Good evening and my name’s Jeff Stelling and welcome once again to the Walkers Stadium as Leicester City host another one of there close rivals, Nottingham Forest on a fine Tuesday evening after beating Derby county here 1-0 on Saturday with Andy King grabbing a winner for Leicester. Nottingham Forest come into the game off a 1-1 draw with promotion rivals Burnley with Forest’s goal coming from Radoslaw Majevski getting their goal after Martin Paterson put Burnley 1-0 up after 7 minutes. Both teams will be looking to et the 3 points here as Leicester and Forest look for the title.
I am joined in the studio today by pundit Jamie Redknapp, ex-Leicester and current Blackpool manager Ian Holloway and Nottingham Forest’s injured top goal scorer Robbie Findley who they signed in the summer and has scored 11 goal for his new club. Evening to you both. The game looks to be a tight affair with both teams having recently put a good run of form together with Leicester winning there last 6 games and Billy Davies’s Nottingham Forest team not losing in 11 games winning 9 of the 11 only drawing against Burnley and Crystal Palace. However in derby games form goes out the window and it’ll all be about who deals with the pressure better. Ian what do you think of today?
“Well Jeff I for one can’t wait I know how it feels in big derby days here at the Walkers and the atmosphere is electric everyone will be buzzing I know that I am I can’t wait to see the game, it should be a great spectacle with both teams at the top of there game and both teams playing very nice football. This should be a fantastic game.”
Thank you for that Ian and I know I’m excited as well as Ian and Robbie. Now time to look at the team news and no real shocks for the Leicester team as they only make 1 change to the team that won on Saturday against Derby with injury-stricken Connor Wickham missing out with Vassell partnering Alex Chamberlain up front who has not scored in 1035 for Leicester. The line up in full is;
So what do you think of the line-up Jamie?
“I think that the formation has an extremely attacking looking with the Lloyd Dyer and Paul Gallagher out wide supporting Alex Chamberlain and Darius Vassell who has replaced Connor Wickham who has been unlucky with injuries since arriving here. With inspirational captain Andy King and Scotland Under-21 player Tom Cairney the team has the brightest Central midfield partnership in the league. The defence which has been solid in the last few weeks stays the same with future England ‘keeper Alex Smithies starting in front of Ricardo as he has done for the season.”
Thanks Jamie, Ian you were rumoured to be after Alex Smithies before he moved to the Walkers Stadium do you think he will be a future England International?
“Yes I do Jeff as long as he doesn’t move away from Leicester where he’ll get the best tutoring from Martin O’Neill and the rest of the coaching staff and with Ricardo as a role model for him to look up to I think that Alex will be an England international sooner rather than later.”
Well after looking at the Leicester team it’s time to move onto the form team in the championship Nottingham Forest. With Robbie Findley and Nathan Tyson out Robert Earnshaw and Dexter Balckstock start up top for Forest. No real surprises in the team that Billy Davies has named, here’s the team in full and Robbie what do you think of the team your gaffer has fielded today?
“I’m glad to see Billy sticking to 4-4-2 despite this game being the biggest of the season, Dexter and Robert are both fantastic players and will play very well together as they have in previous season. Chris Cohen and Radoslaw Majevski in the middle the battle between them and the Leicester midfielders will be very interesting and I hope that our boys can stay strong and win the battle. I think that Guy Moussi and Paul Mckenna will have to deal with the wingers and help out with Julian and Kevin at the back. Of course with Lee Camp in goal we have a great leader and ‘keeper.”
Thanks Robbie, now it’s time to go to the commentators Martin Tyler and Sam Allardyce. We’ll see you at half-time.
Leicester City 1-
0 Nottingham Forest
Hobbs (29)
Well what a fantastic half from the team in blue with Leicester keeping Nottingham Forest pinned into their own half despite Forest almost scoring after just 10 seconds. Nottingham Forest seemed to be on top but Leicester then got themselves back into the game by clawing themselves back into the game with Alex Chamberlain coming close once and Andy King playing some teasing balls. Jack Hobbs’s header then gave Leicester the lead heading in from Gallagher’s corner. After that Leicester were the comfortable team holding out until the half-time whistle. Jamie how was that?
“Well Jeff that was simply brilliant from the Foxes and I can’t wait until the second half despite Forest getting the best start Leicester seemed to be spurred on and as you said clawed themselves back into the game somehow. They were simply brilliant after the first 5 minutes and it was beautiful to watch the intricate passes and the skill on the wings just makes me want to watch it all day and night. The also look dangerous from corners as we saw when Jack scored to put them 1-0 up. Despite Leicester looking like they are cruising Forest do look dangerous on the counter and I think that Leicester will need another to kill off the game.”
Well we need to get back to Mr. Tyler and Mr. Allardyce for the commentary of what will hopefully be an exciting 2nd half.
Full Time;
Leicester City 2-
1 Nottingham Forest
Hobbs (29); Moloney (79)
Vassell (72)
That has to be on the best games I have ever seen, both of the teams were all out attacking and it gave such a great game. With 2 fantastic 2nd half goals the first coming from a 20-yard rocket by Darius Vassell which gave Lee Camp no chance and then a fantastically placed finish by Forest substitute Brendan Moloney which left Alex Smithies rooted to the spot however a comeback didn’t seem on the cards from forest with Leicester coming the closest after Moloney’s goal. So Ian what did you make of that?
“Breathtaking. Leicester were such a good time I think that Barcelona would be scared of them they were that good, O’Neill is once again doing a fantastic job here and I have all the respect in the world for him, he’s one of the best manager’s in the world.”
Cheers for that Ian it’s time to end the programme and wish everyone a very good night. It’s been a pleasure having Ian and Robbie on the show and well Jamie I’ll see you next week.