retired_destiny1124

3.12.05
Leeds (2) Leicester (1)
Leeds- Richard Cresswell 34,74
Leicester- Darryl Duffy 51
MOM- Darryl Duffy, Leicester

We let Leeds dictate the pace of play to us in the match and paid the price when we failed to keep Richard Cresswell under wraps. We missed several good chances to score early in the match and saw them take the lead when Rob Hulse slid a pass across the goal mouth and Cresswell put away the shot past Rab Douglas. We equalized early in the second half as Darryl Duffy rapped home a shot inside the right post after a good cross from Jerome Bonnisel got through to him. The match winner came midway through the second half when Scott Boyd couldn't stay with Cresswell as he deflected a cross from Robbie Blake past Douglas. It was another dissapointing and difficult to accept loss.

retired_destiny1124

10.12.05
Leicester (0) Crystal Palace (1)
Leicester- None
Crystal Palace- Gary Teale 36
MOM- Darren Ward, Crystal Palace

First place Crystal Palace throttled us in handing us a 1-0 loss at Walkers Stadium. We showed very little offensive life after losing Darryl Duffy in the opening moments of play in the first half. Cederic Berthelin did his best to keep us in the match in the first half and made several stellar saves, but could not stop Gary Teale on his doorstep when Steven Hammell missed intercepting the cross. We didn't play well enough to deserve better than what we received and injuries are starting to take a toll on our less than deep squad.

retired_destiny1124

13.12.05
Millwall (0) Leicester (4)
Millwall- None
Leicester- Mathieu Bucher 17,29,44 Mounir Alkhatib 83-P
MOM- Mathieu Bucher, Leicester

We were due for an offensive explosion and struggling Millwall was the recipient of our four-goal outburst that downed the home side 4-0. Mounir Alkhatib's zipped cross allowed Bucher to earn Leicester the lead as he slipped his shot past Andy Marshall. Another good pass, this time from Gareth Williams allowed Bucher to make it a brace. Bucher then completed his hat trick in the waning moments of the first half before leaving the match with a minor injury. Mounir Alkhatib converted a late penalty kick after Marvin Elliott tripped Derek Carcary in the area.

retired_destiny1124

Sorry Terk- I was hoping it wasn't the case, but when I tried to open the save today, I found the power outage that occurred Sunday did screw it up (I was hoping the save was complete, but not so lucky). I am going to post the remaining portion of what I had played...

Thanks for a good challenge, but I think I will try something else next...


***

17.12.05
Leicester (0) Reading (2)
Leicester- None
Reading- Leroy Lita 4 Kevin Doyle 89
MOM- Bryjnar Gunarsson, Reading

Our woes at Walker continued as we failed to finish well and handed them both goals they needed to defeat us 2-0. Leroy Lita scored in the opening moments as David Keough lost control of the ball and it went right to him in our area. We worked hard, but not very effectively offensively. They put the match on ice when Keough's poor clearing attempt allowed Kevin Doyle to walk in and beat Cederic Berthelin. We have to start playing more consistently on our backline if we are going to get better results.

***

26.12.05
Hull (2) Leicester (1)
Hull- Allan Johnston 18 Ben Burgess 90-P
Leicester- David Clarkson 24
MOM- David Clarkson, Leicester

To say I am frustrated at the referee would be an understatement- I am furious. Not only did he award the second disputed penalty kick in second half injury time, which cost us a loss, after Rab Douglas saved the first one- he also waved off a goal on an offside call for us. We played a solid match after yielding a goal when Hull made a series of nice passes. David Clarkson equalized on a brilliant goal after James Graham put him away free. This was poor officiating and very costly to us as there were also several times they appeared to be offside and play went on- while we were called anytime it was close. I know we have to write it off and move on, but the players are as frustrated as I am with the result.

***

28.12.05
Luton (0) Leicester (4)
We got off on a flyer and kept the pressure up on struggling Luton all match long as we defeated them 4-0 at Kenilworth Road. Darryl Duffy was the man with the passes today and he skipped one to Mathieu Bucher who put away the shot past Marlon Beresford as we moved ahead in the first minute of play. Bucher made that a brace as he smashed another shot past Beresford on a good pass from Duffy. Early in the second half Ibrahim Ba blasted a curving 20 yard free kick past Beresford as we went up 3-0. A bad backpass that Bucher reached before Beresford allowed Bucher to complete his hat-trick as he slipped the shot past the backpedaling keeper. Bucher rightfully was awarded MOM honours.

***

1.1.06
Good news from the start of the transfer window as Mathieu Bucher earned Player of the Month honours. Gary Kenneth was third in Young Player of the Month balloting.

We sold several unhappy players as I continue to try to trim both the squad and our over-budget weekly payroll. Liam Fox went to Hearts for 350K, Stephen Hughes is off to Aberdeen for 300K, Shaun Fagan went to desperate Luton for 95K, Stephen Genet was sold to Crawley for 28K and Franck Berrier went to Lincoln for 30K. To balance those, we added 17 year old SC Craig Frizzel from Rangers for 5K and 22 year old tenacious midfielder Bruno Gourgi from Caen for 220K. We may still make more moves as I try to rebalance our side.

***

2.1.06
Sheffield Wednesday (0) Leicester (0)
Wednesday- None
Leicester- None
MOM- David Lucas, Sheffield Wednesday

It may have been labeled a bore draw, but it wasn't for a lack of trying on our part. We outplayed Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough and outshot them 13-3 for the match, but were done in by our lack of finishing ability. We had some excellent chances to score in both halves of play, but whenever they needed the big save- Lucas came up with it. He made two superb diving saves on free kicks from Mark Kerr and also stopped Kevin Bradley with a huge save midway through the second half. I thought the additional open space available after Richard Wood was sent off for a cynical foul in the second half would help, but we also failed to take full advantage of it in squandering a chance at the win. Rab Douglas put up an easy clean sheet on our side.

***

4.1.06
Leicester (1) Ipswich (1)
Leicester- Gareth Williams 55
Ipswich- Sam Parkin 43
MOM- Ian Westlake, Ipswich

Another match where our poor finishing kept us from a better result. We wound up behind at halftime after Sam Parkin knocked in a rebound that our backline failed to clear after Cederic Berthelin made a brilliant save on Nicky Forster. That was despite the fact we outplayed Ipswich by a large margin in the first half. We managed to equalize early in the second half when Gareth Williams whipped a shot past Ian Ashdown after a good cross from Jerome Bonnissel found him with space in the area. Kevin Bradley has a lot of talent for forward, but after coming on for a tiring Darryl Duffy, he again couldn't score on two golden chances as Ashdown got the better of him both times. Our play seems to be improving, but the results aren't there of late.

***

7.1.06
In a move that has our fans buzzing, we managed to land promising 17 year old Forward Andy Bagshaw from Celtic for 100K. Bagshaw will soon get a chance to establish himself in our forward rotation, after some practice time with the Senior side.

***

7.1.06
Blackpool (0) Leicester (2) FA Cup 3rd Round
Blackpool- None
Leicester- Marc Kalenga 50-P Elliot Grandin 56
MOM- Paul Quinn, Leicester

It was a workmanlike effort that finally paid off with a pair of second half goals that allows us to move on in FA Cup competition. We played a solid first half, but their fierce tackling ruined many chances for us. I decided to throw Andy Bagshaw right into a start in this match, despite no practice time, and he played very well- he wasn't able to score, but he certainly got himself in positions where he had the chances. After a handball in their area- Marc Kalenga converted the penalty kick and that deflated the home side a bit. When Elliot Grandin drove a rising shot home, Blackpool actually recovered their tenacity and tried hard to rally. They fell shy of scoring thanks to a fine effort from Cederic Berthelin, whose clean sheet was well earned. Rightback Paul Quinn earned MOM honours for his quick, roving play up and down our right side- but he suffered a gashed arm which will keep him out for the next week.

***

13.1.06
Two more transfer purchases for us as I continue to try sorting the club. We added 18 year old Scot SC Steve Fletcher for 180K from Hibs and another signing that has our fans excited is the 100K we paid Ross County for 18 year old Scot ML Marc Fitzpatrick.

***

17.1.06
Leicester (1) Burnley (2)
Leicester- Darryl Duffy 30
Burnley- Kevin McDonald 45 Jonas Elmer 57
MOM- Wayne Thomas, Burnley

Another match where we wasted a strong first half effort with some awful backline play in the second half as we let Burnley fight back to hand us a 2-1 loss at Walkers Stadium. Darryl Duffy rapped in a rebound to give us the lead, but we had several other good chances to build on that margin by halftime, only to miss the goal with most of our shots. They struck with only moments left in first half extra time to even the match. Jonas Elmer then scored an 'excuse-me' goal when his cross to the far post got over Rab Douglas and into the goal. That was all she wrote as they played well defensively the remainder of the match.

***

21.1.06
Leicester (3) Stoke (0)
Leicester- Gareth Williams 10 David Clarkson 52,59
Stoke- None
MOM- Jerome Bonnissel, Leicester

We rebounded from our loss with a much better effort in handing Stoke a stinging 3-0 loss. Gareth Williams scored on a free kick after Andrew Davies was redcarded early in the match for a cynical foul on Williams. They kept things close thanks to fine work from their keeper- Steve Simonsen. We broke through to clinch the match on a quickfire David Clarkson brace in the second half. James Graham setup the first one with a pretty cross that Clarkson deflected past Simonsen. MOM Jerome Bonnissel's cross was right to unmarked Clarkson at the far post to cap our 3-0 win.

***

25.1.06
We added another very quick midfielder in the person of Brian Gilmour. Gilmour joins us from Rangers for the modest purchase price of 8K.

***

28.1.06
Leicester (2) Ipswich (0) FA Cup 4th Round
Leicester- Steve Fletcher 31,75
Ipswich- None
MOM- Gary Kenneth, Leicester

A terrific debut by Steve Fletcher and Andy Bagshaw helped lead us to a win over Ipswich as we moved on in the FA Cup. Fletcher put the Ipswich backline to the sword as they had a difficult time marking him. A cross from Steven Hammell was perfectly placed for Fletcher to deflect it past Lewis Price when he scored to give us the lead in the first half. We appeared set to move ahead 2-0 when Stuart Ainsley took down Bagshaw in the area, but Price saved the penalty kick from Steeve Theophile to keep it close. Fletcher scored his brace midway through the second half with a 25 yard blast after he skinned Fabian Wilnus at midfield. Gary Kenneth's solid backline play earned him MOM honours over Fletcher- as Kenneth made several saving tackles in supporting Rab Douglas' clean sheet.