and gained promotion, but unfortunately that was winning League One in order to get back to the Championship.

One of the problems Leicester have faced since the demise of the Club is finding a striker who will score a significant amount of goals every season. Since their relegation to second tier football they have had good ambassadors to the club such as David Connolly and Iain Hume, who did a job up-front. Yet they did not really do enough of a job, as they would only find back of the net a maximum of 14 times in a season. When you compare that to Reading’s promotion campaign in 2005/06, when they’re two strikers scored 41 league goals between them, it does not make good reading.

Since the 2005/06 season Leicester have had a young striker named Matty Fryatt, now I would imagine you have already heard of him. If you have not though this is a little bit about him; he is an English born striker who stands at 5’ 10” and was born in 1986. In his first season at Leicester he scored a disappointing six goals, in his second season he scored a very disappointing four goals and in his third season he scored a more than embarrassing three goals.

Now you may think I have got the wrong Fryatt, but I have not, yet as you will of course remember in the 2008/09 season (all be it in a lower league) he scored an emphatic 32 goals. That was all well and good; however it raised the argument that perhaps he is a League One striker. So this season on his return to the Championship he had a lot to prove, and just 20 matches in to the season he has already silenced his critics. Having already bagged 11 goals and one assist, there is no doubt that Fryatt is a man of many talents and not just in the lower leagues.

I now point you in the direction of Leicester’s all time leading scorers and the players that have rightfully stamped their mark in the 125 year history of the club. The fourth all time highest scorer for the club is a chap you may have heard of called Gary Lineker. He managed to score 103 goals for the team that he grew up supporting during his time there. City’s third top scorer of all time and delving right back in to the history books is Ernie Hine, who made his debut in 1926. He scored 156 goals for the club during a six year period. The player who has scored the second most goals for The Foxes but has the title for the most goals in football league history, is the great Arthur Rowley. Rowley scored a staggering 265 goals in just 321 appearances, in an unforgettable eight year rein at the club. The honour though of Leicester’s all time top goal scorer goes to Arthur Chandler, beating Rowley to the awards by just eight goals with him finding the back of the net 273 times.

Why do I mention these four great men? Well the reason is simple, and that is because a player in the current Leicester City squad has a chance to have his name mentioned in the same sentence as these legends. The player I am referring to is Matty Fryatt, and if he keeps up is outstanding goals to games ratio from the last two seasons he could potentially be one of the Leicester all-time greats. Also since City departed from the Premiership, with the form Fryatt is in, he also appears to be their best chance of getting back up to where many believe they belong.

Five of the Best

To celebrate the 100th year of league football an independent panel selected 100 legendary football players who have played in any of the football leagues in the past.

Amongst the players selected were legends such as; Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst and then modern day greats such as; Eric Cantona and Peter Schmeichel. The reason I am telling you this is because amongst the 100 all time greats were five players who have played for Leicester City.

Now you're frantically thinking well I wonder who they can be, well I can help you, none of them have played in the last 20 years. Out of the five players two are goalkeepers, two are strikers and one is a midfield player turned defender. Another clue for those curious, one of the strikers is certainly not Ade Akinbiyi and the midfielder turned defender is not Frank Sinclair!

The two goalkeepers I would hope you all guessed straight away, and they are of course Gordon Banks and his apprentice Peter Shilton. Gordon Banks is the only English goalkeeper to have ever won a World Cup medal but both keepers are among the best England have ever produced.

Now for the midfielder turned defender, he started his career at Leicester City and played for us for seven years, and he is the Scottish International Frank McLintock. During his time at Leicester his honors included one League Cup trophy and two FA Cup runners up medals.

One of the two strikers is still the all-time record holder as the most prolific striker in football league history, having scored 434 goals in 619 games. He also scored 44 goals in one season for Leicester, more than any other player before or after him and he is the great Arthur Rowley.

The fifth and final player to make his name on the list is Leicester's best loved son, who went his entire career having never received a booking. He made 80 caps for England and scored 48 goals, and this is of course the living legend that is Gark Lineker.

So there we have it, five Leicester players are deemed to have been among the 100 legends to have ever graced the English football league, and they were: Banks, Shilton, McLintock, Rowley and Lineker.

Blown away by Bristol

Defeats are now starting to become like London Buses for Leicester, we waited a while for one and now we have had two in close succession.

So far the defeats this season have been to all the top clubs in the league, so this loss for the fans may seem like the worse yet. Having lost 5-1 away to Nottingham Forest only three days before the fans really were expecting a spirited revival, they were to be very disappointed.

Leicester were still favourites going in to the match against Bristol City, and in all fairness did start the match looking the brighter of the two sides. That was until an impressive run from Ivan Sproule and a finish to match gave the visitors a 1-0 lead after 19 minutes.

Immediately after that goal the confidence and encouraging early signs Leicester were showing both went, and the liquid football being played evaporated with them. Then to make things worse for the Blue Army ten minutes later a second goal was scored by Bristol, this time for Cole Skuse to give The Robin's a 2-0 lead at half-time.

The second-half unfortunately started as the first had finished, with Bristol on the attack looking to put the result beyond doubt. However things did pick up for Leicester and they began to attack and look for a way back in to the match, but ironically that was to be their downfall. On 76 minutes Leicester were caught out from their own corner and Bristol capitalised with a quick-flowing counter attacking move, finished off by Evander Sno.

At 3-0 down with ten minutes to go the home fans surely thought it could not get any worse, but it did. In-form striker Martyn Waghorn showed a moment of frustration jumping in late on Jamie McAllister and earning himself a straight red-card and a consequential three match banned.

With 89 minutes of disappointment Leicester did some how manage to finish the match on a high with top goal-scorer Matty Fryatt netting very late on to finish the match at 3-1 to Bristol.

Leicester's next match is at home to Sheffield Wednesday and a third consecutive defeat could see The Foxes slip from third to 14th all in the space of eight days. However a home win could also see Leicester climb back in to the play-off places so it really is all to play for.

Found out at Forest

Every season you can expect one bad result and that can be forgiven, however when your team chooses your local derby to do it, that can test some fans patience.

The season we were relegated, those last two games against Sheffield Wednesday at home and Stoke City away were lack-luster and heart-breaking. However compared to Saturday's display they would have looked like two of the most inspirational performance's in the clubs history.

A mutual feeling of embarrassment was felt by the manager, players and fans as Leicester were destroyed 5-1 away at Forest. A Rob Earnshaw hat-trick and goals from Paul Anderson and Dele Adebola was more than enough to give the reds a far too convincing victory.

Leicester's only highlight to cheer about was the consolation goal from a Martyn Waghorn penalty and even then the cross-bar had to come to the rescue to help it in.

I could list every player that did not perform well, but that would mean writing out a 13 man list with the exclusion of Waghorn. The passion and emotion you come to expect from your team in a local derby was non-existent from City right from the word go.

Manager Nigel Pearson was as frustrated as anyone and couldn't believe the performance his side put on in such an important match. He said: "It was the worst performance and worst result since I have been manager, but what I will say is that, although it doesn't make it any easier to stomach, it doesn't happen very often."

As bad as the result was, don't take anything away from the fact that this still has been a spectacular season thus far. If someone would have said to you at the start of the season you'll be fourth after 19 games, even the most optimistic fan would have been pleasantly surprised. As bad as Saturday was and as much as Forest will never let us forget it, it has still been a great season so far and Pearson is still an outstanding manager.

City next play hosts to Bristol City on Tuesday and will be hoping that they can get their season back on track after Saturday's disaster!

Bitter disappointment at Scunthorpe away!

Last season I made the journey to Scunthorpe and it was undoubtedly the coldest place I have ever been to in my life. It was about this time last year, however on that occasion it was well worth the journey because we won 2-1 and over took them in the league to go top of the table.

Pity the same can not be said for today’s match, the weather was the same but unfortunately the outcome was not. Leicester started the day in third position with their opponent’s right down the other end of the table in 21st.

Leicester took a very early lead after three minutes thanks to on loan striker Martyn Waghorn who produced a neat finish from the edge of the area to put city 1-0 up.

Leicester then took the game by the throat and piled the pressure on Scunthorpe for the rest of the half; shots came from Fryatt, Waghorn, Hobbs, Gallagher and others but no one was able to beat Joe Murphy in the Scunthorpe goal. At times Leicester played fantastic football and really looked like doubling or even tripling their advantage but it just was not to be.

Again in the second half City were looking the stronger of the two sides and were showing why they were at the opposite end of the table to their opponents. However as the half went on the anxious Leicester fans could almost sense that there was something in the frosty Scunthorpe air as their team began to sit back and take some pressure.

Leicester infamously struggle to hold out 1-0 leads and tend to just sit back and take pressure, however that has not been the case under manager Nigel Pearson. This season even from winning positions Leicester have continued their attacking mentalities and looked to further their leads. So only Nigel Pearson will be able to explain why for one night, and one night only he decided to revert back to the old Leicester ways. What was looking like a good away win all of a sudden turned to bitter disappointment as Scunthorpe's Martyn Woolford netted with virtually the last kick of the game, to give them an undeserved point.

The draw leaves Leicester still in third position with the big local derby coming up next weekend against East Midland rivals Nottingham Forest, who currently sit in fourth place after a 4-1 thumping against Doncaster today.

Nigel Pearson feature

Ever since the departure of the great Martin O’Neill Leicester have struggled to find a manager who can bring back the glory days we experienced under his reign.
Since O’Neill we have had a further nine official managers in as many years and none of them have achieved anything like his success. Micky Adams proved a good servant to the club winning us automatic promotion in 2003 but only for us to come crashing back down the following year. We have had steady managers but no one who has looked like they could rekindle the O’Neil form and again sustain us to being a solid Premiership team.

To call some of the managers steady as well is being generous as their records suggest that they did more bad then good for the club. A good example would be Ian Holloway who infamously got us relegated in 2008, for the first time in our history into the third tier of football.

However with all that said have we finally found our man who can get us back on track and back into the top tier of English football, where we so rightly deserve to be? Have we finally found a man who can relive the glory days once experienced under O’Neil? Would it be possible to conceive the thought that after nine years of searching we have finally found our new messiah? Ladies and gentleman I present to you Mr Nigel Pearson.

At first glance he is just your average 46 year old man, standing at six foot one and whose hair is gradually turning grey. Yet behind his extremely relaxed persona lies a man who at every club he has managed has made a positive impact. Leicester are only the third club he has officially managed having previously been at Carlisle and Southampton, however he has made lasting impressions at both of those other clubs. Not only did he manage to save Carlisle from relegation in 1999, he then went on to do exactly the same for Southampton in 2008 (which ironically got us relegated.)

If ever you have listened to Pearson being interviewed admittedly he does not come across as the most charismatic man in football and when you see him nor does he necessarily look the part. Nevertheless there must be something about him that inspired his Leicester City side of 2008-09 to score more goals then any other team in all four English leagues. Not only that but he was the first manager to turn the Walkers Stadium into a fortress and lost only one match there in his first season in charge. That season Leicester went on to score 96 points, more then they have in any other season and ended it with a staggering +45 goal difference.

After such a great season having crowned Leicester as league one champions the big question was; could he continue their great form in the Championship? The answer so far, is an indisputable yes. Having played 16 and only lost three, Leicester are currently sitting in a more than respectable 6th position, just inside the play-offs.

Pearson is already aware of how it feels to be part of a team that wins this division having won promotion with Middlesbrough in 1995. Will he now be able to go one step further and lead a team to promotion from this division and complete the Leicester City Revival?

Since taking over as manager at Leicester in June 2008, Pearson has already been nominated for manager of the month an astounding five times, winning the award twice. Since Leicester last returned to the Championship in 2004 only one manager has won a manager of the month award, and that was Rob Kelly in March 2006. Pearson will soon be looking to change that though having already received a nomination for Championship manager of the month in October.

‘In Pearson we trust’ is the message echoed by the fans who are confident that if anybody has the ability to get us back to the Premiership, this is the man to do it. It seems to have been a long time since we were in the top tier of English football, but at last things seem to be looking up as Pearson continues his impressive tenure.

Beaten by the Baggies

Two goals in the three minutes was enough to see the Foxes fall to their second home defeat of the season, having gone an entire season in league one without losing at home.

Leicester old boy Joey Mattock got the kind of reception he deserved, as he was booed and jeered every time he was near the ball. Credit has to go to Leicester City captain Matt Oakley who was the only player to successfully put young Mattock on the floor.

Leicester made a promising start and were matching high flyer's West Brom in every department of the field, but that was until two quick fire goals just before half-time. Graham Dorran's and the much talked about Gonzalo Jara were the scorers and it left City with an up-hull battle for the second-half.

West Brom played the kind of football at times that suggested they should be a Premiership side once again next season. Having said that in comparison to the likes of Arsenal, if West Brom were to be promoted you could only see them coming straight back down. They are the kind of team that are too good for the Championship, but without a good financial backing will not be good enough for the Premiership.

Leicester's best chances of the match fell to Matty Fryatt and Paul Gallagher, but neither were able to find the back of the net. The addition of power-house Steve Howard in the second-half did give Leicester a new dimension however it was still not enough to claim a point. A late goal from Bruno Berner was all the Blue Army had to cheer about on an otherwise disappointing day for the Foxes.

Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson said: "I thought they were the better side and they passed it very well. We are disappointed we did not reproduce the form of our last game but you have got to give them some credit." http://www.lcfc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10274~1870584,00.html

That defeat sees Leicester now slip into 6th position, but still in the play-offs with a two week break coming up for International duty.

The return of Joey Twattock

This Saturday sees the return of Joe Mattock to the Walkers Stadium as the foxes take on West Brom in their Remembrance Day fixture.

In the last 15 years Leicester have played West Brom eight times and only one of those matches has finished in a draw. Leicester have won four of the previous meetings with West Brom winning the other three.

The last time the two teams met was at The Hawthorns in 2008, the season West Brom got promoted and Leicester got relegated but The Blues recorded an emphatic 4-1 victory.

In the 2007/08 season West Brom got promoted and Leicester were relegated, then in 2008/09 season Leicester got promoted and West Brom got relegated and now in the 2009/10 season both teams are sitting pretty towards the top end of the table.

One of the big talking points is of course going to be the return of Leicester boy Joe Mattock who controversially left City over the summer. Leicester born Mattock is a life-long fan of The Foxes, but chose to depart over the summer without giving any warning to manager Nigel Pearson.

Mattock made his debut for Leicester at just 16 and made a total of 73 appearances for the club scoring just the one goal. He went from hero to zero with the fans having been an instrumental part of The Foxes promotion back to The Championship only to abandon his home team a matter of months later.

The Remembrance Day fixture will hopefully be one to remember this year and if results go our way and we stick seven past The Baggies we could even finish the weekend top of the table!