Leicester City at the Derby Tournoi
Alvaston Park, Derby
5th July 1998
Team
LEICESTER CITY SQUAD
Well, this was an interesting day out in Daaaaarby. We had originally had a
friendly booked against the Internet Rams for this day, but Derby expanded the
event into a mini tournament (and did all the work on the organising, so thanks
to them for that). We were one of four teams taking part in a mini-league format,
the others being Derby Internet Rams, Leeds Internet Lards, and Manchester City's
McVitie FC. We were to take part in the first game of the day against the Rams,
and after their taunting of us during the week before, we were up for this
one. After a spell of containment early on, the ball was given to Bernie Muollo on
the wing, who skipped past several tackles, and blasted the ball into the net
from the left hand side of the box. 1-0 to the Yetis and everything was going
to plan. Now you lot know as well as me, that plans just don't come to
fruition, and we were getting seriously worried about this plan when Bernie broke
through again and hit another blistering shot which the stand-in keeper did
brilliantly to turn round his left hand post. Half time came with the score
still 1-0, and we were seriously beginning to think we could win this one.
Of course, this is the point where the plan broke. (I blame everyone else for
this,not being on the pitch at the time :) ). Derby scrambled an equaliser,
which looked several yards offside, but there were no arguments from our lot,
which I am pleased to see. The game looked set to be heading for a draw, which
would have been a very fair result, when Derby broke away in the last minute
, and slotted the ball home for an undeserved 2-1 win. To say that we were gutted
by this would be a slight understatement, although I think we made the Derby lads
sit up and take notice, which is always nice.
Anyway, after watching Leeds beat Manchester City 2-1, we took on the Leeds Lards,
in a very closely matched game. To be honest, I didn't watch this one, I was too
busy playing a game of hit the bar on the adjacent pitch with the rest of the
subs, but from what I did see it was a well fought game, which Leeds snatched by
the odd goal.
With the team rather tired after the Leeds game we broke the news to them that
we had to go straight back on to face Manchester City, and after reshuffling the
team to give the other subs a game, we went back onto the pitch to face them.
This was my appearance for the day, and quite frankly I quickly began to wish I
hadn't as McVitie's came straight at us from the start, putting us under a lot
of pressure. We had nothing in midfield or attack in this game, as all the
effort had been put into the previous Leeds match, and Man. City took us apart.
Lucky to be only 1-0 down at Half time, we capitulated somewhat in the second half,
and despite encouragement (of sorts) from myself and 'Mr' Peters, we were swept
aside 7-0 by the much fitter Manchester team. Suitably beaten, we trudged off
the pitch and proceeded to watch Derby lose to the Leeds Lards by 3-2.
Still an enjoyable day was had by all, as far as I know!
Good points: Geoff Peters and John Vale getting a run out, Chris getting back
into action albeit as a goalkeeper after his knee injury.
Bad points: The mauling by Man City.
Final Results and Standings:
Leicester 1 Derby 2
Leeds 2 Man City 1
Derby 1 Man City 1
Leicester 0 Leeds 1
Leicester 0 Man City 7
Leeds 3 Derby 2
Leeds 9pts
Man City 4pts
Derby 4pts
Leicester 0pts
