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!