LEICESTER CITY 1 DONCASTER ROVERS 0
Report by Paul Weston
By a strange co-incidence I found myself the night before the match staying in a hotel on the edge of Leicester, also shared with Paul Dickov and the Doncaster Rovers team. They all seemed pretty relaxed and unprepared for the drama that was to unfold later…
The sun shone on a special day for City fans and they flocked in their thousands to the King Power Stadium for the early kick off, many draped in flags and in fancy dress. There was a carnival atmosphere, which was boosted by the owners giving everyone a free beer as they came through the turnstiles- quite a round of drinks!
We went to our seats early to see The Birch complete his 34th charity run, at times hobbling, around the stadium- an amazing effort. He is a fantastic ambassador for our club.
This was an emotional day for many City fans who have suffered many lows over the last ten years supporting their team. At last we have a team and manager of which we can be proud and which have this season played a brand of football that we never thought we would see at the King Power. It was “lump in the throat time” when the team came out and a nice touch from the Doncaster Rovers team to form a guard of honour.
In the absence of Vardy and James through injury Pearson chose to bring Dyer in and play Phillips up front from the start for his farewell appearance before hanging up his boots. I don’t often disagree with Nigel and his selections but I, and others, felt this was a sentimental selection, rather than based on football tactics.
It would have been much better to bring Phillips on with 15 minutes to go at the end of the match. Instead we saw in the first half that, similar to the Brighton match, he no longer had the pace to make a significant contribution so Nugent often was left on his own and this made it easier for the Doncaster defence. How the match cried out for Vardy’s pace.
The stadium was a riot of a colour and noise and absolutely packed with fans but it was a strange game. It looked like Doncaster had come for a draw right from the start, seemingly banking on the fact that they did not think Birmingham could win at Bolton. They played with rigid lines of defence throughout.
City had a huge amount of possession but for the most part of the match passing was off-key and movement rather pedestrian. Drinkwater did his best to energise the team but too many other players were not quite on their game. De Laet in particular had a poor first half. Dyer did his best in the first half to create some chances but all too often the final ball was not quite right.
Despite not playing to their usual pace and intensity City still managed to create two chances from which Nugent should have scored. And so the first half ended 0-0 with City patient and Doncaster content to keep a clean sheet, hoping to grab a goal from set play, although from the evidence of the first half, Kasper and the defence had tightened up their approach to crosses and corners.
Eventually in the second half Phillips was withdrawn to an ovation, replaced by Taylor-Fletcher and then Dyer replaced by Knockaert. Dyer’s long lingering departure surely supported the press news that he would not get the contract length he was after and therefore not likely to be around in the Premiership next season. If that was the case then we can say that this year we have seen the best of Lloyd Dyer who has been a revelation and scored some cracking goals- one even with his right foot! He will be sought after by many Championship teams.
The substitutes brought more movement and pace to the side and City started to press more, but still not creating many chances. A Nugent header looked like it might have been over the line before being cleared. News filtered through to the Doncaster fans that Bolton Wanderers were winning against Birmingham and so Doncaster continued to defend calmly in numbers, content that they were safe from relegation.
It all changed in the 75th minute when Mahrez jinked into the penalty area, was tripped. Nugent slammed the penalty right down the middle. 1-0 to City and deserved even though playing in second gear.
We all know that mobile reception is not good in the King Power so we found it hard to find out what was happening in the Bolton match. However, it was baffling that Doncaster Rovers seemingly did not change any tactics when they went a goal down, again assuming that Bolton was going to beat Birmingham.
It was only right at the end with minutes to go that attacking substitutes were made. We then heard that, at the death, Birmingham had come back to draw and, by then, Doncaster had left it all too late and only had themselves to blame. City easily played out time, and even managed to fail to score with five forwards against two defenders at the end!
And so the match ended with a similar scenario to when we were related to Division 1 at Stoke – elation of champions and despair of those relegated. The Doncaster fans just stood there stunned and we all know how it felt- we remember it still now vividly.
Sadly some idiotic fans rushed onto the pitch prematurely, injuring a steward in the process. The trophy was then awarded amid scenes of jubilation. We all sang “We are the Champions” along with Sam Bailey in various discordant keys, waving our flags for all our worth and thinking of times spent watching our team over the years with family and friends, some of whom sadly were no longer with us.
The parade around the ground by players, staff and family ended rather chaotically with another pitch invasion and eventually everyone was allowed to walk onto the hallowed turf and to be able to say, in years to come, to their children and grandchildren that:
I WAS THERE WHEN CITY WAS PROMOTED INTO THE PREMIERSHIP!!
Leicester: Schmeichel, De Laet, Wasilewski, Morgan, Konchesky, Mahrez, Drinkwater, King (Hammond 81), Dyer (Taylor-Fletcher 76), Nugent, Phillips (Knockaert 65). Subs not used: Schlupp, Moore, Logan, Wood
Doncaster: Johnstone, Tamas, Neill (Forrester 84), Meite, Quinn, Husband (Stevens 82), Coppinger, Keegan, Furman (Sharp 84), Cotterill, Brown. Subs not used: Turnbull, McCombe, De Val Fernandez, Robinson
Attendance: 31,424 Referee: Paul Tierney.
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