Game Sixty Two - Peterborough away

28 March 2009

If MK Dons had been the original 'big one' then this was to be known as the 'epic one.' Exactly one month after the last clash of the top two, MK Dons have dramatically fallen away from the automatic promotion race and Peterborough have emerged as our main rivals for promotion after 7 wins in 8 have brought them to within 7 points of us. In the week building up to the game, we knew that a win would almost guarentee our return to the championship as champions of league one, defeat and we would be sweating having only a four point lead.

This was to be Lisa's designated birthday match and so a decent sized gathering of people arrived at Leicester train station to hop on board the 9:15 train to Peterborough. While we knew it would be rammed, I don't think we anticipated just how rammed it would be as the good old rail company put on a train with only two coaches. With 4000 City fans making the trip, you would think they would have known there would be a higher demand for the service than normal.

So at 9:15, me, Jodie, Bert, Chloe, Lisa, Carl, James, Sparky, Bilo, Fatah, Lovejoy and anyone else I missed out, all squeezed in together and began the hour long train ride getting closer than we imagined. Many fun and games were had though and a nice chat about how great Syston was as the train sped through the place and we had Jodie getting stuck in the toilet. Classic stuff.

With about 10 minutes of the journey left to go, a Chinese woman who had been bouncing her baby to keep it amused made the schoolboy error of bouncing it onto the emergency stop button. Now if you have stood on a train, you know what happens when a train stops quite quickly - everyone nearly falls over. Now imagine a rammed train that grinds to a hault... funny image eh? Especially when those people are falling into you!

We finally got into Peterborough and met up with Katy and Stez who had travelled in from Grantham and also finally met up with Daggers who had been on the same train as us, holding his bladder for dear life.

As we head off to the pub, we decided to take a cut through the shopping centre only for the security guards to stop half of the group outside telling us that we wernt going any further. Despite the fact that half of us had been allowed in, they made certain that we had to go around and so sent us on our way - so much for basic human rights!! Instead we walked around to the pub so that people could collect tickets and stuff. Lisa, Katy and co headed off in search of a less crowded pub while the rest of us headed over to the bookies for a cheeky bet or two (bloody Wales!!) and then on to the ground with Jodie attracting the attention of a rather friendly female home fan. I think Jodie was a little scared at one point!

We finally got into the ground and made our way to the front of the terrace with Bert, Chloe and Jodie holding the area whilst I went over to see Helen and Colleen. We were soon joined by Joe x 2, Lil Dave, angry dad, James, Katy, Stez, Lisa, Carl, Daggers and Tommeh to complete Foxestalk terrace just like Bristol Rovers last month. Smuts, Wilkesy and Jess turned up late and Fez was to join us at half time to round things off.

You've gotta love terracing and that at London Road is a good old fashioned terrace, quite shallow with everyone all crammed in together. You had the feeling that this had the potential to be an amazing day.

As the teams came out, the away fans were in good voice with virtually every player getting his own song sung about them as we waited for kick off. The home fans on the other hand remained silent as we taunted them with "just like a cemetary" and other songs.

The game report will be short and swift as I don't really want to recall the events of the game as it didn't live up to the potential it should have done. As the wind caused massive problems with clearing the ball any real distance, the game was a very scrappy affair with some tasty challenges flying in.

Neither side created any real chances but Peterborough looked the better side, although that was to be expected as we had many players out through injury, suspension and international call ups. Combine that with the fact that the referee was wearing a blue shirt very similar, if not identical to that of the home side, and you have a defeat staring you in the face.

With the action on the pitch leaving little to the imagination, it was left to us fans to create our own fun and the random positioning of some people on the terrace caused amusement. As well as this lot standing on whatever they could find, there were a couple of people lying down over the exit signs with their heads down to see under the roof. Just like the good old days.

In the 43rd minute, Peterborough took the lead when some awful defending from a corner allowed Charlie Lee time to round one defender, then a second and take advantage of an Oakley slip to curl a shot past Warner into the corner. Bollocks. To make matters worse, the heavens had opened and we got pelted by hail and rain to leave us one goal down and sodden. At one point we even had to turn away from the pitch because of how hard the hail stones were pelting us.

While others used hoods to keep them dry, I opted for the now famous Ivory Coast scarf - a quite special look I'm sure you will agree.

At least half time was entertaining as we all chatted amongst ourselves and stuff but sadly that only lasted for 15 minutes and we soon had to get back to the dismal performance!

City continued to create no chances of any real note apart from one great move which released Dickov but the striker took about 200 touches too many and the chance was gone when it looked a simple finish. It had been such a great chance that there had been a mini surge forward in anticipation of the net rippling.

Lil Dave wasn't impressed....

As the game went on, it was clear that we wouldnt get anything from the game and we really missed Steve Howard up front to create the link between Fryatt and the midfield.

There was nothing much else to really comment on apart from how bad the officials were and contributed to us getting nothing from the day. Tony Warner made a couple of great saves to keep us in it but with ten minutes to go, our fate was sealed when Whelpdale smashed the ball home after good work from Makail-Smith.

All that was left to do was miss a couple of chances to complete the misery (step forward Kisnorbo and Adams) and the game was done. The gap down to four points and a nasty brown stain starting to form in our pants.

As we made our way out the ground, angry dad put his foot in his mouth with an irish man as he commented on the england game and we made our way into town just as the heavens opened once more. Dripping wet and having lost a lot of people, we said goodbye to the remaining people we were with and me and James left the soggy lot to head back to the train station. Wet, cold and miserable, we had no intention of hanging around any longer than we had to.

Jumping on the football special train, we made the short journey back to Leicester. The whole thing proved to much for Potter though as he dozed off in the luggage rack after a few minutes.

So that was Peterborough away, a day that could have been the greatest away day ever turned into a miserable day that left us all feeling pretty depressed about things. With Millwall also winning later that day, it's really left things at a crucial point. Every result is now vital and every dropped point could be the difference between success and failure. We have got ourselves into this though after a string of dodgy results but we have to rectify this starting with Carlisle at home.... after of course another new ground in midweek. Im the famous Syston_Fox and i'm off to Wembley!

Game Sixty One - Manchester City v Sunderland

22 March 2009

It's been a while since I last headed up north to the City of Manchester Stadium and when the chance came up again to head back there, I eagerly jumped at the chance and made sure I was free on that day.

As like the first time I went, train was the only real option for getting to the game and I was praying that there wasn't an "act of God" causing landslides on the line that caused me the nightmare back near the start of the season (search for the Man City v Stoke game for more details on what was the most epic away day journey I've ever undertaken!).

Waking up bright and early, I dashed into Leicester to get my train to Sheffield where I'd have to spend a good 50 minutes or so amusing myself before my connecting train to Manchester. A quick walk around town doing a bit of early morning shopping and it was time to try and find my way back across to the train station - complete with impressive water feature as always.

Unlike last time, there were no problems what so ever and I arrived bang on time into Manchester Picadilly to meet up with Helen, my companion for the day. When we met up it suddenly dawned on us that we wern't actually 100% of the way to go to get there so opted for the age old classic route of following the first set of fans we saw... all well and good until another set of fans passing us going the opposite direction. Still undeterred we continued to follow these fans, chatting away amongst ourselves until it dawned on us that we had overtaken them and they weren't behind us anymore.... whoops!! Yet on we continued and after some childish random walking through some road work barriers, we soon started to recognise places from our last trip and had a fair idea of which direction we needed to head in to find our destination.

After a quick wander round the club shop and the stadium, we headed through the turnstiles and I was reminded as to why I had fallen in love with the place. The massive stands arching across the touchline and the sea of light blue filling every inch of your eyeline.

While waiting for the game to kick off, we watched the players warming up and also made sure that we had a souvenir photo from the day. The first time was me and Helen, second time was me and Katy and this time......

.... Me and Moonchester! I think I've made a friend for life there!

Joe Hart also came over to sign autographs for the fans until he was told off by one of the coaches for not taking the warm up seriously and had to run back to join his team mates.

I must admit that I was quite suprised when Man City signed Shay Given from Newcastle as I felt that in Joe Hart they had one of the best keepers in England at the time. He always commanded his area and made some crucial saves to earn his team many points during his run in the starting line up. He showed how good he could be as he made some great saves as the other players practiced their shooting.

It was soon time for the game to get underway and the players ran out to the sound of Blue Moon and did the traditional handshakes and other pre-game rituals.

The game got underway and the Sunderland fans were in fine voice at the opposite end, voicing their thoughts at Shay Given whenever he touched the ball and getting right behind their team. Bojinov, making his first start since August 2007 after lots of injuries, looked bright early on and thread a great ball through to Shaun Wright-Phillips but his lob over ex Leicester keeper Marton Fulop dropped just wide of the post.

It was a lively start but after 15 minutes, controversy struck as Sunderland were reduced to ten men. SWP burst through once more but appeared to be held back by the defender McCartney and after consulting with his linesman, the referee brandished the red card and promptly appeared to end any chances of Sunderland getting anything from the game. From the resulting free kick, Bojinov smashed his shot just over the angle of bar and post.

Two minutes later and Man City were given a great chance to take the lead. Micah Richards shot forward down the right and as he cut inside, Malbranque brought him down and the referee pointed to the spot. Now we had a problem.... an ex Leicester keeper in goal, and my favourite player taking the kick... who did I want to win the battle more? Turned out to be an easy save for Fulop as Robinho cocked up his penalty well and truly. For a man costing more than £30million there is no excuse for having to try and dummy a penalty!! His stammered run, and Fulop's steady decision not to dive early meant that Robinho paniced and just passed his penalty to the keeper. Awful penalty and the Sunderland fans celebrated like they had taken the lead.

Robinho tried to make up for his mistake but his header was well saved by Fulop and for the rest of the half it was all City as Elano and Bojinov both came close with long range efforts. The only chance for the visitors came from a free kick which was struck straight into the wall.

Half time saw the usual entertainment at Man City as members of the crowd attempted to kick balls through a giant inflatable for the chance to win a holiday or something or other. I, however, was more interested in reading the banners between the tiers. "And on the sixth day, God created Manchester City" was my pick of the bunch.

10 minutes into the second half and we had the first goal of the game. Bojinov won a free kick which Elano swung in and Micah Richards nodded the ball past Fulop and into the net.

Within minutes it should have been two as Richards, galvanized by his first goal in three years, went storming down the right, fed the ball through to Elano who used some great skill to sidestep a defender and then placed his shot just to the right of Fulop's post.

The game paused for a while as Bardsley received treatment as he bravely headed the ball away from under his own crossbar with Robinho lurking. This gave everyone a chance to relax for a few minutes and the typical Manc humour started to creep out as one guy went on a big rant about how shaving is the worst thing that a man every has to do. He had some kind of vendetta against Gillette I think!

City pressed for a second goal and Robinho was still keen to make up for his earlier mistake but his shot didnt have the power needed to beat Fulop at his near post.

Sunderland started to apply pressure with 5 minutes to go as they sensed that they could still snatch a draw from the game. De Jong had to acrobatically clear a Cisse header away when the equaliser looked on.

The more Sunderland pressed, the more vulnerable they were on the break and City nearly capitalised on this.

Elano having a long range shot brilliantly tipped over the bar by Fulop who then made an even better save when Robinho burst through one on one with him. A game to forget for Robinho but one to remember for Marton in the Sunderland goal.

With the final whistle, the City players made their way off the pitch celebrating their sixth home win on the bounce and to be honest that appears to be all that is keeping them out of a relegation battle. We made our way out of the stadium and back over to the train station where I threw Helen onto a train and then grabbed some food before embarking on the long trip home. Two trains and bus to go.... thankfully everything went to plan and I made it home in one piece. Game Sixty One in the bag and a third trip to Manchester City done. That was the fun cartoon before the main feature though as Saturday sees Leicester visit Peterborough for a top of the table clash. Surely anything other than defeat and the championship is in the bag? Time will tell.

Game Sixty - Colchester Home

21 March 2009

After the joys of the victory at Millwall last week, we were back to the Walkers Stadium for the visit of Colchester. Having never played them in our history we were in the space of three seasons in a row of games between the two sides. 4 draws and one Leicester victory was the record before today so the wise money was on adding to that run of drawn matches especially taking into account the impressive away record of Colchester.


The game would turn out to be a tale of the three officials rather than what happened between the 22 players as every decision was questionned whether it turned out to be right or wrong.

The first real chance of the match came as a result of a free kick which Andy King headed clean over the bar.

On 23 minutes, the first major controversial decision of the game as Andy King was adjudged to have fouled on the edge of the area. This gave ex Leicester player and free kick specialist, Mark Yeates, a chance to put one over on his former club.... and boy did he make the most of it. A 25 yard peach into the top corner past the despairing dive of Tony Warner in the city goal.

As City looked to get things back on level terms, King and Morrisson both missed the target with headers

In the second half, City created the first real chance when an incisive break away and some neat passing saw the ball fall to Fryatt in the box but his shot on the turn went narrowly wide of the post.

The visitors nearly made it two when Yeates again swung in a dangerous free kick that was just headed wide by Hawley.

On 66 minutes, Dickov was brought on to try and rescue the game... and 30 seconds later, he got his name on the scoresheet. A corner by Oakley was spilled by the Col U keeper and Dickov was on hand to prod the ball into the net past a mass of Yellow Shirts.

Another Yeates free kick caused danger as Colchester threatened to regain the lead. A deep free kick was headed back across goal and Platt headed for the corner only for Warner to somehow turn the ball round the post when the goal looked on.

As City pressed for a winner, they were nearly caught out at the back as a long ball over the defence, unleashed Yeates once more who burst into the area but Warner stood his ground and blocked the shot with his face - not the natural way of saving a shot but boy was it effective. From the rebound the ball was swung back in and the ball was flicked on only for Platt to head over with the goal at his mercy.

It was all Colchester at this point but Fryatt was gifted a chance late on but with only the keeper to beat he fluffed his shot over the bar. This inspired City and they were soon back on top. If the keeper had been at fault for the equaliser, he more than made up for it as Lloyd Dyer burst through only for the keeper to get down well and smother the shot.

As the final whistle blew and we contemplated a point, it was hard to not feel disappointed by what we had seen. It was another point towards promotion but couldn't help that it was two points dropped, especially as Peterborough had won once more and closed the gap to seven points. The game on saturday is now going to be crucial as it is becomming increasingly likely that the winner will take the league title. As things stand, 5 wins will guarentee us the league. Win on saturday and we will only need three, draw and we will need 4, lose.... and we're stuck on the five. With no Andy King, Cleverley or Howard it will be the hardest game of the season.... still - lets rock and roll and go with the flow. Long way to go but we will know more about how the season is panning out come 5pm.... bring it on!

Game Fifty Nine - Millwall away

14 March 2009

Millwall, Millwall, Millwall. One of those games that everyone seems to scan the fixture list at the start of the season for without any real idea why. This was one of those fixtures that seems to bring that special kind of old school fans from the woodwork who still believe that football violence is around and people meet on the terraces for a punch up, the complete opposite of the people who turned up for the fixture at MK Dons a few weeks back. As things have turned out, a trip to the New Den is now no longer the intimidating threat that people associate with but it is instead probably one of the most secure grounds in the country. The policing levels are so high that these days it's rare that you even spot a Millwall fan in the streets of London as we all get ushered away at the final whistle. On my last visit to the ground, I did the journey on fox travel and remember the streets being empty of any life at all as the Police closed off all surrounding roads as if they were anticipating trouble along the way. Having seen that side of the trip, I was keen to make a day of this one and experience the other side to Millwall and make my own way there.

The plan was simple for the day. Travel down to London, meet up with Helen and her mum and enjoy a random day of being tourists and just relaxing before heading over to the ground in good time to meet up with people and catch up before kick off. As it was I arrived at Leicester station and bumped into Little Dave and Mikey who thought they were on the same train as me only to realise that they were in fact booked on the later one instead. Would this deter them? Would it heck and they jumped on the same train as me to save them waiting. It seemed that this one be their undoing as a rather camp conductor threatened them with having the Police waiting for them at St Pancras when they wouldn't buy new tickets only to come back 30 minutes later and tell them that he knew they were "good boys really". Clearly not the brightest of people if he thought that!!

When we arrived we headed off our seperate ways whilst I hung around for half an hour waiting for Helen and Colleen to finally show up with their "master plan" for the day... any guesses as to what that was? I'm pretty sure that any guesses would be wrong as they set off to St Pancras Champagne bar. Now I'm a classy guy as you probably have grasped from these blogs but champagne before football is where I draw the line and so we headed off to Covent Garden safe in the knowledge that I hadn't just drank my entire months wages in one glass of fizzy plonk!!

In all honesty, I think we made the right choice to leave it as we instead made our way over to Covent Garden and enjoyed a nice morning in the sun watching the street performers in action. A comedian street magician and a couple of Jamaican acrobats doing handstands and limbo dancing entertained us as well as a rather riske magician who seemed to use his act as a way of groping a woman in the ground and encouraging others to do the same.... was rather bizarre that one!

After searching for food for Little Miss fussy and then eating on the street with the other tourists, we watched some more of the street entertainers including a juggler or bore a striking resemblance to midfielder Matt Oakley and another who we branded as Tunchev thanks to his hardman image.

After that, we made our way over the London Bridge train station and spent some time down by the river thames taking a souvenir photo of the three of us along the way before heading to catch the train,

We head over to the find the train and thats when the first problem occured. We got onto the train with ease and found seats for the short trip to South Bermondsey only to be disturbed by a large roar on the platform from a set of fans so I got up to see what was going on. While I was up, a sudden rush of fans jumped on and I got seperated from Helen and her mum leaving me stuck in a huddle of Millwall fans trying to keep my head down and out the way. Thankfully nothing kicked off and it was only a short journey until we jumped off and we hung around at the station until we were joined by Katy and co who had spent the morning drinking around London and were...erm... lets just say, a little worse for wear. Especially Andy whose eyes had glazed over completely and looked rather uncomfortable to say the least. After heading down our caged walkway to the ground itself, we fought our way in past the mounds of stewards all looking at you like you were scum and expecting to find you armed with an AK47 and machete under your scarf. Slightly over the top but that pretty much sums up the reputation that Millwall have developed over the years.

We pottered around in the concourse for a bit with Jobber and co before heading up to find our seats. Due to an administrative cock up in the ticket ordering (i.e. we all ordered our own instead of in bulk), we ended up scattered all over the place with little chance of all joining together due to the fairly decent travelling support from Leicester. Sadly that meant that the first half would be spent standing on my own but annoyingly in view of so many people I knew but without the possibility of us all bunching together. Highly frustrating but sadly the price you pay for being so bloody unorganised.

The game started with a hefty spell of pressure from Leicester as they forced a successsion of corners which tested the Millwall keeper several times but he found himself equal to everything. Millwall offered little though until the 20th minute when a long range effort was spilled by debutant goalkeeper (the third in about 6 weeks) but Morrisson was on hand to clear the danger with the home fans screaming (literally) for a penalty.

Minutes later, City were on the attack once more and from a deep ball in, the ball found its way to Howard on the edge of the area. With one touch to control on his chest, he then fired in a half volley into the bottom corner. Great finish that sent the away fans into raptures.

There wasn't much more goal mouth action for the remainder of the first half apart from one long range effort from Howard that the keeper had to turn around the post. During the 15 minute break, I headed down into the concourse to meet people and ended up chatting to Katy and co before making my way back up to my seat only to find that a few others had gathered around that area. The second half was to be spent standing with Joe. and Tommeh.

The second period started in the same way as the first as city forced corner after corner without any luck at all. Headers flew over and wide without the ball really troubling the net.

The major chance of the second half fell to Fryatt when a long ball forward found Cleverley who shot forward and left us two on one against the defence. The ball was threaded through to Fryatt whose first time shot struck the base of the post with the rebound being forced wide with the net gaping.

Millwall again didn't offer much except from a mistake by Morrisson which let in their striker only for Warner to make a decent save against his former club. He was at it again with five minutes remaining when a header from the corner was heading towards the top corner only for Warner to pluck it from thin air.

The home fans were getting more and more frustrated and the chants of "you're not scary anymore" and mimicking their "miiiiiiiilllllllllll" chant seemed to annoy them further.

As the game wore on, coins were pelted from the home end towards Oakley and the linesman as they vented their frustrations in the only way they seemed to know. "It's so quiet at the Den" got a nice airing as the referee blew the final whistle and we could really celebrate seeing off another promotion rival.

From there on, that's where the fun and games started. Due to the trouble outside the ground with the home fans, all Leicester fans were held in together outside the turnstiles so that we couldnt make our way anyone. Nearly 2000 City fans, locked in together with barely room to move. Thankfully we had all congregated together so we could have some laughs while having to listen to the endless announcements telling us why we were stuck there and that they would try and move us on as soon as possible.

When the gates were finally opened, about an hour after the final whistle, we then had to make our way through the caged walkway back to the station and were herded onto the trains to take us back to London Bridge.

Once again we were held while waiting for the trains and somehow we had managed to all stay together so it made the time pass quite quickly - would have been a mare if we had all been seperated and had to endure that alone.

Bumped into Jobber at the station too and he was on his way to meet up with some people in the centre of London.... god knows if he ever made it thanks to all the delays.

Once we finally made it onto the trains, we sped through the evening air back to the centre of London where once again we were held on the platform and informed that the Millwall fans were waiting for us and so we were to be marched onto the underground and moved away from the area to safety. Slightly extreme measures but it was very surreal having London come to a standstill to allow us to move around.

The plan after this was to head to a pub for a few drinks before making our way back to leicester and a dose of normality.

After finally getting onto the underground and back towards Leicester square, we aimlessly followed Alex round as he insisted that he knew where we were going. One dead end and a long walk later and we found the busiest pub known to man kind having passed loads of nice quiet ones along the way. Annoyingly it had taken so long to get there that it was about time for me to head off and get my train so I said my goodbyes and set off back through Covent Garden past some random fire eaters and arrived back to St Pancras in time to jump on my train and sit down for the first time in 10 hours. Had been a mammoth day but well worth the effort!

So that was that. Millwall done and we'd survived the chavs and "hooligan" element and escaped back to Leicester with our arms still in tact and 3 points in the bag. Arguably these were our biggest three points of the season as it has effectively ruled Millwall out of the championship race and left it as a three horse race to claim the title. Us, MK Dons and Peterborough.... the race is on!