Norwich 1 City 2

Report by Colin Hall

David Nugent’s 13^th goal of the season proved to be unlucky for hosts Norwich as Leicester triumphed in their 5^th round FA Cup clash.

The 2-1 victory was no more than the Foxes deserved. They outplayed their Premier League opponents for long spells, displaying hunger, spirit and passion that have all too often been absent during a troubled league campaign.

Both teams made significant changes for this game. Norwich rested their entire first-choice defence (including ex-Leicester loanee Kyle Naughton) as well as club captain Grant Holt. Meanwhile Nigel Pearson made four changes following the dismal midweek defeat at Watford. The demotion of Matt Mills and Paul Konchesky to the bench, in favour of Wes Morgan and Tom Kennedy respectively, gave strong hints as where he placed the blame for that result.

The visitors started strongly and forced a series of early corners, used well by Kennedy and Ben Marshall to trouble the Canary defence. The pressure eventually told when a Marshall corner from the left was glanced home by Sean St Ledger for his first goal in Foxes colours.

St Ledger’s strike was greeted rapturously by the vociferous travelling hordes, who had already loudly made their views known, in no uncertain terms, on the scandalous decision to cut Leicester’s ticket allocation for this fixture. The fans remained in excellent voice as the Foxes looked good value for their lead.

However a subdued Norwich team were gifted a way back into the game by an extraordinary decision by Premier referee Mike Dean. Home midfielder Elliott Bennett backed into Kasper Schmeichel as he looked to punch clear a deflected shot.

To the bemusement and anger of the visiting contingent, who had an excellent view of the incident, Dean gave the foul in Bennett’s favour and awarded Norwich a penalty. A sensibly-restrained Schmeichel pulled off a superb save from Wes Hoolahan’s spot-kick, but was powerless to stop the follow-up being lifted over him for a scarcely-merited equaliser.

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The Foxes Trust AGM is being held on MONDAY 20^th FEBRUARY 2012 at 7.30pm at THE KING POWER STADIUM – LINEKER SUITE

The Foxes Trust Board are also pleased to confirm that current BBC Radio Leicester’s match expert and former LCFC striker, ALAN YOUNG will be holding a Q & A session on the evening.

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Leicester City 2 Cardiff City 1

Match Report by Mike King

On a freezing day, any doubts that the match at the King Power Stadium would be called off were dispelled after the sun and under soil heating were to provide an excellent playing surface for the game against the Carling Cup finalists, a game the Foxes just had to win to keep any hopes of reaching the playoffs alive. A home league win had not been achieved since November and the reason the City were languishing mid-table.

After the previous 3 games that the "Man in the Middle" had so much influence on the results, was it a coincidence that the referee was the popular Prem official, Mark Halsey? So perhaps the Referees Appointments Secretary has sympathised with the Foxes after the Beckford and Pearson reds had been rescinded. Yet another poor official would have seemed like a vendetta against the City!

Nigel Pearson had to make an enforced change to the team as the improving Dann's had to watch from the stands following his red card against Brighton, so Paul Gallagher returned, and what an important decision that  proved to be, resisting starting with either new signing Marshall or loanee Delfouneso.

Kicking towards the Kop end, the City started well, with Cardiff having the prolific Miller up front on his own and the dangerous Whittingham playing in front of his back four. The first chance of the game fell to Gallagher, after a cross field pass found Peltier on the edge of the box, and his downward header picked out Gallagher who shot meekly with his left foot, dragging the ball 10 yards wide. Control and a right foot shot a better alternative.

Shortly afterwards, another easy chance fell to the City skipper. A Gallagher corner picked out Mills and he headed wide of the far post from 6 yards, an easy chance for the centre half to increase his goal count. Cardiff then lost one of their better players, Gunnarson, after 8 minutes to injury and this allowed the pairing of Wellens and Drinkwater in the engine room to stamp their authority on the game.

Dyer had a good run down the left but his cross went straight through the 6 yard area with neither Nugent or Beckford there to slot the ball home, and from a Konchesky cross, Beckford just failed to make contact at the far post. Cardiff hardly threatened the Foxes defence as any high ball was easily dealt with by inform St Ledger and Mills. Konchesky then had a 30 yard drive tipped over the bar by keeper Marshall and a Wellens overhead deflected kick had to be palmed away by Marshall.

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The Foxes Trust is currently seeking answers from Norwich to justify the low ticket allocation given to our fans.

The Foxes Trust has already had dialogue with its fellow Trust at Norwich to get an insight into the ground layout and any resulting issues, and gained an understanding of the numbers in terms of Norwich Season Ticket holders and attendance numbers at the previous FA Cup round.

The Trust is now in the process of trying to get answers from Norwich’s Chief Executive and also establish a contact for the Norwich Safety Advisory Group so a direct explanation can be obtained on why they felt a restricted allocation was justified.

Trust Chairman, Ian Bason, will be discussing the situation on the BBC Radio Leicester breakfast show on Friday 10^th February

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