Leicester City vs. Nottingham Forest - Review

Article by Leicester Correspondent Jonathan Smith

The Championship is a funny old division. Leicester City had played nine home games in all competitions before Saturday’s clash with local rivals Nottingham Forest. Out of those nine home matches, City had won their last eight and not lost any however Forest hadn’t won in their last three matches including a home defeat against Blackpool and a shocking 3-1 away reverse at Yeovil. You’d think a sensible betting man would put his money on another home victory for the Foxes but any sensible betting man wouldn’t put money on the outcome of any Championship fixture. It’s just too unpredictable.

As an occasion, this fixture is a big one due to the close proximity of the two cities. If you ask most Forest fans they’ll tell you that they’re not too bothered about Leicester; it’s Derby that they hate. For a lot of Leicester supporters, a visit from Nottingham is one of the first fixtures they look for when the list is released in the summer. A crowd of over 30,000 packed out the King Power Stadium including over 3,000 away followers. The game was also City’s annual remembrance fixture which involves the match ball being delivered by helicopter and a number of other events to recognise those that gave their lives for their country. Leicester are a club that mark this occasion particularly well. They were the first club to have a poppy embroidered on their shirts for a match. This has become a tradition across the nation in the ten years that have followed since.

City started the match brightly and forced Forest ‘keeper Karl Darlow into action early on when David Nugent headed Anthony Knockaert’s free-kick. Knockaert was at the heart of everything that Leicester were producing. His fine dribble and cross to the far post found Lloyd Dyer who slammed the ball into the side netting from a few yards out. Another in swinging free-kick from Knockaert found Nugent’s head but this time he failed to find the target. The visitors didn’t look very threatening during the early exchanges. Their attacks regularly ended with an offside being given due to poorly timed runs. Despite the Foxes’ early dominance it was Forest who took the lead just after the half hour mark through Simon Cox, a player who has been linked with Leicester a few times in the past. It was a scrappy goal and the first real attempt they’d had on target all match. The Reds doubled their lead before half time. Jamie Mackie managed to squeeze his shot home after Leicester’s defence failed to clear a corner. Despite creating plenty of goal scoring opportunities, City went in at the break trailing by two goals and knew they had a mountain to climb in the second half.

City failed to produce many chances in the second period. The game became scrappy and neither side looked like scoring. Leicester were awarded a penalty with just over twenty minutes to go which would’ve given them a lifeline but Nugent’s kick clipped the bar as it went over. The only other real opportunity of note came when Danny Drinkwater attempted a strike from distance that was pushed around the post by Darlow.

It was a disappointing afternoon for Leicester but it has been a season where disappointing afternoons have been very rare. Hopefully City can go on another winning run as they have done on the other two occasions when they lost in the league.

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