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:
Leicester: Flowers, Sinclair, Taggart, Gilchrist, Guppy
(Zagorakis, 23), Impey, Izzet, Savage, Oakes, Elliott, Cottee
(Marshall, 82).
Subs not used: Walsh, Arphexad, Dudfield.
Tottenham: Walker, Carr, Taricco (Young, 37), Freund,
Campbell, Perry, Anderton, Iversen (Etherington, 75), Ginola,
Armstrong (Korsten, 75), Clemence.
Subs not used: Baardsen, Gardner.
Booked: Perry, Anderton.
Attendance: 19,764.
Referee: J Winter
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Leicester v Tottenham 19/04/00
Leicester (0) 0 Tottenham (0) 1 FT
Ginola 90
Elite Club Humbled.
Peter Gilbert
19.4.00
We played this lot away back in October and beat them 3-2 with
a stirring performance. This match was anything but stirring;
the only notable point of the whole game from a Leicester point
of view was that Andrew Impey had a good game which was something
of a first. To dwell on that point for a moment; everything Impey
did seemed to work. He was adventurous, he got forward, he tackled
back, he battled away at one point and I even thought he was
going to shoot, sadly I was wrong.
Lennon was suspended for this match following his little skirmish
at Derby and so the midfield might have lacked a bit of bite
but no, Robbie Savage more than made up for the Irish influence
and prowled around like a Welsh Dragon all night. The Spurs fans
of course continued their obsession with our Robbie who delighted
in the occasion by being a real menace to Ginola and renewing
his acquaintance with Freund who failed to dive in his usual
spectacular fashion.
City started again with Elliott up front and Sinclair came back
into the defensive three along with Taggart and Gilchrist. Guppy
went off midway through the first half,presumably injured and
was replaced by Zagorakis who looked thoroughly competent throughout
the evening. This restructuring forced Oakes into a wider position
and his long crosses were a constant threat which is more than
can be said for his free-kicks.
City had a string of corners throughout the game but failed to
make anything of them since they were either badly taken or cleared
away. It was unusual to see Sol Campbell have an easy time against
us, formerly you know who gives him a torrid time and the arrival
of Stan Collymore on his crutches did nothing to raise our morale
before the match.
It's really hard to write this match report because you see very
little happened to cause a stir before the 89th minute by which
time any self respecting team would have had the game well and
truly sewn up, and that goes for whichever side you were supporting.
However in the 89th minute Etherington crossed a low ball which
somehow wriggled it's way through to Ginola who despatched the
offering into the back of the net with great ease.
Foolishly at this time a trio of Spurs fans starting jumping
about wildly in SK2 and had to be removed for their own safety.
One of them then saw fit to stick two fingers up to the kop as
he was lead away which caused someone to leap out of the crowd
and try to throttle him but he was restrained and also evicted.
'Savage, Savage what's the score?' bayed the jubilant Spurs crowd.
Robbie nearly replied with a goal but his shot flew just wide.
Moments later Izzett had a good chance to square the evening
up but he was off target from 20 yards out. Then Izzett was flattened
on the edge of the box but Jeff (the ref) Winter put his hands
behind his back and ran away chortling at the heavens. You know
when we've had a bad game, and this goes for any team, because
we end up blaming the ref, on this occasion with some justification
it has to be said. Blaming the ref though solves nothing but
it does make you feel a whole lot better for a while.
In truth though this was a game we should have won easily; Tottenham
are a poor outfit lacking any real shape or dimension but our
depleted outfit was hard pressed at all times to make an impression
on them.
I noticed in the programme that the price of season tickets next
year is to fall somewhat in an attempt to attract more punters,
this makes sense but I would gladly pay more to see more. I am
however not happy to pay less to see the same.
We now have fallen to 11th place in the league and we'll all
be very disappointed if we don't end up in the top 10 as we have
for the last three seasons. This puts us into a rather elite
club since only five teams have ended up in the top 10 for the
last three years they are Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool
and Leicester City. Who says we have nothing left to play for
this season?
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