Next Up: Leicester City Founded: 1884 Ground: The Walkers Stadium Capacity: 32,500. Leicester City were a class above last season. First season back-up from League One and the Foxes went from strength to strength under Nigel Pearson, eventually finishing a tidy 5th. A bazarre chain of events were to follow in the off-season however. Nigel Pearson announced he would be quitting Leicester City to take up the available post at Premier League relegated Hull city, citing a lack of managerial stability and the clubs known interest in Paolo Sousa as his reasons for leaving. Ironically, Paolo Sousa was announced as Leicester manager just days after Pearson's exit. Club owner and colourful football character, Milan Mandaric, stated at the time that he was "delighted to acquire a manager of such great calibre". Another twist was yet to unfold though in a strange off season. In August, Mandaric sold the club to Asian Football Investments. Not that the Foxes supporters were complaining though, with the clubs new owners worth a net total of £113 million. Something like WFC could do with. The Foxes kicked off the season away to Crystal Palace. No one would of expected Palace to be up 3-0 at HT but the scoreline told a story in itself. The Foxes recovered after the break but ended up going down 3-2. A dissapointing start to say the least for Paolo Sousa. Things didn't improve much from there either for the former Portugese International. Crutial losses at Burnley and Reading saw early calls for Sousa's head. Many fans still at a loss as to why promotion-winning boss Pearson wasn't given more support. Sousa was eventually sacked on October 1, after less than 3 months in charge. Football showing just how harsh it can be to the man who did good job of things at Swansea City. Two days after the firing of Sousa, Leicester City appointed former England Manager Sven Goran Eriksson to a two-year deal. Leicester have gone on to pick up some fine results under Eriksson. Victories at Barnsley, Derby and Forest of late just a sign of the improvement made in recent weeks. This week Leicester's new board flexed their muscle with the loan signings of Czech International Roman Bednar and England International Chris Kirkland. Two players clearly of Premiership quality but for one reason or another find themselves out of favour with their Parent clubs. Key man - Andy King. Came through Chelsea's youth ranks before joining Leicester in 2004 where he was able to cut his teeth in the first team. After a slow start, a season in League One was exactly the remedy for King. A recent Welsh International, King has been in sound form this season hitting 8 league goals from midfield. The Game. Sat 4th Dec - Vicarage Road Stadium. Axwell's say - Watford 1-2 Leicester.
From the opposition fans..... 1) What were your pre-season expectations at the Walkers? Play offs Playoffs, with the season we had last year and Nigel in charge I thought that was a minimum. After Pearson left I was more hopeful than expectant of the playoffs but well Sousa was a disaster!! Certainly Playoffs. Under Pearson I would have expected to go up automatically, but as we were in a period of change both on the managerial side and the take over; my expectations became a little bit different, I expected to struggle but finish In the play offs none the less. Play offs 2) and how are you faring compared to those? Hmmm... not too far off now considering our start. Nowhere near. We have played some good stuff this season but we are missing too many chances and we were conceding too many. Luckily Sven has steadied the defence and we are looking harder to beat, need to be more prolific in front of goal and more consistent with the wins but we are getting there. Poor start but things are picking up. obviously we're not in a good position at all, however Sven has changed the team mentality as well as the on pitch fortunes so I'm still confident. Not too far off 3) obviously Notts Co didn't have such a positive experience but how has Sven taking the reigns effected everyone here? He's had an unbelievable effect. It's the Sven factor. He's bought a lift the club and on the pitch. Quality both on it and off it. When he first joined it was a mixed bag reaction wise, dont think he was everyones first choice but for me personally a very very good manager who should do really well here. His signings so far look top draw and obviously he can draw big name players in so January should be very interesting! He's turned things around, back to basics, got the team spirit back and attracted some big names, signs are good so far. No answer... Very positive, he's changed the clubs fortunes very quickly 4) You've seemingly built up what was already quite a promising squad, what are your strengths? I would have to say having a solid defence, as well as having midfield maestro Andy King who is just a class above. I would say now that our strength is "our" back 4. Naughton Davies Vitor and Cunningham have mixed in well together and with Kirkland behind them i cant see us shipping too many goals. At this point the defence. Naughton and Davies have been quality signings. Berner is experience and has good competition from Cunningham, Hobbs is an excellent prospect and Vitor looked quality when he's been fit. No answer... Alot of those are Loanees, so the squad isn;t really that big, but we werea very good team in terms of defence 5) and your weaknesses? A consistent striker scoring goals week-in week-out. Hopefully Bednar might do that, or cause a spark to create that. Hitting the net. Central midfielder is top scorer by a couple of goals and considering we have had the most shots in the division its disapointing. Well at the start our defence, however it is now the opposite. Our weakness is our forwards, we can't score. Our biggest weakness is goal scoring, we tend to miss more chances then we take and that's just not good enough. We need a new goal scoring striker. Striker and attacking options 6) If you could have any one Watford player in your side, who would it be? Sordell looks very useful. Graham...he knows where the net is! Seem to have mostly average players with no one particularly standing out. Danny Graham gets a couple of goals so he would be useful right now. I would like 'Mutch' as he seems to have scored quite a few goals No answer... 7) What is your opinion of Watford as a club and as a team? I like them as a club. As a team, this season I feel they may have been punching above their weight but they make games interesting (well those that I've seen of them this year anyway!) No answer.. Not got a big following, but I respect all of their fans as there are more prestigious clubs just down the road, so fairplay for supporting your local side. Its a shame but truth is there not gonna go anywhere unless they get a cash injection. To me (as a London based fox) Watford are a smallish club however, they're consistenly in the championship at least over the last few years, I think they deserve to be in this division. I just think they need a huge financial boost. Neither positive or derogative 8) One thing we share in common is former left back Chris Powell featuring for you at the end of his career, what are your feelings towards him? Legend!! The guy has become a cult hero here...his celebrations running down the touchline and hugging the linesman when him and Stowell were in charge will go down in folklore im sure!! Legend, Gentleman. I don't think we share much in common really, in my opinion we're the bigger club with the brighter past, I suppose we've both done the yoyo between championship and the premiership over the last 5-6 years. Lovely chap and I can imagine has a positve influence on the team 9) Thank you, and match predictions for Saturday? 2-1 City! We always seem to do pretty well against Watford at home so im going for a 3-1 win....but it literally could go either way with the consistency of the two teams! Think were due a good win, being optimistic 3-0. New signing Bednar to give us a boost. If we come through tonight injury/suspension free then I think we'll win it 1-2 or 1-0 however I also think we're due a rout, and Watford away could be that big win. (fingers crossed cause I'll be there) No problem, and thank you for the watford guide posted on the travel part of forum!! With thanks to the members of Foxestalk Apologies for the poor quality of the interviews this week chaps, didn't exactly get a lot to work with!
Team news... Piero Mingoia and Michael Bryan are doubtful due to thigh and ankle injuries respectively, they will face a late fitness test for the game. Other than the loanees out and these two, Mackay has a full squad to choose from. Leicester will be without newly aquired goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, who surprisingly is buckled about a day after joining, defender Tunchev shall be missing for the Foxes but Miguel Vitor will be back from a thigh injury and available in the squad. Loach Doyley Mariappa Taylor Taylor Deeney Eustace Mutch Cowie Graham Sordell Weale Naughton Davies Vitor Cunningham Wellens King Abe Vassell Bednar Gallagher
They have an experienced team there! Naughton, Vassell, King, Bednar and Curtis Davies! Deary me. We have to play kids, and even they are injured now. Bah. Also sounds like a few Leicester fans are a little too big for their boots! We have been a Championship or Premiershyte club now for 30 years solidly. Since 1980 we have only dropped to the third tier once in '98 and came up the next season! We are a more reliable Championship club than Leeds, Forest, Naarch and all sorts and have spent exactly the same amount of time in League One as they have! Oh well, if they are that arrogant about us maybe they will underestimate us and we will finally pick up a win!
Starting 11: Loach; Doyley, Mariappa, M Taylor, A Taylor; McGinn, Mutch, Eustace, Cowie; Buckley, Graham Buckley's back then.
Fishal Teams: HORNETS: Loach; Doyley, M Taylor, Mariappa, A Taylor; Cowie, Eustace, Mutch, McGinn; Graham, Buckley. Subs: Gilmartin (GK), Hodson, Jenkins, Bennett, Sordell, Deeney, Massey. FOXES: Weale, Naughton, Cunningham, Davies, Hobbs, Abe, Wellens, King (c), Gallagher, Vassell, Bednar. Subs: Logan, Morrison, Oakley, Dyer, Fryatt, Waghorn, Howard
Mine not official enough for you? How saddening. Wonder how Buckley'll do. Hope he does really well up top. Will be interesting.
oo buckers is back, starting up front ahead of sordell and deeney. or will this be a 4-5-1 with buckley playing in the attacking midfielder role. has he learnt his lesson? must have impressed in training this week.
Lacking in style substance and hence overall value. 4/10:biggrin: Actually took me a while to C&P your post wasn't there when I started. Maybe an extra 1/10 for beating me to it.
Crucial win. Good result against a Leicester team with much more experience and quality than us, well done lads!
Easy win. We suckered them into thinking they could get a point and then Kapow. Promotion by the playoffs for certain. arty2::drinking:
Squeaky bum time for a while. Skin of out teeth. Hat full of chances missed judging by 3CR commentary.
Once again we are the victims of ANOTHER non-penalty. So that is the third completely undeserved penalty this season, and two years without a penalty at home. Thank God for that really. A really great win against a wealthy team full of quality and experience everywhere, and a win that will look even better at the end of the season when Leicester are sitting in the Play Offs. Great win in the end even though we nearly lost a 2-0 lead for the millionth time. Well done all. Won't come up against too many teams with that much quality (on paper) this season.
We also scored our 100th goal under Malky today, up to 101. If only we hadn't conceded 480. :biggrin:
Good win against a team with a lot of good players. No complaints with the Leicester penalty I thought it was blatant handball. But what was Loach doing with the free-kick,was basically standing on his post but other than that he did pull off two good saves and was unfortunate with the penalty. Don't want to be too critical of Massey,but he really didn't look interested. Bring on QPR.
Was da new owners in da directors box? Anyone see a short lil tubby ugly canut, wid "i da savior" tattoed on is forehead? We r goin up up up playoffs ere we come, aidys covnotry in da final of da play offs - aidy boothroyd de de de de.....
My feet are COLD! First half we battered them, I don't remember a Leicester chance at all, nice football, Leicester looked utterly lost. Even Harry was up there taking the pee out of them, I mean right in front of them. Happy days. What the **** happened at half time? In the bar most of the chaps I spoke to were saying we could do with a third. Second half they were all over us from the off. The penalty looked like a clear handball to me but I was about as far away as you can get and I can't even see the clock, so what do I know. The free kick you have to ask questions of Loach, he was standing smack in the middle of the goal which is a touch odd when he lined the wall up himself. Before and after that we had at least 4 gulit edge chances, the best falling to Sordell who tired to go round the keeper inside the 6 yard area?? Looked like a nasty fall onto his shoulder. Before the match I was watching the team take shots on goal and Deeny hit every one into the net, yet when the real thing fell to him in live play he almost hit the corner flag! Overall we did our best to make an entertaining game, and boy did we need that win. Let's kick on now by smashing Hoops at home for Warnocks first defeat.
