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Leicester City 1 West Ham 3
Heskey 24 Wanchope 13,45
Back to the Future
Peter Gilbert 22.1.00
At the end of this game I was only disappointed about one thing
and that was that I had not seen Tim McCann and Lawrie Dudfield
come off the bench as well as Jordan Stewart and Danny Thomas.
However I was delighted to see Tommy Goodwin start the the game
as a boy and complete it as a man.
This match(forget the result) was all about the future and thanks
to David Nish and his academy it would appear that Leicester
City is in good hands and that we can look forward to a bright
future if these young players who ran out for us this afternoon
are anything to go by. I think I'll look back to this day and
say 'I was there when he played his first game' and he could
be any one of these young lads.
We lost the game but so what; Wanchope scored two goals and West
Ham fans who had slagged him off unmercifully last week, sang
his name with an Italian melody line which is obscure for someone
from Puerto Rico. He scored two goals but could just as likely
have woken people up in Row Z by actually giving them a feel
of the ball. The other Paulo, the Italian, scored their other
goal, he took it well but there was an element of fortune about
all West Ham did this afternoon. However I must mention Joe Cole,
he's a little diamond and as boyish as our young lads too, good
luck to him.
It was a bitterly cold afternoon at Filbert Street and the sky
darkened ominously before kick off time which heralded a few
snow flakes which served as a warning to anyone who might have
thought that spring was just around the corner. We could have
been snuggled up by the fire but here we were here and happy
to be supporting Leicester City, a truly great team. Someone
had said to me last week after watching the Slaughtering of Arsenal
on TV ' You must be a nervous wreck watching Leicester, they
really put you through it don't they.' I explained that virtually
every game was the same 'You just never know what they're going
to do next, but it's always dramatic.'
With a semi final game coming up in 4 days MON obviously felt
the time had come to enforce a rest on his brightest diamonds,
and so we started with only 2 regular first team players in the
team in their usual positions. The two being Emile Heskey and
Matt Elliott the latter of whom finished as a striker.
So Martin fielded the young 'uns and the nearly men which is
a pointless exercise unless something is intended. Clearly the
intention was to try out some young blood, and give others the
chance to prove themselves, he must have come away heartened
by what he saw and maybe a little moved by the crowd singing
'We're Proud of You'.
'Old hands' like Stuart Campbell took the game in his stride
and looked an accomplished midfielder capable of winning the
ball, beating his man and crossing it which he did all afternoon.
This player only needs a goal to make his career take off.
Tommy Goodwin defended well and kept matters subdued in his area
of the pitch.
Danny Thomas when he came on looked as if he was trying to work
out his approach to the 'real thing' but he got in some good
crosses and was constantly lively.The first contribution he made
was to win the ball off Di Canio with a ferocious tackle, he
looks a real prospect.
Jordan Stewart played a more central role in midfield but still
popped up in defence and had a sweet left foot shot on goal which
flew narrowly wide. Bring these lads on again and again I say.
Emile's goal was a cracker from the edge of the box, he could
have had another but I'm not concerned about the result.
We streamed out of the ground and here was not one critical word
in the air, we appreciated what the intentions were and the banter
was more 'I hope those lads are allowed to stop up and watch
themselves on Match of the Day.'
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