Team News
David Murphy and Curtis Davies should be fit but Nikola Zigic will serve the first of his three match ban.
Leicester will give a late fitness test to striker Jamie Vardy. Sean St Ledger will miss out with a hamstring injury.
Last Meeting
The two teams met in March of this year with the game ending 3-1 to the Foxes. The last meeting at St Andrews was almost a year to the day. Blues won 2-0 with goals from Marlon King and Chris Wood.
Recent Form
Blues sit just above the relegation zone in 21st but could drop into the bottom three before kick off if Sheffield Wednesday beat Leeds on Friday night. They have lost three of the last four games.
Leicester are 2nd having won five straight games. They have yet to draw this season and all three of their defeats have come away from home.
Outlook
Before the Huddersfield game it looked like things had started to look up and the Barnsley game was just a blip. I even went as far as predicting a Blues win. Unfortunately the team failed to turn up again and the away team cruised to an easy victory. So maybe the Brighton game was the blip.
We’ve now played ten games and have had a two week gap to consider where we are and where we are going. The answer to the second question is nowhere fast. Until the ownership of the club is resolved we can’t move forward so for this season just staying in the division is maybe all we can aim for. When you consider the many teams that have dropped down to League One in recent years we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of being able to start our recovery from the second tier rather than the third.
I’ve worked out that five points a month should be enough to stay up so despite being rubbish for most of the season we are on track for that. There is also some good news on the injury front with David Murphy and Curtis Davies likely to be fit although the fullback curse has struck again with Ben Gordon being injured in midweek. Despite having Super Dave back it will be a tall order getting any points tomorrow as Leicester are in fine form. Having said that so were Brighton and we do have a habit of playing better against the sides at the top. When we played them last year they were still a work in progress and were more a collection of names rather than a team. This season they appear to have gelled and will be one of the contenders for promotion. They are an example to us of a team that can have a rough couple of years but be revived due to a change of ownership.
It’s very difficult to try to predict the team for tomorrow although Jonathan Spector may drop to right back with Paul Robinson continuing on the left despite Murphy’s return. The midfield is anybody’s guess but I don’t expect it to be too attacking. The manager will be looking to grind out any points he can over this run of tough fixtures to the end of October. The other two games this month are trips to Millwall and Leeds who will have an extra incentive of repaying us for the heavy defeats we inflicted on them last year. So tomorrow I’ll be happy with a point and staying out of the bottom three although I’d even take a narrow defeat if the team puts in a fighting performance. Any sign that the manager has a plan to turn things around would also be welcome.
My prediction
Blues 1 Leicester 1
C’mon you Blue Boys.
Leave a Reply