Another month of the season on the verge of being complete and a midlands derby with 'rivals' Northampton Town to finish it off. I say rivals in the lightest possible sense as it's hard to even contemplate them as being something of a threat to us. With Forest, Derby and even Coventry at times, there's that little spark which is always threatening to ignite the passion amongst even the most calm and collected of football fans, but Northampton Town? Well that's never really going to be anything more than a simmer.
Something different for travel this time though - a combination of trains and car. Interesting! Headed off from home shortly after midday to head over to Loughborough (the opposite direction from where I needed to be going but we'll go with it!). At the station, I met Jodie and we headed off into Lough to wait for JoeB - our chauffeur for the day, and after a quick stop at Ladbrokes, we were off to join the M1 and head down south to Northampton... only 30 minutes earlier than I would have to leave for a home game.... this didn't feel right for an away game!
We'll roll with it though and we were soon heading down the motorway with some classic tunes from the i-pod on the go and scanning every motorbike for a sign of Daggers along the way. Joe's proudest moment though was passing this Lamborghini twice along the journey (although to be fair, he was cruising along at about 55 miles an hour on the M1).
Jodie was very quiet on the way though and didn't approve of the fact I took this photo of her... whoops!
Despite the late departure, we made it into Northampton in good time and parked up by the ground with about an hour to spare. Bought a programme from a rather aggresive woman who clearly didn't like Leicester fans much to mine and Joe's amusement as we laughed at her "fighting talk". She knew where to hit us fans where it hurts - in the wallet! To kill some time we headed off to the KFC next to the ground to get some food and just to take shelter from the bitter wind that was sweeping through the area. A bit of food and Daggers spotting later and we went up the famous hill to check out the view that people get for free (until the police move them on anyway).
Poor Jodie didn't agree with the cold and had to be helped up the slippery bits of the hill and clearly didn't see the point in checking out a ground that we will hopefully not have to visit again anytime soon.
After our quick tourist adventure, we headed back down and through the turnstiles (tightest in the league? Possible!) and found our seats... on row A... damn! By some odd coincidence considering we didn't buy tickets together we found ourselves sat next to C-man, Lil' Dave and Joe so at least there were a few of us together. The problem with cramped away areas like this is that you're usually stuck in your proper seats so we wernt too excited about the prospect that it would be a classic away day!
As the game kicked off, we soon realised that we wouldn't be able to stand like we wanted so were scouting round for anywhere that we would be able to move too.... and as look would have it, further down that row by the corner flag was a group of blokes standing with about 8 free seats in front of them so across we headed.... only for them to sit down as soon as we got there!! From sitting in Row A, we moved to sit in some other seats.... on Row A. Madness!
Poor Jodie didn't agree with the cold and had to be helped up the slippery bits of the hill and clearly didn't see the point in checking out a ground that we will hopefully not have to visit again anytime soon.
After our quick tourist adventure, we headed back down and through the turnstiles (tightest in the league? Possible!) and found our seats... on row A... damn! By some odd coincidence considering we didn't buy tickets together we found ourselves sat next to C-man, Lil' Dave and Joe so at least there were a few of us together. The problem with cramped away areas like this is that you're usually stuck in your proper seats so we wernt too excited about the prospect that it would be a classic away day!
As the game kicked off, we soon realised that we wouldn't be able to stand like we wanted so were scouting round for anywhere that we would be able to move too.... and as look would have it, further down that row by the corner flag was a group of blokes standing with about 8 free seats in front of them so across we headed.... only for them to sit down as soon as we got there!! From sitting in Row A, we moved to sit in some other seats.... on Row A. Madness!The first chance of the game fell to the home side as a cross from the right was narrowly headed wide. A chance that failed to kick start the atmosphere.... in fact nothing really got the fans from either side going. Maybe it was the stadium, maybe it was the cold or maybe it was the fact that a group of us were too far spread out to sing together. Who knows but what we do know is that for the first 20 minutes, City were not at the races.
And it was in those first 20 minutes that Northampton took the lead. A corner was swung in and from our limited view, bodies seemed to fall everywhere as a goalmouth scramble ensued. Somehow, they forced the ball home to stun us all at falling behind to the lowly home side. You got the feeling that it would just be one of those days. A flat atmosphere and a goal down... are we back in the championship already?
After 20 minutes though, a turning point. Fryatt went down clattered on the edge of the box with us assuming a free kick, if anything, had been given. After a couple of minutes of treatment, Howard picked the ball up and edged towards the penalty spot which is when it dawned on us just what the referee had given. We weren't gonna complain though and Super Steve smashed the penalty to the keepers left to level the matters up....
....before celebrating in front of us and really whipping the crowd into a frenzy. How could an awful game have two goals already??
JoeB responded to the goal by throwing himself over the barrier in front us like a nutter to get to in on the celebrations.
That penalty seemed to shake some life into us and we looked a little more confident. A clever ball over the top nearly put Howard through again but his lobbed effort over the keeper lacked the power needed and the defence hooked away the goal bound effort. Hobbs also came close to giving us the lead with a header from an Oakley free kick before Fryatt lashed an effort over the bar.
....before celebrating in front of us and really whipping the crowd into a frenzy. How could an awful game have two goals already??
JoeB responded to the goal by throwing himself over the barrier in front us like a nutter to get to in on the celebrations.
That penalty seemed to shake some life into us and we looked a little more confident. A clever ball over the top nearly put Howard through again but his lobbed effort over the keeper lacked the power needed and the defence hooked away the goal bound effort. Hobbs also came close to giving us the lead with a header from an Oakley free kick before Fryatt lashed an effort over the bar. At half time, Fez and Wilkesy came over to join us for a quick chat while Jodie headed off to see Chloe and some of the others. The main entertainment though was this steward with two hats - one an obnoxious greeny yellow which got the song "he's got a condom on his head" during the second half. He really did look like something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and had us in stitches!
Onto the second half and Fryatt was unlucky not to put us into the lead when his shot on the turn was deflected just wide... but he only had himself to blame minutes later when his bit of skill left the keeper helpless on the floor only to fire timidly at him with the goal begging - the rebound falling to Howard who screwed it wide when he should have scored.
After the game we all went out for a nice meal in Nottingham before heading back to hers to relax after what had been a long day of dashing around. Worth it though but I don't fancy having to rush around like that every week to get from one game to another.
Onto the second half and Fryatt was unlucky not to put us into the lead when his shot on the turn was deflected just wide... but he only had himself to blame minutes later when his bit of skill left the keeper helpless on the floor only to fire timidly at him with the goal begging - the rebound falling to Howard who screwed it wide when he should have scored. On 73 minutes though, with Northampton tiring, City broke quickly and grabbed the lead. A quick counter attack involving Dyer, Howard and loanee Tom Cleverley resulted in a first time cross from the right being turned in by Dyer on the half volley. After going quite a while without a goal, you could see his relief to have got his name on the scoresheet.
From then on, it was just a case of seeing the game out and we never looked in danger of losing the points until time added on at the end of a game when a free kick wasn't cleared fully and Martin had to make a good double save to prevent the equaliser.
And with that save, the referee called time on the game and insured that we kept our incredible lead at the top of league one to a maximum and put a smile on our faces as we headed back to the car.
The race was on now to get me to Loughborough for a train to Nottingham at 18:04.... it seemed impossible... and so it proved by two minutes thanks to Jodie faffing around and getting caught behind a slow driver in Anstey. So close yet so far!
With that failure, JoeB dropped me off at the new East Midlands Parkway station which is branded as the most eco station in england or something like that... the only reason being that there is nothing there!!! One man selling tickets was about your lot - no shops or anything. Not even a crummy little newsagents or vending machine. 20 minutes of erm... nothing and I was on the short train journey further north and then dived into a taxi at the other end to get to the ice arena for the Ice Hockey game - Nottingham Panthers v Manchester Pheonix with Samantha and her flat mates.
You think football is all about the image rights then you've not seen anything till you've had the pleasure of the American way of sports. Everything, from the penalty boxes to the time outs are sponsored and get an announcement at every opportunity and don't get me started on the music at every possible interval with crowd interactive dances. I've seen games before but never straight from a football match and I just found myself getting annoyed at the lack of atmosphere and passion generated from a bunch of supporters. To be fair to the travelling hundred or so fans from Manchester, they tried to sing a few songs that they have made their own but as soon as they started, something would happened and the tannoy system would blare out something and drown them out. I guess it's just the clash of cultures between a fan so used to standing on the terraces singing your heart out to seeing cheerleaders trying to lead the crowd in a dance. I do like watching Ice Hockey games... I just need to switch modes in my head from football to hockey if going straight after a Leicester game again. For the record, the Panthers won 3-2 in a game which came to life in the final period after a disappointing first two.
After the game we all went out for a nice meal in Nottingham before heading back to hers to relax after what had been a long day of dashing around. Worth it though but I don't fancy having to rush around like that every week to get from one game to another. But back to the main theme and another win away from home for Leicester and extends the unbeaten league run even further. It seems almost surreal now going this far without defeat and you know any loss is going to be greeted with more shock than annoyance after coming so far. 18 games to go though and surely 10 wins and we'd be promoted as champions... it sounds so simple when written down like that but you know it's not over yet. Not until Lee Jobber sings.
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