Normally its two games in three days on a weekender in Germany or some far flung european destination for us here at Bar and In, however this week we were firmly on home soil. After watching Burton Albion soundly thrashed by Aldershot on saturday we headed to the King Power stadium in Leicester to see City face promotion-chasers West Ham under the monday evening floodlights.
This was to be the final home game of the season for Leicester and as is customary on this occasion, former player and now club ambassador Alan Birchenall tries his best to kill himself in the name of charity by completing 45 laps of the pitch at the grand old age of 66. 'The Birch' is a bit of a legend of Leicester City and has been at the club as long as I can remember doing the half time and pre-match 'dewberry's' as he calls it, 'introductions and chit-chat' to you and I. Born in East Ham, Alan got a rapturous reception from the Iron's faithful whenever he trudged by the away section. Announcements later revealed that Birch had raised over £800,000 for charities from this run alone which is highly commendable.
Back to the current squad and home hasn't exactly been the happiest place for City this season, patchy form and the much hyped signings proving disappointing despite much money being flung at the side from Thai investment has rendered the season as a bit of a write-off. West Ham on the other hand, strongly fancied for a quick return to the Premiership see themselves hot on the heels of 2nd place and guaranteed a place in the end of season play-off's. With stars such as Kevin Nolan, Carlton Cole and Robert Green in the ranks it doesn't seem improbable that the Hammer's may just return to the top flight.
Leicester started nervously with Sol Bamba at centre half alongside Wes Morgan, Bamba instantly closed down by Cole and gave the ball away inside his own area, luckily this time West Ham couldn't profit. West Hams 4-5-1 'your typical Allardyce' formation was working a treat and in fact forcing Leicester to hoof the ball more than the visitors, a bad sign when you're playing a side with a manager famous for the 'route one' approach.
Mark Noble in the United midfield stood out as time and again he would make space and play incisive passes. Ricardo Vaz-te sporting a rather interesting hair-do looked lively on the flank and gave Lee Peltier at full-back some things to do early on, mainly chase after him. Ben Marshall is a player more recently signed at Leicester and has certainly won fans approval with some excellent performances and it was from his cross finding Jermaine Beckford at the far post to nod in past the stranded Rob Green, 1-0.
Leicester pressed for a short while after the strike but West Ham didn't panic and duly soaked up whatever pressure Leicester had to offer and went back up the other end, slack marking and ineffective stopping of the cross allowed Winston Reid to poke in the equaliser just prior to half time as "I'm forever blowing bubble's" circulated around the ground.
Leicester began the second period with Sean St Ledger replacing Andy King, forcing the error-prone Bamba into central midfield. With West Ham's central midfielders effectively being given the night off it was the wingers who now came to taunt Leicester's defence and through a blocked shot, the rebound fell to Jack Collison who rifled home past the outstretched arm of Kasper Schmeichel to have the away support dreaming of a trip to Wem-ber-ley. Leicester offered very little in return with United hard to break down and lack of midfield passing ability resulting in long balls from the back easily dealt with by the Iron's centre backs.
Grumbling's of discontent behind us in the west stand mainly focused on Bamba 'F**K SAKE BAMBOH! EVERY F**KING WEEK F**K SAKE SEND HIM BACK TO F**KING SCOT-LUND" fairly standard. With an agonising four minutes of stoppage time to endure we were down the steps and out of the exit as the final whistle blew to the tune of the West Ham anthem. Ray Winstone would be happy as it was indeed 'all about the in play' and in truth West Ham were better. Another season over bar the shouting (and there was plenty more of that outside the ground) and its onwards and upwards for West Ham and back to the drawing board for Leicester.
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