Brentford 0 City 1
Report by Kate Thompson
Like many of my generation of Leicester City fans – and as I have said more than once – it is my dearest wish to win the FA Cup, the only trophy (barring European ones) that has eluded us.
Although the team only had Soyuncu, Perez and Iheanacho from the regular first team, it was a strong bench which gave me some confidence. But I was very worried about this one and could see another disappointment coming.
My fears were allayed very soon when Iheanacho scored in the third minute, and this turned out to be the only goal, so we had a nervous half and a half until we knew we were through to the next round.
I hadn’t appreciated what a good goal it was, as – again, not for the first time – it was scored at the far end from the City fans and all I really saw was the net bulging. But watching it later, it was excellent; the raking pass from Praet was a contender for pass of the season, if there is such an award, and Justin placed a perfect cross into Iheanacho’s path. All he had to do was to make contact and he did it beautifully. His vast improvement gives me hope that we can manage without Vardy, although I would prefer not to!
City carved out chance after chance in the first half and only a mixture of excellent defending and some wayward efforts kept the score line at one goal.
The second half was quite different, and Brentford looked threatening on several occasions. Fortunately, their shots were also wayward: several whistled past a post and one hit an upright, after which Fuchs made an excellent job of steering the ball away from danger.
Ward only had one real save to make, from a wrongly given corner; the referee signalled a corner but Fuchs had not touched the ball, which was confirmed by the (excellent female) linesman. Radic hit a thunderous shot but Ward was alert and able to tip it over the bar. Brentford did get the ball in the net but the player was clearly offside, indicated by the same linesman and without the need for VAR!
The match was live on the BBC but it did not affect the gate and the ground was full, even though it is small. Somewhat to my surprise the pitch was in excellent condition, in contrast to that of Tranmere when they beat Watford on Thursday.
In the studio with arch Leicester fan Gary Lineker were Alan Shearer, Dean Smith and Dion Dublin, who all said nice things about our club. They gave man of the match to Fuchs, an award I would agree with.
The BBC website however gave it to a Brentford player, Marcondes. It was nice to see another of ‘our own’, Development Squad player Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall get a reasonable amount of time on the pitch, and it was interesting to hear Rodgers say that he had put him on when the game was still in the balance to see how he coped.
In my opinion, nobody had a bad game although Gray reverted to his almost anonymous self. I was particularly impressed with Justin and I thought Perez worked very hard, although some commentators only gave him a five out of ten. So we go onto the 5th round, with fingers crossed for a home tie and not one against Liverpool or Manchester City!
Leicester: Ward, Justin, Morgan, Söyüncü, Fuchs, Choudhury, Praet, Gray (Maddison 78), Pérez, Albrighton, Iheanacho (Dewsbury-Hall 68).Subs (not used) Schmeichel, Evans, Tielemans, Barnes, Ricardo Pereira
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