Clarke incident puts football into perspective

Nottingham Forest a-a Leicester City

(Match Abandoned at half time with Forest leading 1-0) 

The great Bill Shankly once said: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." 

After last night Bill, there won’t be anyone connected with Leicester City that would agree with you.  

The recent news of tragedies affecting Walsall, QPR and Sevilla have all been met with extreme sadness across the footballing world but when it happens to your own club like it did to us last night, then it really does hit home how irrelevant football is. 

Leicester fans first realised something was wrong when paramedics rushed down the tunnel following one of our coaching staff. This was to be followed by Martin Allen leading his players on to the pitch for the half time team talk. Many of us correctly assumed this was to allow medical care to be carried out although at the time no one realised the seriousness of it all. 

Delays to the start of the second half of firstly 15 minutes, then another 10 minutes were met by boos from both sets of fans but it was a lack of a reason why which caused these frustrations. Eventually Colin Calderwood and Martin Allen walked on to the pitch with the Forest chief explaining that both clubs had agreed to abandon the game due to “a serious illness to one of the Leicester players”. Allen, visibly shaken, stood and listened to this announcement before both managers headed down the tunnel….. 

As supporters left the ground news came through via radio and text messages that Clive Clarke was the player concerned; our left-back, on loan from Sunderland, having collapsed and required urgent medical treatment. Unconfirmed reports suggested Clarke was given mouth-to-mouth, as well as defibrillation before being taken to the Queens Medical Centre. 

One can only wish Clive a full and speedy recovery, as well as praise our medical staff Dave Rennie and Damien Doyle, and the paramedics at the City Ground in their handling of this extremely difficult situation. Praise must also go to Nottingham Forest. From a footballing perspective, abandoning a game where they led and looked the better side could have been seen as a difficult decision. However Forest chief executive Mark Arthur said: "I think football is secondary to human issues. As soon as we found out the serious nature of Clive's situation, we went straight to the referee and said we would do whatever is right by Leicester.” 

To the actual game then. 

Many of the Leicester faithful that traveled up the M1 were looking forward to, and expecting to finally banish the City Ground hoodoo, having not beaten Forest on their turf since 1972. However there were some reservations that Allen had tinkered with the squad too much, making 5 changes to the side that beat Watford so comfortably at the weekend. Fulop, N’Gotty, McCauley, Sheehan and De Vries were replaced with Henderson, James Chambers, Kenton, Porter and Newton, with Hume and Campbell as our front pairing, and Kenton partnering Kisnorbo at the back.  

Worries about the team were confirmed early on – Forest dominated the opening action winning several corners, with one after 10 minutes being headed against the bar by Luke Chambers. Fortunately Clemence was on hand to clear the danger. Forest continued to press and a mix-up between Henderson and Kisnorbo saw the keeper collect fresh air, whilst the ball fizzed past the back post. It was clear for all to see that Leicester were struggling with high balls into the box. Henderson has never been the most commanding of his area, and with no McCauley or N’Gotty, only Kisnorbo provided any height in our defence. 

Leicester attacks were few and far between – any move was broken up by decisive Forest challenges, or sloppy play by our forwards or our wingers, Newton and Porter, both of whom were struggling to get in the game. 

Forest felt they should have had a penalty on 25 minutes as a poor header from James Chambers was picked up by Holt, but as the Forest striker approached the goal a clumsy challenge from Kenton took man and ball allowing Henderson to clear. Referee Stroud looked across at his assistant but waved play on much to our delight. 

However it wasn’t long before the Forest fans were celebrating. A Lennon corner from the right was drilled into the area. Henderson, despite earlier warnings, came rushing out to collect the cross, but ended up nowhere near. It was left for Junior Agogo to plant a simple downward header into the empty net.  

This however seemed to provide the impetus for Leicester to start playing football, and as Forest sat back a little, Leicester began to dictate more of the play. A swerving Hume shot was palmed behind by Smith and from the resulting corner, a powerful shot on the half volley from Newton went just wide. Kisnorbo then headed a Porter free kick wide, before Agogo had a close range effort blocked. 

The half time whistles brought “Martin, sort it out” chants from the away following before more important matters took there course. 

The two clubs and the Football League are yet to make a decision regards the replay of the game (Now confirmed as Tues Sept 18th), although many from both sets of supporters will think that whoever goes through now, it will be something of a hollow victory as football was really put into perspective last night. 

Forest: Smith, Wilson, Luke Chambers, Morgan, Perch, Bennett, Commons, Lennon ©, Clingan, Agogo, HoltSubs not used – Tyson, Bastians, Sinclair, Thornhill, Roberts 

Leicester:Henderson, Clarke, James Chambers, Kisnorbo, Kenton, Porter, Newton, Clemence ©, Wesolowski, Hume, CampbellSubs not used – Nielsen, McCauley, Kishishev, Cort, Fryatt 

The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation

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