Leicester City and Richard III all in one day
What a long day Saturday turned out to be.
To make sure that I got to the ground for 7.45 pm KO I left my house at 11.45 am and got to Leicester at 2 pm (are you mad? Yes, but that is another story).
I parked at Leicester Rugby club (it cost me £15.50 for 24 hours) and made my way to the ground. Went into their superstore and bought a programme. Chatted to their manager (who was a Spurs supporter), from there I went to the City – about a mile away (20-minute walk) – and visited Leicester Cathedral and Richard III’s tomb. I thought that Leicester Cathedral would be a magnificent big church, magnificent it was, but not that big. I was shocked at how small it was (compared to other big Cathedrals around Britain). As well as visiting poor old Richard they had a group of musicians playing carols in the church, and it was a good hour well spent.
From there I went into town and had a look around, and then found a Costa’s coffee shop for a cup of tea. By the time I left the heavens had opened up, it was bucketing down. As I was making my way to the stadium, I passed a pub, so I thought I would pop in for a large glass of wine and relax. Stayed about 45 minutes and by the time I left, it had stopped raining. Got to the stadium about 20 minutes later (5.30ish). I seemed to have timed it just right. They had an excellent Christmas spirit/ funfair around the ground; there were reindeers, Christmas slides, a group singing old songs and much more. It gave off a really great Christmas atmosphere. I found myself a pub that had both sets of supporters in it (across the road from the ground) and sat for a while to rest my legs (it had been a long day).
Got a text from Martin to say that both Martin’s had arrived. Met them at the Away entrance. Martin and I went in and got ourselves a cup of tea/ coffee. Chatted to a Steward, who told us that she had lived in Berkshire years ago, where I am living (it is amazing some of the people you can meet on your Spurs travels). We made our way to our seats. I should have been a few rows back, unfortunately, Martin’s dad couldn’t make it (he was ill), so I sat next to Martin. Because we all stand you can all push together and get more people in the row, so the other Martin came and joined us.
I chatted to those I knew around me. And then the fanfare started, music blared, and the players came out. The usual pleasantries and then everybody moved to their positions, and finally, the referee blew his whistle for the game to commence.
We needed to win and win we did. Especially after Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool had all won. In the case of Chelsea, they took the unbeaten run away from City to push them into second place (behind Liverpool). We are third, while Chelsea are fourth and Arsenal stay fifth. All good news. Preferably we would have wished to have created a more significant gap between us, Chelsea and Arsenal, but alas it wasn’t to be. Maybe next time.
As I said, we retained third place in the Premier League with a comfortable victory over a flat Leicester at the King Power Stadium. With Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen both rested, we initially struggled to break down the hosts until Son Heung-min's superb strike just before the break. He cut in from the right and hit the top corner with a curling left-footed shot from outside the area.
The whistle went, and I sat down (my legs were killing me) and we chatted. Then after 15 minutes the players came out and the battle resumed.
The impressive Dele Alli then headed in Son's weighted cross after a flowing counter-attack to put the game beyond Leicester.
We had dropped to fifth after wins for Chelsea and Arsenal earlier on Saturday, but have moved back above our London rivals and are five points behind Manchester City in second, with leaders Liverpool a point further in front. All to play for; great!
We now have 36 points after 16 matches, our highest ever tally at this stage in a Premier League season.
Leicester stay ninth despite an end to their six-match unbeaten run in the league.
A long day, but well worth it. The two Martin’s and I parted, and I then made my 15 minutes walk back to Leicester’s Rugby club and got my car. The traffic was awful when leaving. I finally got home at 12.30 am. I might have got back 15 minutes earlier if I didn’t take a wrong turn.
I went straight to bed and watched Match of the Day and in particularly our game.
Now we move on to Barcelona. COYS! Hopefully, I’ll see you there.
By Glenn Renshaw
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