cary hill

So England get to play against the enigmatic but energetic Ukrainians in the QFs. I would have preferred the stolid rigid Swedes (it would have been easier for Southgate's negative match strategies) but I suppose playing the Ukraine means that perhaps we won't get another predictable dull match. Mind you if England want to win the match they may have to muster more shots than the measly five they have managed in each of the last two matches - one shot every eighteen minutes - pathetic really and just shows how poor the Germans were today to concede two goals from five shots.

I suspect that Southgate's work is nearly done based on the evidence of the first two Group games. He has finally managed to suck the players dry of any willingness to take to any risks during matches with his paranoid risk averse approach to every match. It's quite a feat to manage to come a very poor second best in a "Home" match against a team with three Championship players, a Motherwell journeyman, two out-of-position centre backs and a 20 year old making his first international start.

No idea why the Scottish keeper was pressing the centre circle..........

Yes indeed it was great to actually attend a match in person for first time March 9 2020, on only my second visit to Covid Central {a.k.a. Leicester) since then. Despite it being a bit of an ersatz experience in many ways the match did provide a tantalising twenty-five minute window of Champions League qualification, until last week's hero (Schmeichel) turned into a zero by punching the ball into his own net to deflate the home crowd and turn the game on it's head for the last 15 minutes. Still never mind I did catch a glimpse of the F.A. Cup which had eluded Leicester for 137 years until a week ago and hopefully I've seen the last Harry Kane for Spurs against us. He's never forgiven us (Nigel Pearson) for sticking him on the left wing or the bench during his brief loan spell at Leicester. Falling at the very last hurdle for a second successive season hurts but finishing fifth, winning F.A.Cup for the first time and playing in Europe in successive seasons for the first time - it's not been that bad a season really.

Well that's Leicester City's F.A. Cup Final bogey finally put to rest. Rubbish game apart from the winning goal but I don't care. A big thank you to Schmeichel's strong hand and that Nice Mr. VAR too.

Even if we don't win another game this season I still think getting one more point than last season, staying in top four for so long and reaching an F.A. Cup Final for the first time in 52 years counts as a good season on the whole, especially considering that the squad has been ravaged by injuries ever since the season began. I was just looking at first team appearances this season - I think we have played 49 or 50 games this season and only 2 "first pick" players have played more than 40 games and most of the other first team regulars have played around 30 games or so. Justin, Barnes ,Fofana, Soyuncu, Maddison, Pereira, Ndidi and Castagne have all missed a dozen or more games because of injury this season. Sometimes you just have to accept that you don't have the same resources as the "Big Boys" or we wouldn't have to play Vardy, Maddison and Pereira when none of them is match fit. On balance I think I prefer this Leicester team, which is at least challenging for the Top Six, to the mediocre or poor teams of previous decades when not being relegated was considered a successful season.

With three Leicester City "rejects" likely to feature in the ECL Final I'm not sure which team to "support". Mahrez and Kante both seem to be "on fire" at the moment and are reminding me of their exploits for Leicester City in the 2015/16 season. All in all it speaks well of Leicester's scouting, recruitment and development policies as Kante and Mahrez cost just over £6M for the pair of them and Chilwell nothing. The really pleasing thing is that not only have we banked some large transfer fees but we have managed to replace them with the likes of Ndidi, Maddison and Castagne for "sensible" fees.

Meanwhile in the parochial real world of football Leicester City continue to give hope that "a cat fox may look a king" and continue to annoy the "fat cat" six. Who would have thought that playing two strikers due to continuing injury and fitness concerns would pay dividends in the modern game. A seven point buffer in the race for Champions League qualification places with 5 games to go - all against teams we have beaten in a competitive match this season - Southampton, Newcastle, Man. Utd. , Chelsea and Tottenham - I wonder.....perhaps the wheels won't fall off like last season. At least we've got very decent owners who have barely put a foot wrong and taken nothing out of the club during their 10 year tenure..... not that there is that much to take out of the club.

Interesting that the owners of the four clubs supposedly still up for ESL are Americans and a Bahamian tax exile. It's no wonder that they favour a Yankee style zero jeopardy franchise type of arrangement for ESL as the cash cow can be milked forever.

BBC reporting that Chelsea want to withdraw from the ESL........... and now Manchester City........

A bit unfair as Leeds reached the Semi-Final in 2001 but Mr Risibledale wasted some of the cash windfall on tropical fish upkeep amongst other financial oddities at the time. An interesting fact from our local paper - apparently 19 clubs not invited to/included in the proposed ESL have reached a CL Quarter-Final since Arsenal last managed that mighty feat. Just more evidence that the new league should be called the EFL - European Fatcats League - but I already knew that.

Yeah Thailand must be only the Asian country where Leicester are even slightly "big" due the owners being Thai.

"Football is nothing without armchair fans in China and Asia watching it on subscription and streaming platforms" as Sir Matt Busby would never have said......

Frank Worthington RIP - a Leicester City legend - I used to look forward to Saturday afternoons at Filbert Street in the seventies as you never knew what he might try. A great pity he never won more England caps - but unfortunately he was at the peak of his powers when that negative barsteward Revie took over the England manager's job and set English International football back ten years by packing the team with dullard workhorses and suppressing any individuality.

Typical of Leicester City to awaken from nearly forty years of F.A. Cup slumber and get at least one trip to Wembley when hardly any real fans can attend. Still quite an accomplished demolition job albeit of a rather jaded Man Utd this evening. Not complaining though as I think tonight's win is only our 2nd win over Man Utd in 25 attempts.

Well I didn't see that coming - Leicester City 3 Liverpool 1 - Leicester playing like drains for 70 minutes and somehow limiting Liverpool to just the one goal and suddenly Leicester switch on and score 3 goals in seven minutes and could have had a 4th in that period. Liverpool seem to have a problem defending after 70 minutes of a game - three goals conceded between the 78th minute and 85th minute today and three goals conceded between the 73rd and 83rd minute last Sunday - 6 goals conceded in 17 minutes of play!!! P.S. we still managed to defend reasonably well with three of our four first pick defenders out injured but all you hear about is Liverpool's defensive problems....zzzzzzzz

He's been too busy assembling my 16XX to indulge in any equine pursuits.

I seem to have acquired my first cut and shut locomotive. I can just about live with concealing the rear bunker "seam" with the fire irons and tools etc but not very keen on the notch along the bunker top. On the plus side it is weighty and runs seamlessly............

The Bachmann pannier model doesn't look like the ideal starting point for a P4 conversion

Well that was much easier than expected thanks to Spurs shooting themselves in the foot. Quite surprised we mustered 17 goal attempts to Tottenham's 8. A collectors item for Leicester fans - a rare game where Harry Kane doesn't score at least once against us, although he looked oddly cumbersome this afternoon for some reason. Still I'll take 2nd place in the Prem at Christmas for a second successive season, despite being totally inconsistent and fielding a makeshift defence so far this season. It remains to be seen whether a better fist can be made of things post Christmas than last season but with several players coming back from injury and with bit of consistency who knows?

Robin you should get this version of V2 60845 cunningly disguised with an "improved" front end: Seen here on test near Swindon with a mere 610 tons in tow and apparently there is another photo somewhere showing it pulling 25 coaches with a weight of 762 tons. I wonder what the new model will pull....

"I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!"

Well that was an unexpected bonus with a patched up line up - Manchester City 2 Leicester City 5 (FIVE)!!!!!! Only seven shots, all on target, by Leicester all match and 28% possession. Leicester City seem to have cracked the code for beating Manchester City with minimal possession, and have set a quite a few records today re Guardiola managed teams - Vardy the only player to have 2 hat tricks against Guardiola teams, first time a Guardiola team has conceded 5 goals etc etc Jamie Vardy seems to be getting better(more efficient?) with age with only 15 touches to score a hat trick Manchester City clearly there for the taking if you have the courage to attack them with pace as they appear to have no clue when it comes to fair tackling in their own penalty area. Postscript: I've just listened to Guardiola's post match moaning.......".Leicester had no intention of playing football". I'm not sure how you score 5 goals, including winning three stonewall penalties, scoring a delightful back heeled goal and 20 yard rocket with no intention of playing football.

It's official then Leicester City are Chelsea's "feeder" club , but will Ben Chilwell be on a Kante or Drinkwater trajectory now he's at Chelsea? Just as well we started to blood a very promising youngster during the Covidball short season just ended.

So the long lost missing sections of Herr Hitler's Atlantic Wall finally turn up on Dawlish Beach........ That new seawall looks to be a particularly fine example of 21st century "brutalist" construction, but I suppose it is entirely necessary as Mother Nature can be pretty brutal too when the mood takes her.