Foxes reignite the feel good factor
With 34% possession, we probably didn’t achieve the 5-0 win in a way Maresca would love, but you could tell from the reaction of the players and fans alike, what this means and how much we all loved it. Dare I say it, this is the most excited I’ve felt in a long time?
In the earlier part of the season, Leicester City had a bigger advantage and were operating in relative cruise control, emphasis on the word control. But something felt missing. It wasn’t that this was a deeply unhappy fanbase, this was before the PSR shenanigans or the run of losses. But pure excitement was harder to come by.
How many night games had provided that prior to this? The kind of exhilaration where you get home post-match, no matter how late and how long your day has been and you can’t sleep. You could spot the Foxes fan in my office today by those looking happy but bleary eyed and clutching coffee like it was life itself. Or maybe that was just me.
So many people spontaneously bought tickets last night for Preston without any real thought to booking it off work, getting there or how knackered we’ll all be the next morning? (Guilty as charged while stuck in a carpark). It has the feeling of ‘have to be there’. A pre-party of sorts before the home game against Blackburn.
We were missing a little bit of the feel-good factor in the last few months. Even when we were still winning, grumbles were frequent. The play felt slow or laboured. We’d not really had that marquee performance or win.
We’d stumbled against the so-called bigger teams and despite feeling a blowout victory was coming…it hadn’t. Stoke away came quite close but they looked like the shell of a team and it was equal parts how bad they were as to how good we were.
After the two away losses, the mood was not rock bottom, but whatever the level of anger above that is. Plymouth was only a couple of weeks ago, this shift has happened quickly and boy did we need it to.
The mood was almost feverish against Southampton at times. It felt overwhelming during and after the second half, such a polar opposite to the abject frustration or anger after Millwall and Plymouth. Is this turnaround finally the siege mentality we thought the financial news may bring or something else?
Either way, the fanbase haven’t felt this united in a long time. This includes the rightful protests and discontent around the season tickets news and the £25 loyalty tax. Executed perfectly during an injury break with support back to its loudest the minute the ball was back in play. Make no mistake, this win was brilliant and we collectively celebrated but a lot of us share the same feelings on this latest piece of news and that won't be forgotten.
The unbridled joy was everywhere after the full-time whistle. Enzo Maresca and his coaches jumping around like lunatics. Conor Coady hyping up Jamie Vardy while the stands were bouncing to Freed from Desire and despite it being late on a Tuesday night, how many people stayed to party and clap off the team. If this does end up being the Vardy swansong then it’s on course to be a perfect, bittersweet end to his saga.
There are so many little moments to enjoy and remember. Stephy Mavididi dancing with the corner flag, Abdul Fatawu holding out his hat trick ball like a trophy and rightly soaking up every minute of it. He isn’t even ours (sorry to remind us all of this) and yet a non-football fan would assume he’s been on the Leicester books for years with how much he embraces it all.
If Mads Hermansen didn’t exist, he’d have the crown for the most wholesome footballer Leicester have. It’s hard not to be won over by Fatawu, anybody who smiles and dances and just loves to play football that much has to deserve your affections. He isn’t the only one bringing the feel-good factor front and centre.
You listen to one interview with Coady and he could sell you a QVC special. He’s as infectious to listen to as Abdul is to see dancing around a left-back. With his Mahrez-esque goal too, be still all of our beating hearts.
That fever pitch spilled out into the streets too. I can hardly remember the last time a walk back to the car, or long journey back felt so painless. On Welford Road there was car after car blasting out Abba or Freed from desire and singing along. You didn’t even have to get to the underpass for the car horns to start this time, although I imagine it must have been brilliant under there.
It’s a tradition I sometimes forget about now as my route has changed, but one that takes me back to being a kid, the early Leicester days in the late 90s, heading back out towards the A46. I’m not even convinced my Dad had to go that way, but we did and it made victory all that much sweeter.
Two drunk blokes near Nelson Mandela Park joined in with some singing from a small pocket of City fans (even heard a nearby Southampton fan say you had to give us credit), I have no idea whether they’d even been at the match, one carrying a traffic cone and the other a wet floor sign they’d ‘borrowed’ from somewhere. Fans generally just vibrating and animatedly reliving the goals scored, or the celebrations after.
This was a different level of energy last night. For once it felt like we were pressing the King Power, home advantage. Our home form has been the difference lately and it’s no coincidence that the crowd has improved. Coupled with back to back performances that felt the exact kind of difference that we needed.
After Norwich and Birmingham, there was a steely sense of resilience and relief, some confidence creeping back in. Full-time at West Brom, it was cautious excitement but the players looked happier than they had in a while. The emphatic nature of the way we beat Southampton won’t have hurt, but it was like it collectively restored excitement.
Promotion pre-January had felt a little…perfunctory? Something that was happening rather than something to get engaged in. My own feelings wobbled slightly again with the financial news and the uncertainty of everything. None of that has changed, been resolved or gone away but there’s a swagger from the team of ‘none of that matters’ which felt like it washed over the crowd on Tuesday night.
Despite this, even factoring in the return of VAR (looking at you, Abdul, for that first goal!), there’s a sense of something to look forward to. Sure, the odds will be hugely against us next year, but we love to play the underdog role, right?
Even with the slender 1-0 lead at half-time, the performance had felt satisfying. Something to get behind, not perfect, and I do wonder where Maresca thinks the team are now in terms of mastering the system and tactics. I left the KP feeling content, it was impossible to just switch off when home and Leicester City have occupied a huge amount of my thoughts today, positive ones too. Seeing the videos from the dressing room, the interviews, the epic commentary. We all needed this.
The job isn’t quite done yet on the pitch, but having used our mythical game in hand to our advantage, it’s on the cusp. The club still have to get some parts right off it too in the next couple of weeks, making the right decision around the £25 card charge, not letting the Vardy extension saga roll on too much longer and getting the build ahead for next year underway. But this is a possible tipping point.
In the end, we may not have done it the easy way or smashed the points record. But if this feeling holds up and we cap it all off in the next two games…maybe it is all a little bit sweeter for it.
