Leicester City 0 -v- Wolverhampton Wanderers (InterWolves) 0
Land Ut Gods
Leeds Road, Huddersfield
31 May 1998
Team
LEICESTER CITY
Nobby, Porl, Darren "Dawn Chorus" Thrussell, Michael "is that a banana or are you pleased to see me" Lax, Robert "Aye up m'duck,
*that's* no Lestah accent" Watson, Bernie Muollo, David "Dave" Grice, Paul Griffiths, Pat Farragher, Chris Stenson, Kelvin Herbert,
Alex Mason, Neil Hallam, Phil Achurch
Nobby's report continues:
With a couple of hours before our next fixture some of the group drifted off
to check out the bar facilities (in order to sample an extensive range of
fruit juices and bottled water I am told) whilst others worked on a bit of
ball familiarity (so as to know what to do with it should it ever come in
their general direction).
With the other game in our group ending in a 1-0 Hudds win over our
arch-enemies from the Black Country - thank you Huddersfield Town, I love
you and want to bear your children - thus securing the hosts' leadership of
Group A, we knew that a draw against Wolves would have been enough to win
the Yetis a place in the semis. Having exchanged a few "pleasantaries" about
Mark McG*** (and another of those soddin' pennants) we kicked off. The game
was a little bit more "heated" than others I'd played in, with both teams
desperate for points and Christ, filling in for Porl in goal, was kept on
his toes, (his *own* toes, that is, not Porl's ... who incidentally was
nursing a Linekeresque toe injury of his own anyway!!)
Bernie was switched to a wide right role for this game and looked even more
threatening than before and the Yetis created a few excellent chances. Porl,
now in his favoured "sniffer" role, squandered a few opportunities to put
the game out of Wolves' reach, failing to put away a hatful of chances
(ultimately resulting in a gilt-edged invitation sent from the management
containing the words "You are cordially invited to score at your earlier
convenience. Love, the Management" - but, to no avail). Darren, having
handed his notebook duties to Neil and John Vale (who had come up from
Derbyshire just to support us), took a tumble in the box but no penalty was
given. To be honest, I was so far away from the action (desperately trying
to get my legs and brain to communicate with one another), I couldn't
honestly say whether we were hard-done by or not.
Out of all the games I'd played, I found this the hardest, not necessarily
because of the opposition but because, by then, I was running on empty with
my legs decidely wibbly-wobbly and my eyes going all squiffy due to the fact
I had eaten bugger all for 17 hours! It was also a little bit more physical
and quite a bit faster than I would have liked but I did my best to keep up,
honest guv.
Anyway after what felt like a lifetime, the game was finally concluded and
the 0-0 draw was sufficient to earn us a semi-final place against the
victors of Group B, and ultimate champions, Bradford City.
Final group positions and results:
Group A
Huddersfield Town 2 Leicester City 1
Huddersfield Town 1 Wolves 0
Leicester City 0 Wolves 0
..............................P W D L F A GD Pts
Huddersfield Town..2 2 0 0 3 1 +2 6
Leicester City..........2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Wolves....................2 0 1 1 0 1 -1 1
And just for interest, here's the results from Group B
Group B
Bradford City 1 Stockport County 0
Bradford City 2 Colchester Utd 1
Stockport Co 0 Colchester Utd 0
.........................P W D L F A GD Pts
Bradford City......2 2 0 0 3 1 +2 6
Colchester Utd...2 0 1 1 1 2 -1 1
Stockport Co......2 0 1 1 0 1 -1 1
