[theo_luddite]

East Midlands Duty Free Shop
Near the Crisp Factory
Filbert Way
Leicester
England
LE2 7FL

The end of the best year in living memory for many Town fans and easily equaling the best for those of us that are a bit longer in the tooth. The start of a New Year that brings us genuine promise of staying up provided we continue to improve. If you stand still in this division, everyone will rush right past you.

With that in mind, and according to the super soaraway chip paper, and the more reliable Snoots, this is a done deal.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/...e-kongolo/
That would appear to tick a box for some of our fans.

Head2Head

Town have just got the upper hand in this but we haven't beaten the Foxes in a League game since the 95/96 season in what was then Division 1. We played them 5 years ago on January 1st and got stuffed 6-1 at theirs, then we had to play them again later in the month in the FA Cup 4th Round. A 1-1 draw at ours was followed by a surprise 1-2 win in the replay as Scanz scampered down the left wing then the by-line and tucked his shot under Schmeichel at the near post.

The Fairy Tale from Filbert Way.

The Foxes won the admiration of all, we maybe just JugLugs as all the other pundits continually wrote them off, when winning the Prima Donna League in the 2015/16 season against seemingly all the odds and er budgets.

Their route to the title saw them recover from this (which you may remember from the Watford thread)

to win promotion the following season (2013/14) with a budget busting squad. Having stuck both sets of 2 fingers up at the FL's FFP rules, there's a hefty fine awaiting them if they do tumble back into The Championship. This may partially explain the boards decision to bump Claudio Ranieri out of the hot seat when Leicester got off to a shakey start last season. So his assistant Craig Shakespeare took over and got them firing again, finishing comfotably in mid-table and avoiding the unwanted tag of being a Champion club one season and a Chumpionship one the next. That the Foxes were firing on less than all cylinders again at the start of this season meant that Shakey Craig was soon shovelled out the door and Claude Puel was appointed.

The Foxes currently sit 3 points and 3 places above us in the league table.

They have lost 3 of their last 5, while Town are looking to extend their unbeaten run to 5 matches. They have a more potent attack than us, scoring 31 against our 18, but defensively they are just as dodgy, with 32 goals against for both clubs. Top scorers, England centre forward Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Shinjai Okazaki can be a handful for any team if they click and get the service from midfield.

How to get there, where to park, beers, pies'n'pees

All in here - http://www.footballgroundguide.com/leagu...expand=all

They can't both win

This round of fixtures throws up 5 games between teams in the bottom 14.

In the Arrivals Hall

They spent a bob or two this season, so no wonder the board gets twitchy when results don't go the right way.

In the Departure Lounge

They got a fair chunk of change back when selling former Town player Danny Drinkwater to Chelski. Yes, that Danny Drinkwater who some so called Town fans on some other forums labelled as not good enough when we were back in League 1.

Relatively speaking, Leicester are spending 2.5 times as much money on player wages as Town, so Wagbo is giving us excellent value for money on the grass. Sean Dyche has to be congratulated for what he is achieving at Burnalee.

Last Time Out

Leicester lost 2-1 at Liverpool after Vardy gave them an early lead.

While  a rather leggy looking Town took a point off Burnalee

One thing for sure, our passing will have to be a whole lot crisper in this match and we'll need to be careful how we crunch into the tackles if we are going to continue to savour the flavour of life in the Prima Donna League.

Wishing all our readers and writers a Happy New Year. Let's hope Zanka Claus is still giving away free beers next year.

Cheers!! Did you get yours?

So, once that annoying sod with the hunting horn has buggered off, let's charge into them Town and pull the rug out from under the feet of this lot.

Let's get them foxies on the run

Wagbo's Wise Words

[theo_luddite]

Updated with an added musical interlude.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, theo. And a happy new year to you too.

We outplayed them at ours earlier in the season and the point they got that day was very lucky indeed. We got a big silce of luck on Saturday, let's hope Lady Luck keeps smiling on us.

[theo_luddite]

Wagbo's Wise Words added at the bottom of the original post. Questions are a bit hard to hear.

[Lord Snooty]

I think Mooy and Ince will sit this one out. Looked jaded on Saturday. A start in the 10 slot for Lolley?

[jjamez]

Think there'll be a few changes. Think smith and lowe will come at fullback. Lowe to try and nullify albrighton. Hogg may well be partnered with williams to try and deal with mahrez, mooy may get the number 10 slot, even though he looked nackered on saturday. Quaner will most likely keep going, left wing is anyones guess and I'd start lolo up top and rest him against bolton

[theo_luddite]

Line-ups
Leicester
1Schmeichel
18Amartey
5Morgan
15Maguire
28Fuchs
26Mahrez
25Ndidi
22James
11Albrighton
20Okazaki
19Slimani
Substitutes
7Gray
8Iheanacho
12Hamer
14Adrien Silva
16Dragovic
21Iborra
23Ulloa
Huddersfield
1Lössl
2Smith
25Jorgensen
26Schindler
15Löwe
10Mooy
19Williams
18Lolley
22Ince
17van La Parra
24Mounie
Substitutes
3Malone
6Hogg
13Coleman
14Cranie
20Depoitre
23Quaner
33Hadergjonaj
Referee:
Graham Scott

[Lord Snooty]

Disappointing, but not unexpected.

---

Twitter now going into meltdown.

This lot won the Premier League t other season.

[JUSTASILLYOLDGIT]

They showed us, second half, how to pass and press effectively. As Snoots points out, not unexpected bearing in mind their recent pedigree!

[theo_luddite]

Slugged it out with them in the first half but same story, plenty of ball but didn't create much. Lots of pretty patterns in midfield but no real penetration. That goes for both teams. Town once again came out sluggish in the second half, walking up blind alleys and a few sloppy passes and we were 2 down in another 5 minute spell. We huffed and puffed after that and barely warmed Schmeichel's hands. The third went in as I trudged down the steps. Mahrez finished his goal off really well, but we gifted them the corner, didn't deal with it and left him free at the back post.