I Played for Leicester City

by Peter Gilbert

I'd been out rather late the night before so I wasn't best prepared I suppose, but what the heck Frank Worthington used to do it. I slept peacefully knowing that when I got up, me and my son Tom would be driving to Sheffield to play against .... well Sheffield Wednesday of course.

On the way to the ground we kept a low profile, as all the Wednesday shirts around made us feel a little nervous. We met up with our team and the manager eagerly introduced the new signings to the rest of the team. They seemed pleased to see us and we immediately felt welcome and part of it.

So to the dressing room, we got changed and ran out to warm up. I felt good and I wondered if we were the first father and son combination to be signed by a football club anywhere in the world ever. The record books tell us that we are the first Gilbert's (as in Gilbert the Filbert,the kernel of the nuts......song) to pull on a Leicester City shirt and go out to play for the team.

The captain and manager came across and told us:'Tom you start the game on the right side of midfield, Peter you're on the bench for now.' Well I didn't mind, I was glad for the lad and it gave me the opportunity to weigh things up.

Wednesday started brightly and I feared the worse, but our keeper Jiminho( sorry being new to the set up I can't recall all the names) kept us in with a shout pulling off a string of fine saves.
City began to get their game together and after 10 mins. another foreigner I think called Alaninho popped one in.

Then there was flurry of activity and the right back(called Nobby I think) came off and there I was on the pitch playing for Leicester City, with Tom just in front of me.
Unfortunately the occasion got to me a bit and I allowed myself to get the wrong side of their winger who skipped in to score, I was gutted.

Only one thing to do.......so I rolled up my sleeves and got on with it, none of my team mates had a go at me or anything.....so it was ok. I worked hard to play myself back into the game, I found spaces opening up and my hardworking team mates were always there to help me out and make themselves available to my thoughtful passing game,presumably the very reason why I had been signed.

Me and Tom worked a nice little move down the right which won us a corner. The ball was half cleared and it fell to Tom on the edge of the box, he moved forward, cut inside and smashed it home mercilessly into the bottom left hand corner.The crowd went wild and we both ran up to the Kop end with fists clenched and our arms round each other' Gilbert the Filbert' they chanted as we proceeded to take Wednesday to the cleaners.I kept hearing the encouragement of the manager, 'Go on son, keep pushing forward,' so I did.

By half time we had added another goal, a tremendous header from a player who is in fact a qualified doctor in his spare time. We had a drink and settled ourselves for the job in hand in the second half. It was going to be tough against the wind.

The Wednesday crowd were silenced as Alaninho scored two more and earned himself a hat trick. We looked steady at the back and Tom danced forward time and again exciting the crowd with his trickery.

Wednesday managed another goal but in the end we ran out worthy 5-2 winners.
We had our photos taken and a memorable occasion in our family history and the Leicester City record books came to an end.

I had managed to survive on the pitch,Tom had played well and even scored and we had both represented Leicester City, all thanks to an anagram.Electric Yetis.