FOREST AWAY: Leicester City, Friday 25th October – Fan Guide

It’s been a peculiar couple of weeks, but hopefully Friday night will conclude with two wins in five days and a dizzying elevation up the Premier League table.

Away from the continued impressive start to the season, the latest punishments being handed out dominated the talk around the club. The sanctions we have received for various misdemeanours have been excessive and might be unfair, but we also shouldn’t put all of our focus on the potential injustice of the response. We should also look at why we keep finding ourselves exposed to these independent panels and receiving hefty financial penalties and bans. We reach a point where we need to start looking inwards rather than constantly bemoaning how we are being dealt with.

The simplest way to avoid these situations is to stop the cause. And the cause sometimes appears to be because we often struggle to accept losing football matches. Sometimes it can be really helpful to create a siege mentality and come out fighting, but I’m personally not sure that absurd tweets and alleged spitting are the sort of behaviour that a proud football club wants to be nailing its colours to the mast on.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this is the opportunity to challenge the Premier League, the FA and poor officiating in the league. There is a huge platform to cause a fuss and strive for better. But we must do it the right way, not in the heat of the moment and not because we simply don’t accept the rules or decisions. We know that the Premier League is basically one big voting system; down the line we might want to win friends and bring influence as this club has done historically when they have displayed unrivalled fair play and sportsmanship. Reputations like ours, built up over many years, are hard earned and easily lost.

There is much to be happy about at NFFC. It’s time for cool heads and a bit of sense.

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GENERAL INFO – LEICESTER, Friday 25^th October

Last visit: A disastrous 4-0 defeat in October 2022.

We are advised by Notts & Leicestershire police that there are currently no plans to escort supporters or hold Forest fans back in the ground, but that this could change on the day in response to any perceived poor behaviour.

 

TRAVEL

TRAINS: East Midlands Railways have provided us with the enclosed plan for trains before and after the game which should be useful. This also includes the number of carriages planned for each service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind that some direct trains take twice as long so it’s best to take a look before travelling and catch one of the 20-30-minute services.

A standard return is £14.99.

Allow around 20-25 minutes to walk from the station.

 

ROAD: Hopefully there will not be the same chaos on the M1 which caused many fans to arrive way after kick-off, as occurred in 2022. The best idea is probably to leave the M1 at the M69 junction and then head up towards the King Power.

I’m afraid I don’t have any definitive parking suggestions, but to the south and the west of the stadium are residential areas. I believe closer to the ground there will be some parking restrictions in place, but a bit further out you should be okay to find street parking.

Another option could be to park a stop or two outside of Leicester, at somewhere like Syston which is right on the A46 and jump on the train. But given the short distance, it’s probably going to work better to get to the stadium.

PUBS

Official advice from the Leicester City Dedicated Football Officer, Dave Stevens:

The Counting House is the biggest, best and closest pub to the ground. In town you have the Hind (opposite the train station) and The Barley Mow which is a 2 min walk away. Other places tend to be generally mixed but may be slightly more strict on Friday for obvious reasons so can’t guarantee they will operate in the same way for this one. The other 3 I mentioned will accept away fans though.

On our last visit in 2022, it seemed that Forest fans were generally okay in a few places around the station and across the city. Note that the Parcel Yard right next to the station has now closed.

 

Q&A with Leicester fan Nik

All of a sudden, Leicester go into this game on the back of some good form and a very impressive turnaround at Southampton on Saturday. Is there more optimism around now after a difficult start?

We are currently 14th with 9pts after two back-to-back wins. The season could have started far worse. Alongside Man City, we are the only two clubs that have scored in every game. We are not getting any points deducted which was a major concern of any Leicester supporter before the season started. Leicester are not playing the best football we have witnessed at the King Power but we are getting results, which is the hardest part of staying in the Premier League.

We have to be optimistic, and we can only improve. There are still 30 games to play, plenty of points still to play for!

 

Steve Cooper inherited a very tough job given the circumstances at Leicester and his history with Forest. How has he done so far and has the link to NFFC counted against him do you think?

It doesn’t personally bother me that Steve Cooper was the manager of NFFC. We had Martin O’Neill as manager and our Premier League winning captain was a red, Big Wes Morgan. I know though that this is an issue among other Leicester supporters who do not like the fact he came from Nottingham Forest.

I was not enthusiastic about the appointment of Steve Cooper, this was more down to the fact that he was not an inspiring choice, and I didn’t feel that at NFFC, in the Premier League he actually adopted a style of play that was noticeable, and generally was very defensive/cautious in his approach. This was the feeling among most of the Leicester supporters I talked with, but obviously not all looked at it this way and I can’t speak for all the Leicester supporters out there.

If Steve Cooper wins games, gains points and keeps us in the Premier League, I am sure every Leicester fan will be happy at the end of the season and he will have done what he was employed to do.

Presumably with Forest visiting and a Friday night game under the lights, we can expect a big atmosphere from the home fans?

Leicester have always seen Nottingham Forest as a big rivalry and for me Nottingham is the derby match as my dad always made this the big game. Depending on where you live in Leicester will depend on what you see as the biggest rivalry, Derby County and Coventry City both border the Foxes but for the majority its Nottingham Forest.

With both teams having a rich vein of form, the game will be at the start of the weekend, finishing work, the beers will be flowing etc. If this is not the game for an amazing atmosphere and to be up for it then I don’t know what is. This was the game I looked for first when the fixtures came out! This is one game I would love to win.

 

Last season the three promoted team all went straight back down and many have predicted the same to happen again this time, and certainly Southampton and Ipswich appear to be struggling to compete. Is the gap between the Premier League and the Championship growing bigger, do you think?

Surviving the first season in the Prem is imperative, only then can you start to build a squad to achieve more, 17th I would take right now!

Parachute payments in the Championship enable a small group of clubs to keep bouncing between the two leagues but this is not enough to be able to build a squad to compete in the top league. Spending is what gives a Championship club a slight chance. With the new financial rules put in place in the last couple of seasons, it’s affecting the ability of newly promoted clubs buying quality players without breaching these rules.

Luton Town & Sheffield United both didn’t spend that much money last season, both returned to the Championship. It is currently looking like it could be the same fate for the newly promoted sides this season, fingers crossed, not Leicester.

The spending rules, in my opinion, are only going to keep making the gap between the two leagues bigger.

 

Steve Cooper has spoken about his frustration with refereeing decisions and VAR this season. How much has poor refereeing had an impact on Leicester so far? Given VAR isn’t part of the system in the Championship, would you say the fan experience is improved by it or not?

Last season in the Championship with NO VAR was a breath of fresh air. Back to how the game always was, a goal goes in, you quickly glance to see if the linesman (assistant referee now) has the flag raised, nope. It’s a GOAL you keep celebrating, limbs flying everywhere. No weird decisions that you have no clue of what’s going on, the game just flowed smoothly.

Occasional decisions went against, a few were missed, others were in our favor but that is football, sorry was football. I was not looking forward to VAR back in the Premier League with video analysis slowing the game down looking at decisions to the nearest millimeter.

Leicester have already had issues with VAR after 8 games, the Crystal Palace game springing to mind, a match we should have won but ended up drawing due to a ridiculous offside goal that was overturned by VAR. I’m old school, I’d get rid of VAR today.

Finally – let’s have your predictions, please.

What will the score be on Friday?

I am expecting a draw, 1-1. (Keeps Leicester scoring in every game going)

Where will Leicester finish this season?

15th – 17th is where I think, and hope Leicester will finish the season.

Where will Forest finish this season?

I think Forest might just finish top half of the table this season, but not in Europe. 9-10th

 

Many thanks to Nik for his insight.

We’ll see those of you travelling in Leicester.

Up the Reds.

Matt