City 0-1 Plymouth
Now I’m not usually one for leaving early from a game but after eighty minutes, I had had enough. I was cold, hungry and desperate for my fix of “The One and Only”. The latter is untrue but I felt a sense of “it can’t be any worse” if I did take the long walk home and watched that instead.
City’s clash with Plymouth was their second home game in a row to be broadcast on Sky Sports after the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace a couple of weeks ago. However, the result against Paul Sturrock’s Plymouth side was less than favourable with the performance being described by many as being worse than that.
Having said that, there was a couple of bright sparks with Jamie Clapham making his debut in a City shirt and was solid in the left-back position having replaced Joe Mattock. James Chambers also appeared to have more guile when in attacking positions and also had a decent game at right-back in place of the suspended Richard Stearman.
Gabor Bori has been unable to show the same form as he did in the 2-0 win against Coventry with the same being said of his compatriot Zsolt Laczko on the left hand side of midfield. It is unexplainable as to why and how that has happened but perhaps it is a simple case of them not being good enough?
As for the game itself, City did start brightly for the opening ten minutes of the game. They were passing it around with some zip and accuracy and it was a pleasure to watch. Matt Oakley, set up by Steve Howard's headed knock-down, drilled a cross-shot just wide. Argyle keeper Luke McCormick then had to paw the ball to safety when a lob from Howard threatened to creep under his bar…..
Having ridden the storm, Plymouth then started to blow one of their own. Halmosi almost caught City’s Ben Alnwick by surprise with a shot from distance that shaved an upright. The pressure finally told when the City failed to deal with Paul Connolly's 34th-minute free-kick and Halmosi, set up by former fox Lilian Nalis, drilled the ball home
At half-time, the players were met with a chorus of boos by much of the crowd. DJ Campbell replaced the ineffective Bori meaning that a total of four strikers were on the field with Hume and Hayles on the right and left wing respectively. Laczko replaced Hayles on the left wing but also proved ineffective in his combination with Clapham. The lack of creativity was staggering considering the supposed number of “attacking” players on the pitch at the same time. City could have played another 90 minutes without putting the ball in the back of the net.
Now, as I left with ten minutes to go I missed Matty Fryatt’s introduction to the game. City’s third substitute almost rescued a point with a header that was superbly saved by McCormick. Another fine save from Alnwick prevented Halmosi from putting the game beyond the Foxes. But that was upstaged by McCormick in stoppage time, the Argyle keeper keeping out a close-range header from Fryatt.
All in all it was a disappointing game and another defeat leaving City close to the relegation zone. There appears to be a deep rooted problem with this club as quality Championship players such as Oakley, Clemence and Howard appear to have lost something since coming to the club. City have the core of a very good Championship squad. Where is it going wrong?
Leicester: Alnwick 7, James Chambers 7, McAuley 6, Kisnorbo 6, Clapham 7 (Fryatt 89), Hume 5, Oakley 6, Clemence 5, Bori 5 (Campbell 46, 5), Hayles 5 (Laczko 65, 5), Howard 6. Subs Not Used: N'Gotty, Kishishev.
Plymouth: McCormick, Connolly, Timar, Doumbe, Sawyer, Abdou, Paterson, Nalis, Halmosi (Hodges 80), MacLean (Fallon 85), Easter. Subs Not Used: Wotton, Mackie, Jutkiewicz.
Attendance: 21,264. Referee: Iain Williamson (Berkshire)
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