Waghorn's Resurrection
Jamie Barnard on how Martyn Waghorn's return to form is like having a new signing for Leicester City...
Reflection and recollection. The annual Remembrance
fixture at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium evokes poignant memories of
those that have gone before, sacrifices made. Lest we forget.
But stood in silence, encircling whitewash from
which an incomparable and insignificant battle will imminently commence, eleven
royal blue shirts flutter in the breeze of a crisp November afternoon only chilled
further by frosty receptions afforded to ancient foes.
The age-old enemy, Nottingham Forest, back to
re-commence hostilities. What was a gulf war last season only in the glaring
monetary inequalities created by Leicester City’s free-spending Thai investors,
is now evened by the levelling forces of Forest’s wealthy Kuwaiti benefactors
the Al Hasawis.
With a poppy embroidered upon his bust and his
heart adorning his sleeve, Martyn Waghorn stands as former glory personified. An
armistice with injury demons and poor form Waghorn’s newfangled saving grace from
a nightmare two years.
With Christmas fast approaching, a glimmer in
Waghorn present of Waghorn past.
Not much stood still at Leicester City in the
whirlwind two seasons of flux which succeeded Nigel Pearson’s departure from
his position as commander-in-chief, but Waghorn well and truly stagnated.
Callously discarded by Sven Goran Eriksson as a flurry of strikers were
enlisted in his place, Waghorn was shell-shocked. Bednar, Yakubu, Kamara,
Beckford. With varying success they came, with varying inevitability they left.
From darling of the terrace to no man’s land,
Waghorn went missing in action. One of those peculiar breed, the confidence
player, Waghorn needs to be loved. A North-Eastern grafter with that touch of
class, Waghorn will give to the cause but craves love in return. However, if
adulation were the currency in which Waghorn was dealing, shares plummeted and
he was declared bankrupt.
The essence of Waghorn ebbed away. Paired up front with debutant Jeff Schlupp in
a League Cup game against Rotherham, never plainer was Waghorn’s demise than in
the stark contrast as chances came and passed him by, whilst Schlupp’s rising
star was illuminated with a superb inaugural hat-trick. An untimely and
unwelcome ceasefire.
To the Eriksson cause he became a conscientious
objector and to be allied with Pearson once more at Hull City offered
salvation.
Now such times are but a distant nightmare. His
game still bears the marks of post traumatic stress disorder, there endure the
scars of his battles, at chances he has snatched and opportunities have been
spurned, but to regeneration we are bared. Encouraging displays at Watford and
Bolton preceded Waghorn’s remembrance fixture against Forest. A prominent
figure in a 2-2 draw in that match, The Last Post was not to sound for Waghorn’s
Leicester City career just yet.
But he needed a goal, ‘that goal’, any goal. And
fast forward seven days from that draw Waghorn hit the fifth in a six-goal
demolition of Ipswich at The King Power Stadium. Relief emanated stadium-wide
and the reaction of Waghorn’s joyous team mates displayed an empathetic
comprehension of their comrade’s struggles. A spring in his step. Fire in that
famished belly. Waghorn was, Waghorn is, back from the dead.
To reclaim that tag of clinical marksman he must
now score more. As poppies bloom and shed their seed, so must Waghorn shed the
nuances that have halted a career which once looked so potentially glorious.
The price of greatness is responsibility and Waghorn must now, by maintaining
his scoring touch, shoulder the burden that has too often betrayed Nigel
Pearson’s side: an inability to convert their chances.
Of late, bemoaned has been the lack of a new striker
amongst Pearson’s troops but, in the air of optimism surrounding the
re-emergence of Waghorn, such grumbles will evaporate. Because to have back the
Waghorn that lay broken on the wet turf of The Cardiff City Stadium two and a half years ago, on an
evening which brought closure to an outstanding season for both Leicester City
and Waghorn individually, is akin to having a new signing. Remembered it should
be that, in that play-off season, he earned the club’s Young Player of the Year
award with twelve league goals.
And if this season is the one for Waghorn to
expunge the tyranny of his personal demons, then he will hope to eradicate another
of his former torments. Martyn Waghorn has won his personal battle, now he must
help Leicester City win the promotion war.
Credit top and bottom images Alex Hannam via Flickr
Credit middle image hst43077 via Flickr
