Leicester City (2) 3 Sheffield Wednesday (0) 0 FT
Taggart 24,36
Cottee 5

'Trick or Treat?'

Peter Gilbert. 30.10.99

I suppose there are many ways of looking at a football match, there certainly were to this one but for sake of practicalities I suppose it would be best to narrow it down to three perspectives.
1. How bad Sheff Wed were
2. How good Leicester City were.
3. The Halloween factor.

Let's not dwell on how bad Sheff Wed were since it would be negative and could be interpreted as gloating............nevertheless they were pretty poor - totally devoid of anything constructive.
I could go on at great length how good Leicester City were..........they really were in command after the opening exchanges and I can't praise their efforts highly enough.  As individuals they were outstanding but as a complete unit they were irrepressible and played some delightful football.
As for the Halloween factor, well you could say the Wednesday defence had put their clocks back a day early.   Their goalkeeper was playing trick or treat, and their forwards were totally devoid of any spirit.   Their midfield played like ghosts - you never saw them!

It was a blustery and wet Autumnal day. The leaves scattered on the floor and were whipped into spirals of activity by occasional gusts of wind. The rain came down in biblical proportions from time to time and Martin O'Neill demonstrated his powers by actually stopping a Mexican Wave in full flow.

Gerry Taggart was the only change from the starting line up that fell at Bradford and after only 20 mins. he made a difference, getting on the end of a Guppy free kick to force the ball home. Ten minutes later he was there again when an Izzett corner was flicked on by Sinclair and Gerry was there again to nod the ball home.
There's a show on TV The Gerry Springer show and the crowd have latched onto the chant of 'Gerry Gerry'.....it's quite amusing really.

At half time Bazza's raffle accrued the miserly total of £450 and Birch said 'I'm fed up of all this politics.....let's just support the team.'    Ah yes if only life was like that Mr Birchenall.
The second half started well, Savage ran like a man possessed and eventually his hard work fed the ball out to the much improved Andrew Impey who's cross dropped onto Tony Cottee's head to make an impressive 3-0 score line.
The whole team played well with Heskey ,Lennon and Izzett being particularly outstanding and each looking like the genuine article which is exactly what they are.   The defence seemed to regain it's confidence and we ran the Wednesdayites into the ground. Without a miracle they are surely doomed and Danny Wilson genuine bloke that he is, is doomed with them.
But our cause is not about others' fates we are on target for Route 66 (see previous article) and on this form we are EUFA bound.
Man Utd next week...................we always do well there; no-one relishes the idea of playing us when we're in form.

Leicester: Flowers, Sinclair, Taggart (Gilchrist, 77), Elliott, Impey, Izzet, Lennon, Savage (Zagorakis, 86), Guppy, Cottee (Oakes, 88), Heskey.

Subs not used: Marshall, Arphexad.

Sheff Weds: Srnicek, Thome, Atherton, Walker, Hinchcliffe, Alexandersson, Rudi (Cresswell, 62), Jonk, Sonner, Sibon, De Bilde.

Subs not used: Pressman, Briscoe, Haslam, Crane.

Booked: Thome.

Attendance: 19,046.

Referee: P Alcock