Nowadays, the entreaties of my bladder first thing cannot be ignored and so it was at just after six o’clock that I rose from my pit and shuffled off towards the bathroom. The nice thing about getting up early on a pleasant, calm, spring morning is that you can hear the dawn chorus clearly before humanity has appeared to spoil everything. I descended the stairs, made coffee, looked at a crossword and had a light breakfast. Will had arranged to pick me up from home and the plan was to drive up to Baginton, meet up with Chris, Little Jack and Seb but once we got underway and the traffic was light we changed the plan and opted to go straight up to Leicester park and ride and the three of us would meet them in The Friary in town.
Opening the newspaper this morning to see that Rotherham failed to put up a fight against Plymouth was hardly comforting. Still it is the hand we’ve been dealt and it was to be hoped that other results did not go against us since it was hard to see us getting much at high flying Leicester despite their recent wobble.
We made good time and arrived at the Enderby Park and Ride at 11.50. There was a bus due to leave at 12.00 so things were looking good until Will remembered that he had left his and little Will’s tickets in the car which meant a moment of panic. Fortunately, there was enough time for Will to leg it back to the chariot and get back before the bus left. The bus stopped at St Nicholas Circle and as we alighted Will looking at Google maps on his phone walked into a lamppost to much mirth from little Will and yours truly! It was a short walk to The Friary pub in the town centre. There we met up with some new friends Jacob, James and Chris who are members of the new Sussex Blues group which Will joined recently and which I joined on the spot given that there doesn’t seem to be one for Surrey or Hampshire border area where I live. Chris has the same problem as he hails from from Essex so Sussex Blues are a broad church. We enjoyed a couple of pints, talked nonsense about all things blue and waited for Chris (Will’s brother) and the two lads to appear which they did after twenty minutes or so. We ordered some bar snack food for everyone, imbibed more beer and set off for the 25 minutes walk to the Kingpower stadium. The last time I visited their was a night game which we won 2-1 which I am bound to say I wasn’t expecting the same this time around. We would be fortunate to get anything from this game and we just had to hope that results didn’t go against us.
It had turned into a bright sunny afternoon and our seats behind the goal afforded a good view but we were relatively low down which meant perspective especially at the far end of the ground was difficult. For this reason, I’m not going to attempt to score the players performances since I couldn’t see well enough to make reasonable judgements especially in the second half when the play was largely up the far end that Leicester were attacking. We were under the cosh for large parts of the game and Blues stood up to the pressure well for the most part but two poor bits of defending, one in each half led to our undoing. The opening goal for Leicester came about as the ball ping-ponged about in our area as we failed to clear our lines. Dewsbury-Hall then side-footed the rebound accurately just inside the post from twelve yards to spoil what had been a solid defensive performance. Blues were handed a lifeline back into the contest just before the break from a simple goal kick taken by Wout Faes to his goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. The keeper dallied, decided to make a cup of tea and try and drink it with a dunkable biscuit. Jay Stansfield ran towards him and blocked his eventual clearance. The ball ricocheted back into the net for a bizarre equaliser. It is the sort of thing that drives coaches and indeed fans demented. Totally unnecessary but a huge fillip for us. The Leicester boss had a few choice words for his team I am sure and this was evidenced by the way that Leicester flew at us in the second half. In truth it was one-way traffic and they battered our defence which stood resolute until three minutes from time when Mavididi found himself in splendid isolation at the far post to head in from close range with his tracking defender Aiwu ball watching. It was hard to bear but you have to say, deserved for the hosts.
The Good: Meeting new friends from the Sussex Blues group before the game. Overall, the performance. It was backs to the wall against a better side but the team gave everything they had and as fans we can ask no more.
The Bad: Loss of concentration leading to bad defending for both goals. The fact that all other results for teams affecting us went against us.
The Ugly: The league table this morning! Whilst we are not completely doomed, we have reached the now or never moment. The key games are Cardiff at home on Wednesday and Huddersfield and Rotherham away. Lose any of those and I fear the goose is cooked. (No pun intended!)
Leicester City: Mads Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Wout Faes, Jannick Vestergaard, Callum Doyle (James Justin) Wilfred Ndidi (Dennis Praet, 82) Harry Winks, Kiernan Dewsbery-Hall, Abdul Fatawu, Stephy Mavididi (Conor Coady 90+6) Patson Daka (Jamie Vardy, 60)
Subs not used: Kelechi Iheanacho, Hamza Choudhury, Yunus Akgun, Wanya Marcal-Madivadua, Jakub Stolarczyk.
Goals: Dewsbury-Hall 28, Mavididi 87.
Yellow cards: Faes 34, Mavididi 89.
Birmingham City: John Ruddy, Ethan Laird, Dion Sanderson, Emanuel Aiwu, Lee Buchanan, Jordan James (Siriki Dembele, 81) Krytian Bielik (Ivan Sunjic, 58) Kojo Miyoshi (Keshi Anderson, 58) Paik Seung-Ho, Juninho Bacuna (Alex Pritchard, 58) Jay Stansfield (Scott Hogan, 80)
Subs not used: Neil Etheridge, Tyler Roberts, Cody Drameh, Siriki Dembele.
Goals: Stansfield 45.
Yellow cards: James 19, Bielik 57.
Referee: David Webb: I have no complaints about the officials. The match was competently refereed for the most part.
Attendance: 31,285 (3,254 bluenoses who don’t deserve what’s happening to our famous old club! The support for the team even in defeat was amazing!)
KRO Bazza
There is always so much admiration at what you and your family achieve on match day travels. Just wish you boys could be rewarded more in terms of points and making the return journey home happier. Keep safe all of you.