Boxing Day – City 2 Leeds 2
Heading to this boxing day encounter between the Foxes and second placed Leeds, I wondered which city team would turn out, would it be the on form city home team who are unbeaten at the Walkers stadium in the league under Sven Goran Eriksson or would it be the very inconsistent, off form city away team who cant stop conceding goals?! I am not sure if it added to the excitement for the 30,000 plus crowd that heading down filbert way for this Championship encounter
Sven made two changes to the team which had lost 3-0 in the snow in the last match v Ipswich Town. In came Jack Hobbs for Miguel Vitor in central defence whilst Steve Howard led the attack replacing Lloyd Dyer in the starting eleven. Matt Fryatt wasn’t named amongst the substitutes after recent transfer speculation continued to link him with a move away from the Walkers Stadium in January.
As kick off approached there appeared to be a good positive atmosphere inside the stadium as the freezing temperatures hadn’t dampened the spirits of both the Leicester and the Leeds’ fans enthusiasm. The game started with Leicester in the ascendancy and after just two minutes the Leeds goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was forced into a smart punch clear when the city attack looked to press forward and force an error…..
Leeds seemed happy to play the ball out of the danger zone and they spent the first few minutes soaking up the early home pressure. Good work by Paul Gallagher nearly created openings for both Andy King and Steve Howard early on but neither player’s effort threatened Schmeichel’s goal.
Free kick’s and corners from Paul Gallagher after both 13 and 16 minutes attempted to create openings for both King and Howard but good defending from Leeds rearguard denied us on both occasions. Leeds seemed content to sit back and attack on the counter and it worked in the 19th minute as Leeds first proper attack of the match and a Neil Kilkenny ball over the top caused Kyle Naughton to slip over in the city six yard box which allowed former City winger Max Gradel a free header which he easily placed past Kirkland into the city net. One nil to Leeds.
City had a couple of half chances with Steve Howard involved in both, although Leeds easily contained City for the remainder of the half and looked good value for their one nil half time lead. City again seemed to have to chase the match from a losing position. The players left the field to a muted atmosphere, no real booing but certainly not much applause. Much better was required to warm this near 31,000 Boxing Day crowd.
Yuki Abe had the first chance of the second half when his effort was caught by the Leeds keeper Schmeichel and city started the half brightly with purpose, however Leeds seemed happy to defend their one goal advantage and soak up the pressure.
O’Brien was involved in a vital clearance when city men poured forward although Leeds threatened to catch city on the counter. Leeds had a succession of corners and from the second one the dangerous Robert Snodgrass took himself to which the ball was cleared back out to him just inside the area and he responded with an unstoppable first time strike from a tight angle which gave Curtis Davies and city keeper Chris Kirkland no chance and out of nothing Leeds had doubled their lead and were seemingly on their way to three points. 2-0 to Leeds.
Chris Kirkland was forced into a couple of easy saves from both Snodgrass once again and Luciano Beccio but the city defence held firm and city had managed to just stay in the match. Sven decided on 64 minutes to replace Yuki Abe with Lloyd Dyer into a more forward role and also on 65 minutes he replaced Steve Howard with the on loan Roman Bednar in a like for like forward substitution.
With just less than twenty minutes to go Paul Gallagher won a 50/50 challenge near the half way like in front of the East stand and played in Darius Vassell to run at Schmeichel one on one, there was only going to be one winner and Vassell was seemingly going to round the keeper. However as he sped on goal the Leeds keeper Schmeichel upended him and he as the last man surely had to see red. But no, the referee immediately pointed to the spot and brandished only a yellow card for Schmeichel. The penalty was excellently put low to the keeper’s right by Gallagher and the foxes were back in the match. 2-1 Leeds with 17 minutes to go.
Within minutes of that goal, Andy King chested down a ball on the edge of the Leeds area and with a superb strike on the volley from 30 yards out he placed his shot high beyond Schmeichel into the top of the Leeds net to level the contest. 2-2. what a strike. I was breathless, City had turned the game on its head and seemed to be chasing the winner….the city crowd sang ‘your not singing anymore’ to the Leeds fans although I cant recall hearing the Leeds fans having sang that much even when they were two goals up!!
The final fifteen minutes were nervy and both city and Leeds had good shouts for penalties waved away by the referee, first Roman Bednar appeared to be knocked to the ground by Neil Collins in a goalmouth scramble and Paul Gallagher appeared to handball a cross shot in the city box when Leeds were awarded a late corner. Chris Kirkland was forced into a late save from Leeds substitute Billy Paytner before Neil Collins headed wide in the final seconds of the contest.
The match ended 2-2 and City will be the more satisfied to have preserved Sven’s unbeaten league Walkers record when in charge of city. However one point at home is not good enough for a team still aspiring to reach the end of season play-offs. A lot of changes need to be made in January if this team is to reach the top half of the table let alone the top six come May 2011!
City: Kirkland, Naughton, Davies, Hobbs, Cunningham, Abe (Dyer 64), King, Wellens, Gallagher, Vassell, Howard (Bednar 65)
Subs not used: Weale, Morrison, Oakley, Waghorn, Moussa.
Leeds: Schmeichel, Connolly, Collins, O’Brien, McCartney, Johnson, Kilkenny (Faye 89), Howson (McCormack), Snodgrass, Becchio (Paytner 85), Gradel
Subs not used: Higgs, Bruce, Sam, Bromby.
Attendance: 30,919
Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire)
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