City 1 Swindon 1
As Foxes fans when you think of Leicester City v Swindon Town only one thought should come into our thoughts – The Play off Final on the May bank holiday of 1993 when the two teams met at Wembley stadium, the prize a place in the inaugural Premier league season. That fantastic match was almost sixteen years ago!! – How time flies!!
I am sure many of us City fans with long memories won’t have forgotten that 4-3 defeat!! I know I haven’t!! In the build up to the game I’m sure many of us were thinking could City re enact a little bit of sweet revenge over the Robins!!? Well the team of 2009 answered that question over the next 90 minutes!!
Prior to the game starting the 19,000 plus crowd conducted a one minute applause for the ex – Leicester City player and Academy coach Neville Hamilton, who sadly passed away this week. How I wish we could have put on a great display for the great man.
Nigel Pearson selected the same starting team for the fourth game in a row with David Martin in goal, Hobbs and Morrison in the centre of defence with Gilbert and Mattock completing the back four. Matt Oakley and Andy King started again in the middle of the park with Cleverley and Dyer on the wings and the formidable front pairing of Steve Howard and Matty Fryatt completed the starting eleven.
City started the match brightly and Matty Fryatt had two good opportunities to score, the first fell in the second minute when a poor back pass by the Swindon defender Michael Timlin almost allowed Fryatt an in at goal but the Swindon goalkeeper Peter Brezovan was alert and snuffed out the chance. This was followed by another chance for the city top scorer after a deflection off a Steve Howard shot almost found its way through to him….
The early stages of the match had been controlled by city but I couldn’t help but feel we were not even getting out of second gear and Swindon didn’t seemed too troubled by our neat interplay in the middle of the park. Essentially because we were failing to break them down!
A few half chances were then to fall to Swindon, but on the whole both teams were cancelling one another out in the middle of the park with fine play by both defences. From City's perspective we seemed a little too comfortable on the ball and as the first half wore on you could sense the crowd were getting restless and that it would only take one good breakaway by the Robins and the foxes would be in trouble.
How true this was to prove to be and sure enough in the 37th minute the pacey Swindon attacker Simon Cox found himself with time and space in the city half and he was able to outpace the city defence for a clean run at goal, forcing City keeper David Martin into a fine reaction save, however Cox was first to the rebound and he duly dispatched the ball into the Foxes net! One nil to Swindon at half time.
At half time my general view was that the energy and enthusiasm that the now departed Mark Davies brought to the city side was clearly lacking in the first half display, no one seemed able to hold up the play and be brave. To me the second half would depend on how Oakley and King link up in creating chances for our front two!
The half started with a half chance for Lloyd Dyer whose long range shot didn’t trouble the Swindon goalkeeper. Swindon seemed to content to soak the early wave of Foxes pressure and catch us on the break. Sure enough David Martin was called into a couple of routine saves from the Robins forays forwards however in the 59th minute he seemed to fall awkwardly in his goal mouth and the manager replaced him with the young Carl Pentney.
In the 66th minute City almost grabbed the equaliser with Michael Morrison's fine header hitting the crossbar at the Kop end with the resultant ball rebounded in the box until the referee deemed he had fouled his Swindon counterpart and he also got booked for protests!
City were making headway however Swindon were finding gaps in the city backline and could have quite easily made it 2-0 in the 76th minute following a break away Robson – Kanu forced Pentney into a fine save on his near side in which he saved with his right boot! Could that be the moment that was to swing the match back in our favour!
A number of half chances in the latter stages of the match looked promising for us but both Steve Howard and Andy King found the Swindon keeper on top form and it seemed that elusive equaliser just wasn’t going to be! However, after waves of city pressure and attacks and with five minutes to go Mr King had other ideas!
It started with good work from Matt Oakley on the edge of the Swindon box which allowed the ball to fall through to counterpart Andy King, who firstly made space for himself before curling a right footed shot into Brezovan's and Swindon's net. 1-1 and an unlikely point for Nigel Pearson's men?!
No, Leicester City wanted all three points and in the last few moments of the match the impressive and much improved Michael Morrison almost won it for city with a shot from an awkward angle. But it wasn’t to be and although Swindon Town probably just shaded it on the afternoon, City were happy to take a share of the spoils.
So city stay top and move onto 69 points and the gap from first to third in the promotion shake up now stands at 16 points. However we aren’t playing like champions and if we analyse the last two home matches we have cause for worry. We have to keep the faith but the question has to be can city redeem themselves on Tuesday night at Hartlepool?! In answer to our revenge mission it seems we can’t beat Swindon town!
Leicester: Martin (Pentney 59), Gilbert, Morrison, Hobbs, Mattock, Oakley, Cleverley (Chambers 79), Andy King, Dyer (Berner 67), Fryatt, Howard. Subs Not Used: Brown, Dickov.
Booked: Morrison, Hobbs. Goals: Andy King 86.
Swindon: Brezovan, Jack Smith, Ifil, Greer, Vincent, Amankwaah, Timlin, Kanyuka, Robson-Kanu, Paynter, Cox. Subs Not Used: Phil Smith, McNamee, Nalis, Lescinel, Hamid Razak.
Booked: Timlin. Goals: Cox 38.
STOPPAGE TIME 1st HALF: 1 minute, STOPPAGE TIME 2nd HALF: 2 minutes
ATTENDANCE: 19,926 (includes 1,032 Away fans)
|
LEICESTER STATS:
|
1st Half |
2nd Half |
TOTAL |
|
SHOTS ON TARGET |
1 |
4 |
5 |
|
SHOTS OFF TARGET |
4 |
1 |
5 |
|
HEADERS ON TARGET |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
HEADERS OFF TARGET |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
SAVES |
1 |
3 |
4 |
|
CORNERS |
5 |
6 |
11 |
|
OFFSIDES |
5 |
2 |
7 |
|
FOULS |
7 |
6 |
13 |
|
SWINDON TOWN STATS:
|
1st Half |
2nd Half |
TOTAL |
|
SHOTS ON TARGET |
2 |
3 |
5 |
|
SHOTS OFF TARGET |
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
HEADERS ON TARGET |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
HEADERS OFF TARGET |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
SAVES |
1 |
3 |
4 |
|
CORNERS |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
OFFSIDES |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
FOULS |
4 |
3 |
7 |
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