How The Great Fall.
Who would of thought that a few years back Martin O'Neill was in charge of a very good Leicester side with Emile Heskey showing his value and scoring
for fun. A few years later Milan Mandaric decided to put his money into the club and stuck his nose in way to often, so manager after manager came
and went and relegation came and again. Now Leicester City play their football in the 3rd tier of English Football, although The Foxes are out
to prove that they are better than League 1 football.
Saturday brings a nice EARLIER kick off at The Walkers Stadium. For those going tomorrow don't forget its a 2.30pm kick off due to that sport with
an oddly shaped ball being played afterwards. And the last time Southend United played at The Walkers Stadium was in the 2006/2007. On the 26/08/2006
19,427 people watched Southend United get beaten by a 1-0 defeat thanks to a Patrick Kisnorbo strike. Looking through both the line ups you can see
a massive change in the players in the 2 years since the teams last met.
Leicester's Last 5 League Results.
Crewe (H) 2-1 - Fryatt, King.
Scunthorpe (A) 1-2 - Dyer, King.
Swindon (A) 2-2 - Oakley, Fryatt.
Yeovil (H) 1-0 - Dyer.
Bristol Rovers (H) 2-1 - Fryatt (2).
Leicester's Home Form.
Leicester City have played 9 league home games and they have:
Won: 6
Lost: 1
Drawn: 2
How They Lined Up on 26/08/2006 At The Walkers Stadium.
Leicester: Henderson, Kenton, McCarthy, Kisnorbo, Johansson, Low, Hughes, Johnson, Tiatto, Fryatt, O'Grady.
Subs: Stearman, Porter, Hume, Logan, Williams.
Southend: Flahavan, Francis, Barrett, Gower, Maher, Eastwood, Guttridge, Clarke, Campbell-Ryce, Hammell, Paynter.
Subs: Cole, Lawson, Prior, Hunt, Collis.
How They Lined Up In Their Last League Games.
Leicester City: Martin, Edworthy, Tunchev, Morrison, Mattock, Berner, Oakley, King, Dyer, Fryatt, Campbell.
Subs: Cisak, Hayles, Hobbs, Gradel, Howard.
Southend United: Mildenhall, Francis, Clarke, Barrett, Harding, Sankofa, Betsy, Christophe, McCormack, Milsom, Walker.
Subs: Joyce, Ademeno, O'Keefe, Herd, Grant.
For Leicester City Matty Fryatt is the only player who played against Southend United in 2006 from the squad that lined up in their last league game.
That is a massive 15 different changes to their team.
For Southend United Simon Francis, Adam Barrett and Peter Clarke are the only remaining players from the side that lost to Leicester in 2006, so that
is 13 changes to their team since 2006.
The Gaffer
Nigel Pearson - The 45 year old Nottingham born ex defender had a 17 year playing career making 448 appearances and scoring 24 goals for 3 different
clubs. He was a youth product at Heanor Town and was signed up by Shrewsbury Town and also played for Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough. Pearson
retired from playing in 1998 and took his first job was as manager of Carlisle saving them from relegation in the 1998-1999 season. He was later
recruited by Gary Megson as Stoke City's first team coach. He then in 2004 became Assistant at West Brom and was appointed caretaker manager in 2006
when Bryan Robson left. In 2007 he was appointed assistant coach to Stuart Pearce in the England U21 set up. Pearson also had two spells as caretaker
manager of Newcastle in 2007 and 2008. He then took control of Southampton and saved them from relegation at the expense of his latest club Leicester
City. He took charge of Leicester City in June 2008 and has been doing well since taking over with Leicester sitting top of the table.
The Likely Line Up.
David Martin - 22 Year Old, 6ft 1 Goalkeeper, currently on a 6 month loan deal from Liverpool. The Romford born keeper has played for a variety of
clubs. With youth clubs being West Ham and Tottenham, he played his first league game for Wimbeldon and then later played for MK Dons after transferring.
He made 17 league appearances for them and after a successful trial at Liverpool in 2006 he signed for The Kop. He has yet to make a 1st team appearance
for Liverpool but spent last season on loan at Accrington Stanley 'Who the Hell are they?' 'EXACTLY!' ;)
Marc Edworthy - 35 Year Old, 5ft 11 Defender. Edworthy started his career with Plymouth Argyle in 1991 and has since played for Crystal Palace, Coventry,
Wolves, Norwich and Derby. In 1998 he was sold by Crystal Palace to Coventry City for a huge fee of £1.2 Million. He signed for Leicester in November 08
on a 2 month contract which is due to run out on the 6th of Jan.
Aleksandar Tunchev - 27 Year Old, 6ft 2 Bulgarian Defender. Tunchev has spent most of his career in Bulgaria playing for Hebar, Belasitsa, Lokomotiv Plovdiv
and CSKA Sofia. Tunchev is also a Bulgarian international making 19 appearances and scoring 1 goal. Tunchev signed a 3 year contract with Leicester City
on the 5th of July 2008.
Michael Morrison - 20 Year Old 6ft Defender. Morrison should be a name familiar to all Southend United fans as we had a £125,000 bid rejected by
Cambridge City a couple of seasons back. He signed for Leicester in 2008 and was Nigel Pearson's first signing for an undisclosed fee. He made over
100 appearances for Cambridge City and came very highly regarded.
Joe Mattock - 18 Year Old, 5ft 11 Defender. A product of Leicester's youth set up Mattock was a regular in the U18's Leicester side that ex on loan
striker Eric Odhiambo. He has made 43 appearances since 2006 and has attracted attention from Premiership clubs and Leicester turned down a 7 figure
sum from two unnamed premiership clubs on the deadline day of the January transfer window.
Bruno Berner - 31 Year Old, 6ft 1 Swiss Defender. An ex Swiss international defender making 16 appearances for Switzerland between 2001-2004. Berner
started his career with Grasshopper Zurich and spent time on loan in 2000 with Stanley Collymore's last team Real Oviedo. In 2007 he signed for
Blackburn Rovers after a successful loan spell from FC Basel. Berner then at start of this season signed a 3 year contract with Leicester City.
Matt Oakley - 31 Year Old, Midfielder. He started his career and made his name with Southampton making 262 appearances and scoring 14 goals. In 2006
he signed for Derby and was instantly made captain, he made 56 appearances and scored 9 goals. In January of this year Leicester flexed their financial
muscles and forked out £500,000 for Oakley he has since made 36 appearances and scored 3 goals.
Andy King - 20 Year Old, Midfielder. King started off with Chelsea and later moved to Leicester's youth set up and after some successful games for the
youth he was promoted to the first team in 2007 and offered a proffessional contract. He has since played 29 appearances and scored 5 goals.
Lloyd Dyer - 26 Year Old, Midfielder. Dyer first broke onto the scene in 2000 with WBA making 21 appearances and spent the rest of his 6 year spell
out on loan with Coventry, Kidderminster and QPR. In 2006 he signed for Millwall and played 6 games for them and later signed for MK Dons. He made
86 appearances for the Dons and scored 16 goals which lead to him becoming Pearson's second signing in July 2008 and has since made 18 appearances
and scored 7 goals.
Matt Fryatt - 22 Year Old, Striker. Fryatt is currently the 2nd highest goalscorer in this seasons league one campaign with 14 league goals. He started
his career with Walsall making 70 appearances and scoring 27 goals. In January 2006 he signed for Leicester City in a move worth in the region of
£350,000. Since signing for the Foxes he has played 99 times and scored 25 goals.
Dudley Campbell - 27 Year Old, Striker. Also known as DJ Campbell, first broke onto the football scene with his success at Yeading playing 89 times and
scoring 65 goals. He was then snapped up by Brentford for £5,000 where a successful spell that influenced his move to then Premiership side Birmingham
for a move worth up to £1.1 Million. His first goal for Birmingham was scored against Colchester (Hooray!!!). In July 2007 Leicester again flexed their
financial muscles and stumped up a deal worth up to £2.1 Million for Campbell but he has yet to live up to his price tag.
Ricey's Ones To Watch.
Matt Fryatt - Scored a hat trick against Dagenham last saturday and has hit fine goalscoring form. He is a real fox in the box (see what I did there ;) )
and will be looking to cause Peter Clarke some problems. Lets not have a Rickie Lambert all over again.
Max Gradel - An excellent young winger, not sure if he will start but played on loan for Bornemouth last season and when we played against them he really
did make a difference. He is the very much like Stanislas and could cause some real danger to are full backs if he plays.
Joe Mattock - He will be out to stop our front two so most likely Revell and Laurent. He is an extremely highly rated defender and has obviously done his
job well as you can see by Leicester's form and position in the league.
Chris Powell - Whether he plays or is in the squad is yet to be confirmed but how could I write my review without mentioning this Southend United legend.
It would be nice for him to play just for us to give him a reception. And lets hope we have the oppertunity to give him a reception at Roots Hall when
they play us again.
Now lets hope we can break Leicester's form and get 3 points for The Blues. It will be a tough game but if we stay
solid at the back and score a couple of goals we can win. So lets hope its a good weekend and a nice 3 points for The Shrimpers, lets hope their minds
are not all stuck on the Chelsea game. So this is Ricey once again signing off another Ricey's report.
UP THE BLUES
Kind Regards
Matthew (Ricey)
