Leicester City Men Firsts Off To A Winning Start

New season and a new division for Leicester City Mens 1s.

We welcomed a new look side including a couple of De Montfort University students to the first game of the league season and the first home game at St Margaret's Pastures.

Leicester unfortunately went into the game slightly depleted waiting on a number of registrations and transfers to go through but as a result had a good sideline presence.

The start of the game was all Leicester pressure and excellent passing triangles allowed Leicester to work the ball forward for David to score the first goal of the season after 15 minutes.

The pressure continued with a number of short corner opportunities and a variety of routines tried but still no second goal. The debate continues but from the sideline it looked like David did a job for the defence taking the ball off the line to send it wide rather than secure the second goal! More short corner opportunities with Declan finding a defensive foot and a routine back to Nic at injector just went wide of the near post.

Leicester continued to step high and move the ball well, eventually finding David to deflect the ball into the back of the goal, 2-0. Mo and David continued to cause havoc up front with high runs moving the defenders around and creating space for Karl, Dec, Ross and Jacob to attack in numbers.

With confidence growing half backs Henry, Luke and Conor enjoyed spells working the ball forward up the line and working hard to link up with the midfield and forward lines.

A positive half time talk to do more of the same, build the momentum and knowing more goals would come.

Two short corners went begging early in the half due to miscommunication and Warwick were given a chance to get back into the game when a ball struck Boycie's foot in the D. Luke made a spectacular goal line save on the left post and the momentum shifted back in Leicester's favour.

Karl went on another great forward run tearing the Warwick midfield apart and laid the ball off for Jacob to slap goal bound on the first touch but was well saved by the defensive team.

The third goal finally came from sustained pressure in the D and a great touch on the back post by James. Warwick continued to fight back and challenge the defence but the team held strong and defence was turned into another attack. Luke drove forward up the left sideline, a good one-two from Jacob in midfield set Luke up to carry the ball into the D where he slotted the ball home from a narrow left hand angle for his first goal since joining the club last year.

Nic and Boycie had a great centre back partnership all game to mop up any Warwick attacks and recycle the ball forwards, both getting involved in attacking play and communicating well with the rest of the team. Conor enjoyed a spell up front, a little different to his usual half back position and Ross, James and Declan easily swapped around the midfield positions getting stuck in and showing real confidence in both defence and attack.

Warwick continued to fight until the final whistle and earned themselves a late penalty corner and put it on a foot for a second on the final whistle. With all the squad up around the D the Henry fought hard and a strong clearance from Spencer kept the Leicester clean sheet and saw the game finish 4-0. The scoreline could easily have been 8/9-0 but Leicester can be pleased with the performance and the attacking opportunities they created.

Thanks to Spencer for stepping into goal and give a confident performance on his Leicester City debut. Leicester City player of the match went to Karl who worked really hard to create a lot of attacking opportunities but who didn't get score himself!

Squad: Conor, Daryl, David, Declan, Henry, Jacob (Debut), James, Karl, Luke, Mo S. (Debut), Nic, Ross and Spencer (Debut - GK)