Doing a December double over Derby may have offered Leicester fans some festive cheer but it is unlikely to brook the longstanding resentment against a board whose treatment of staff over Christmas has only exacerbated ill will at the King Power Stadium.
First-half goals from Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Jordan James sandwiched Rhian Brewster’s equaliser to earn manager Martí Cifuentes some respite after successive defeats. Leicester are four points off the playoff zone ahead of Thursday’s visit to in-form Sheffield United.
It took until the 15th minute for the disenchanted Leicester fans to start chanting ‘sack the board’ and ‘we want [technical director Jon] Rudkin out’ by which stage both teams had scored. By the time Jordan James gave Leicester the lead four minutes before the interval, the home crowd barely knew whether to cheer or jeer.
Scrooge would have struggled to make a worse job of managing staff morale at Christmas than Leicester. Non-player wages were due to be paid on 19 December before an email on the 18th from interim managing director Kamonthip Netthanomsak ‘regrettably’ informed staff they were being deferred until new year’s eve. The atmosphere at the Christmas party was said to be “foul”. Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has not been present at a game for some while so his pleas for club and fans to come together at this challenging time have not gone down well.
They seem to be able to win the big games – such as against Ipswich, and at the previous East Midlands derby at Pride Park three weeks ago – but then lose twice to drop back into mid-table. So it is not surprising home supporters’ spirits oscillate more than a chocolate-giddy child halfway through the festive period. They were up when De Cordova-Reid sidefooted home in the sixth minute, after bright spark Abdul Fatawu beat Callum Elder to cross from the right wing; and down again when Derby equalised, Rhian Brewster converting Elder’s cross from the left, in a mirror image of the opening goal, after good work from Patrick Agyemang.
Leicester still have a sprinkling of Premier League quality, demonstrated when Stephy Madividi invited Oliver Skipp to punch in a first-time pass for Luke Thomas to control, spin and volley wide. But Cifuentes, the manager who succeeded Ruud van Nistelrooy in the summer, claims to still be working through legacy problems from before his appointment, and that is before a potential points deduction kicks in for spending breaches from two years ago.
Top-scoring from the centre of midfield, James looks Leicester’s best player. The Wales international scored his seventh league goal of the season when he ran onto Thomas’s channel ball, nonchalantly shrugged off Liam Thompson and steered the ball past Jacob Zetterström.
Derby had responded to their 3-1 home drubbing by Leicester earlier this month by going four games unbeaten before this match. They are doughty under John Eustace, and, with no little quality acquired in the summer transfer window, look far more resilient than when fighting relegation this time last year. They had won five successive games before losing 10-goal Carlton Morris to a serious ankle that has ruled him out until February.
Derby threatened an equaliser when Bobby Clark got in down the inside-left channel but saw his right-foot shot blocked behind for a corner. Leicester, already missing the injured Boubakary Soumaré and with Harry Winks seemingly on his way out of the club, lost both Hamza Choudhury, filling in at right-back, and Aaron Ramsey, four minutes after coming on as a substitute, to further injuries.
But they finished the game in the ascendancy, with Zetterström, the Derby goalkeeper, spectacularly tipping over a headed intervention from Ebou Adams, his own captain. With reports of a fan protest being planned for next Monday’s televised game with West Brom, however, these are difficult times for the side relegated seven months ago from a Premier League they won less than 10 years ago.
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