Leicester Away

[1960maaan]

22 hours ago, WuTang said:

I posted on another thread about this last week but want to bring it to the top.

I promised my 11 year old we would go to Leicester away but missed out on tickets - even though a season ticket holder I forgot they had gone one sale.

if any one has two spares or can no longer go I will happily take them off your hands with a little thank you gesture.

Long shot, but not giving up all hope! 
 

 

 

Might be worth starting  a new thread, your post could get quickly lost. 

Or get the Mods to start a Ticket wanted/selling post.

[WuTang]

6 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Might be worth starting  a new thread, your post could get quickly lost. 

Or get the Mods to start a Ticket wanted/selling post.

Did that and it got merged with this one!! 

[View from the Dolman]

11 hours ago, East Londoner said:

What happens if you chose the post option and they haven’t arrived?

Contact Jerry - via Twitter (@bristolcityslo) has been successful for me in the past - and he can normally arrange a reprint to be collected at the ground. 

[robin_unreliant]

On 18/09/2023 at 14:32, Redandproud said:

I wouldn't say he's better than Cotts, but Johnson's yes, 

Personally I think what GJ achieved puts him ahead of SC. Mind you, if he had been backed in the transfer market and stayed longer I could've seen Cotts overtaking him. Still feel annoyed about how that ended.

[redkev]

10 hours ago, KendrickDNB said:

Got one spare adult ticket as my mate can’t make it 

Ex-mate now

[redkev]

Watched Leicester on the box last night , would take a point now 

think every player on there bench last night would walk into our team , no slur on us just a point how strong a squad ( not just team they have )  this will be a proper test .

[sticks 1969]

12 minutes ago, redkev said:

Watched Leicester on the box last night , would take a point now 

think every player on there bench last night would walk into our team , no slur on us just a point how strong a squad ( not just team they have )  this will be a proper test .

There the Man City of the championship when you look at the whole squad and like you said take a point 

[petehinton]

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Watched Leicester on the box last night , would take a point now 

think every player on there bench last night would walk into our team , no slur on us just a point how strong a squad ( not just team they have )  this will be a proper test .

Away from home they’re excellent, at home they’ve been pretty poor. I honestly think we have a chance. 

[Jose]

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Watched Leicester on the box last night , would take a point now 

think every player on there bench last night would walk into our team , no slur on us just a point how strong a squad ( not just team they have )  this will be a proper test .

Their bench was worth 74 Million .

We have a chance. Course we do. Going to be tough though and have to absorb a lot of pressure. 

[johnbytheriver]

1 hour ago, redkev said:

Watched Leicester on the box last night , would take a point now 

think every player on there bench last night would walk into our team , no slur on us just a point how strong a squad ( not just team they have )  this will be a proper test .

The win was great on tuesday night.Morale boosting for the squad.But the opposition made 6 or 7 changes leaving all their key players on the bench.( CRazy team selection) The Leicester game will tell us exactly where we our.We may come through it with flying colours,there again we may not!

[RUSSEL85]

Take a point of course, but if we play well and lose by the odd goal, fine. I expect nothing in a fixture that is probably our hardest game of the season. Interesting to see where we are against them, who knows, we have pace to cause issues in their defence.

[Red Army 75]

If Hull can win at Leicester, then so can we. Going to be really difficult but with over 3k city fans there and we have been decent away from home. Would definitely take a point. But you never know. COYR

[Davefevs]

15 minutes ago, johnbytheriver said:

The win was great on tuesday night.Morale boosting for the squad.But the opposition made 6 or 7 changes leaving all their key players on the bench.( CRazy team selection) The Leicester game will tell us exactly where we our.We may come through it with flying colours,there again we may not!

For me, out season won’t be measured against teams like Leicester or Leeds, but your Brum’s, Hull’s, Sunderland’s etc.

[Ostrich]

Looking forward to seeing Nige back (plus James & King), hopefully in his shiny white trainers, will be disappointed if he’s ditched them. It will be the first time he’s brought a team back and the only other time he’s been publicly back was after the helicopter crash I think.

Expect a typically tough Championship game like they’ve mostly been so far.
In terms of fluency and authority, we’ve not yet hit the heights but the extra quality and the energy teams have to expend to match us have ended up deciding all the games apart from Southampton, hence we’ve scored so many after 75 mins. It’s a new idea of football for the squad so it’s been great to be getting results and building performances as we go. I expected a start similar to Southampton or Leeds.

We lack a bit of pace at the back and that’s an obvious place to hurt us if you can get it right. That being said, you can see as the team gets more used to Enzo ball, it’s harder to get it right. 

We struggle a bit more down the left side which Rosenior noted and where Hull’s goal came from. I think the Hull game, they struggled first 10, came into it for a few mins as we struggled with the press and they got their goal. After that they played really well for 25 mins and then second half defended well, really narrow, threw their bodies at everything and got a win.

Hull went man to man with us, as most temas have so far and I don’t think we quite know how to unlock it yet. But on the flip side, as I said, they tire and mostly we come out on top.

Enough gets said about the squad quality and depth and some names seem to always be mentioned. But it is a joke that Harry Winks is playing in the Championship. Wish he’d stop getting yellow cards but he’s too good for this level. I mean now I’ve said that, Matty James will probably spend 90 mins giving him a masterclass himself 

Unfortunately, only really seen extended highlights of your game against Hull (how have you not won that) so not entirely sure what to expect but results have been ticking over nicely and we know what a Pearson team should be like.

Fair play on selling out too, always adds to the game.  It sure why we still give teams over 3k when we don’t need to and could sell it ourselves but should add to what I expect will be a competitive match.

[OldlandReddies]

37 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

For me, out season won’t be measured against teams like Leicester or Leeds, but your Brum’s, Hull’s, Sunderland’s etc.

Exactly this. Not expecting anything from Leicester . Hoping we may get a backs to the wall draw but feel we will have to score 2 with their firepower which will be very difficult. Lose and we just move on to the next one and pick up more points . We'll give it a good go though. 

[RUSSEL85]

Sod it, I’m now expecting a win having researched Nigel Pearsons win percentage at the King Power 

[elhombrecito]

There's now a separate thread for all spare tickets etc:

 

 

[phantom]

1 hour ago, elhombrecito said:

There's now a separate thread for all spare tickets etc:

 

 

For anyone that had posted within this thread about tickets your message has now been moved into the thread created (as above) by elhombrecito

[Topper 123]

Looks like we’ll have our own traffic jam of coaches going to Leicester as official coaches from city ground is 11

3 from miners arms

1 Melvin square 

2 from sandringham 

3 mini buses

plus plenty of private motors I’m also told there’s another rogue coach from Weston :laugh: 

[redkev]

3 hours ago, johnbytheriver said:

The win was great on tuesday night.Morale boosting for the squad.But the opposition made 6 or 7 changes leaving all their key players on the bench.( CRazy team selection) The Leicester game will tell us exactly where we our.We may come through it with flying colours,there again we may not!

Let’s hope so , would love to have had , Conway , Atkinson the the mysterious Scottish chap we signed with the mysterious injury in our squad for this one oh and Benarous, 

there squad looks so strong 

[phantom]

[Mr Popodopolous]

Fwiw Leicester made 5 changes Wednesday night, does show their depth.

Like most would be very happy with a point although their underlying numbers have possibly exceeded results a bit.

[ExiledAjax]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Fwiw Leicester made 5 changes Wednesday night, does show their depth.

Like most would be very happy with a point although their underlying numbers have possibly exceeded results a bit.

The win yesterday looks pretty fair when consider all the stats. I didn't watch it but it doesn't look like a smash and grab away win.

Living near Leicester I now know quite a few fans, and some members of their fitness/coaching staff. Reports are that Enzo was a bit shocked at some aspects of the off the pitch culture - a two night bender during their preseason tour in Thailand for the owner's birthday caused some friction apparently, but now the season has started I hear that he's happy.

But on the pitch and in training he got them playing the system they're demonstrating right from day 1. There's an acceptance that it's not quite perfect...but to be honest the system itself, the theory behind it and the players they have are so good that even if it only fires at 80/90% efficiency it's going to be enough to be top 6.

Leicester away is probably the toughest game of the season and I'm glad we're playing it now in game 8 when we are still relatively fresh and they are still figuring a few things out. I think we've a slim chance of getting a point, and maybe even 3. If this was March and game 34 and Leicester were properly clicked into gear then I'd be pretty worried.

[Curr Avon]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/sep/21/andy-king-leicester-return-bristol-city-strange-emotional

Bristol City player-coach goes back on Saturday to club where he spent 16 years, rising from League One to a Premier League title

Andy King knows a cocktail of emotions awaits on Saturday at the King Power Stadium and that his first trip to Leicester City, the club which shaped him, as an opposition player is guaranteed to evoke memories. “It is going to be strange,” says the Bristol City midfielder, who this summer assumed a player-coach role. “I think it will be emotional. I had a lot of happiness in that ground, some sadness as well; Vichai’s helicopter [crash] was at that stadium and that guy changed my life. I’m looking forward to going out on to the pitch and in my mind, for a split-second, reliving all of those amazing memories that made me who I am. Maybe I’ll go back out there and have a moment with myself after the game.”

King’s 16-year association with Leicester, which began in digs on Aylestone Road after impressing on trial as a 15-year-old during February half term and culminated with him lifting the Premier League trophy, came to an abrupt end in July 2020. Coronavirus restrictions denied him the opportunity to say farewell to the familiar faces who helped him on his journey. “The advice was like ‘travel if absolutely necessary’, wasn’t it? So as much as I wanted to go back, me going back to say bye to the people behind the scenes – those who worked in the kitchen at the training ground for 10 years or the stadium staff – it was not essential.” This weekend though, he stresses, will not be akin to a testimonial. “It is not a sort of parade for me to go back to Leicester. I want Bristol City to win.”

King lived the highs and lows of Leicester’s rise from League One to mixing it with Europe’s elite, via the pain of Yann Kermorgant’s penalty miss, the agony of ‘Deeney-day’ and, of course, the unthinkable. He scored on the day Leicester lifted the title, when the 5,000-1 story came to fruition. Leicester beat Everton 3-1, with Jamie Vardy – at whose house in Melton Mowbray the Leicester players gathered on the evening they sealed the crown in 2016 – scoring twice. Andrea Bocelli performed Nessun Dorma before the trophy lift. “Still when I hear that tune, I think of that magical day,” says King, 35 next month. “I have a photo with the man-of-the-match award, my medal around my neck and the Premier League trophy in my right hand … what more could you want from one day?”

Then came Leicester’s first foray into the Champions League. “I was a ballboy at Chelsea and I used to wave the flag in the middle of the pitch – the ‘ball’ around the centre circle – to the Champions League music. You’d have to get there early because they would teach you how to take the peg out of the ground, pick up the flag and wave it … To get released by Chelsea and go to Leicester and a few years later be walking out to the music, through the big [branded] arch they put up and watching kids wave the flag, it was like: ‘That was me 13, 14 years ago.’”

In his early days at Leicester, King says, scholars could not leave the training ground until all the jobs were ticked off: filling ice buckets, sweeping the changing rooms and collecting balls. He remembers cleaning the boots of Trevor Peake, the academy coach, and then Stephen Hughes, the midfielder. “You’d get Christmas tips, one hundred quid or something and be absolutely buzzing,” he says, laughing. “The lads who moved from home [to join Leicester] were all in one house so 15 or 16 of us would walk to training. I loved every minute of it.”

King was at Wembley when Leicester won the FA Cup in 2021 and went with his wife, Camilla, to their home defeat against Liverpool towards the end of last season. Vardy, Marc Albrighton and Wilfred Ndidi are among the friends and former teammates who will be behind enemy lines come kick-off on Saturday. It will also be the first time Bristol City’s captain Matty James, manager Nigel Pearson and head of medical Dave Rennie return to Leicester’s stadium in a work capacity. “It is going to be weird going back into the tunnel, going left rather than right, wearing red rather than blue,” King says.

Is he looking forward to seeing anyone in particular? “Birch,” King replies, alluding to Alan Birchenall, the popular club ambassador widely viewed as the voice of the club. “He is not in the best health at the moment so I want to cherish every moment I get to spend with him … it will be really nice to see him. But I’m going there with a red shirt and robin on my chest and that is not lost on me because I’ve been that guy in the stand, travelling to away games.”

Andy King (second right back row) and family outside the Millennium Stadium before Bristol City's defeat by Brighton in the 2004 Second Division playoff final. Photograph: Courtesy of Andy King

When King signed for Bristol City two years ago it was little known that he grew up supporting the club. His dad, John, is from Chipping Sodbury, 13 miles northeast of the city and his parents regularly attend City games. There is a great photo of King, in a gold commemorative kit from the 2000 Auto Windscreens Shield final at Wembley, sinking into the sofa next to his late grandfather, Jon. He remembers his elder brother, Dave, crying at the then Millennium Stadium after defeat in the Second Division playoff final by Brighton in 2004 and watching Dean Windass dent City’s hopes of reaching the Premier League while on a family holiday in Egypt in 2008. Another game – with a happy ending – sticks in the memory.

“Brentford away [in 2003], we won 2-1, Leroy Lita scored twice and everyone piled down to the bottom of the stand to celebrate. My first live game was Liverpool in the FA Cup, 1994. Tinns [Brian Tinnion, now City’s technical director] scored in the replay … I’ve not actually spoken to him about it. Bruce Grobbelaar was in goal – my brother had a real thing about his jelly legs.”

King, who played under his childhood heroes Steven Gerrard at Rangers and Frank Lampard at Derby, and spent time on loan at Swansea and Huddersfield, says: “My brother would always support who I play for. Ten years ago if Leicester played City, I think he’d want Leicester to win … I think!”

So while Leicester City will always be ingrained, Bristol City also shaped him. “My brother came to uni at UWE here just so he could get a season ticket at Ashton Gate. Whenever I had a spare weekend, it was always Bristol City. Because my dad and brother were into it, and I followed what they were doing, we had the same sort of emotional rollercoaster as everyone else. That is why coming back here just put a fire back in my belly that I had been lacking since I left Leicester. Looking back, maybe I didn’t deal with the end of that as well as I should have.”

He has kept his boots from the Everton game and a Champions League ball as another memento. For now, they are safely stowed. “It will only be a matter of time until Marley wants to start getting the ball out and kick it around,” he says of his eldesr daughter, who is two and a half. Piper, born last year, will also be among the family looking on at his old stomping ground. “My kids never got to see me play for Leicester … it will be nice for them to see the stadium where I made a name for myself.”

Edited September 21, 2023 by Curr Avon

[Mr Popodopolous]

12 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

The win yesterday looks pretty fair when consider all the stats. I didn't watch it but it doesn't look like a smash and grab away win.

Living near Leicester I now know quite a few fans, and some members of their fitness/coaching staff. Reports are that Enzo was a bit shocked at some aspects of the off the pitch culture - a two night bender during their preseason tour in Thailand for the owner's birthday caused some friction apparently, but now the season has started I hear that he's happy.

But on the pitch and in training he got them playing the system they're demonstrating right from day 1. There's an acceptance that it's not quite perfect...but to be honest the system itself, the theory behind it and the players they have are so good that even if it only fires at 80/90% efficiency it's going to be enough to be top 6.

Leicester away is probably the toughest game of the season and I'm glad we're playing it now in game 8 when we are still relatively fresh and they are still figuring a few things out. I think we've a slim chance of getting a point, and maybe even 3. If this was March and game 34 and Leicester were properly clicked into gear then I'd be pretty worried.

Oh yeah I was looking at the season xG wise. Their 2nd wonder whether it was offside based on EFL highlights but they've been good tbis year without doubt...still xG vs actual a bit of a gap but nothing drastic.

Definitely they're still developing as a side, working out the Maresca way etc. Could be an okay time to play them, if there ever is.

How does Maresca prepare for opposition any ideas? Pep or his coaching staff watch loads of footage or similar..

[Chairman Mao]

Slightly throwaway article but enjoyed the mention of the Auto Windscreens Shield in the national press. 

[red panda]

Marley 

[Davefevs]

44 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Oh yeah I was looking at the season xG wise. Their 2nd wonder whether it was offside based on EFL highlights but they've been good tbis year without doubt...still xG vs actual a bit of a gap but nothing drastic.

Definitely they're still developing as a side, working out the Maresca way etc. Could be an okay time to play them, if there ever is.

How does Maresca prepare for opposition any ideas? Pep or his coaching staff watch loads of footage or similar..

Overall numbers versus ours!

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Overall numbers versus ours!

 

Thanks. In terms of xG there are some similarities, looks like they maybe outperforming a bit. I looked at the more basic FbRef for xG and shots for and against.

[Curr Avon]

51 minutes ago, red panda said:

Marley 

It must have been inspired by these lyrics...

Don't worry, about a King
'Cause every little King, gonna be all right
Singin', don't worry, about a King
'Cause every little King, gonna be all right