Winter is now officially here, as confirmed by the mountain of ice shrouding my car on this Saturday morning as we prepared once again to make the short journey to the King Power stadium to watch Leicester take on Peterborough in this festive fixture. Peterborough or 'Posh' as they are also known (any of those who have seen, let alone been, to London Road may wonder quite how they got this nickname) were coming to town for their closest away fixture in the league and duly made for the occasion by bringing a full allocation of 3,000 strong-support.
Leicester manager Nigel Pearson was looking to right a few wrongs after a late defeat to former side Hull City last week and with Peterborough defeated in their previous two games the omens looked promising. A stroll around the ground pre-match lead us to bumping into Leicester vice chairman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn (easy for you to say) who was fresh from experiencing the 'Winter Wonderland' funfair set-up behind the south stand. More was to follow as a mix-up with our seats was rewarded with a top-rate steward leading us on a grand tour of the tunnel, dressing rooms, media rooms and match officials area with around half an hour to go until kick off before being allocated superb alternate spots for the afternoons viewing, top work from the people at Leicester City.
Thankfully neither Andy Gray nor Richard Keys were present at the stadium as lines(wo)man Sian Massey was on touchline duty, especially given today was the unveiling of the F.A's "Respect" campaign aimed at match officials. The game began at a decent tempo with Leicester pressing the Peterborough goal early on, Jermaine Beckford skimming the bar and only Posh's goalkeeper Joe Lewis pulling off a stunning save towards the end of the first half to deny City the lead.
During half time former City legend and all-round good-guy Muzzy Izzet graced the King Power stadium, much to the crowds delight and just as hypothermia set in, out came the sides for the second period. Paul Gallagher looking lively on the right picked up the ball on the edge of the 18 yard box, turned, shot, and sent Leicester into the lead, 3,000 United fans could only watch on as the City contingent performed the Poznan.
City were seemingly in control with Konchesky and Peltier excelling at full-back and with Peterborough offering very little but slowly gaining momentum. Leicester sat back, and Peterborough pounced as Lee Tomlin found a gap between Sol Bamba and ex-Posh centre-back Sean St Ledger, to head home the equaliser sending the away fans into delirium. Silence in the Leicester end, apart from a few sets of chattering teeth, was drowned out by the away support who were partying like it was 1999 and with good reason as Leicester looked dis-jointed and quite honestly dis-interested.
Steve Howard replaced the disappointing David Nugent and Jeff Schlupp came on for the marginally better Beckford as City looked to press for a winner. In the end though neither side could strike the killer blow and honours ended even. All in all it had been a superb day on a personal level, not every day you get to go behind the scenes on a match day and full marks for the hospitality that the club showed us.
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