Run Of The Mill

Run Of The Mill

Jamie Barnard on how defeat at The Den for Leicester City exposed midfield deficiencies which could threaten their promotion bid...

 

Let em come, let em come, let em come, we’ll only have to beat em again. Well Leicester City came, and Leicester City were beaten. Again.

Recent history tells you that ‘The Den’ has been anything but a happy hunting ground for The Foxes, fresh in the memory resides the excruciatingly postponed nail in the coffin of last season so ruthlessly hammered in place circa mid-April in South Bermondsey. As hope sprung more ephemeral than eternal, for a fleeting moment those speculative ‘what ifs’ inhabited the creative mind of Leicester City fantasists. Such misconceived optimism habitual in its nature for a Leicester City fan.

But with admission to The Lion’s Den came a reality check, complimentary in price if not delivery from those lining the terraces to watch their tribal ‘Wall’. Leicester were soundly beaten 2-1. Turned over, out-fought, mugged off. Their season was ended the Millwall way, promotion hopes were evanescent.

To the Millwall fan, the footballing pleasures be simple. Honesty, commitment and effort. Base requirements and the essential building blocks of a team fit for the shift, fit for the shirt. In each of these areas Pearson’s side, if at that time only in name and not in nature, were left wanting. Glaring deficiencies highlighted in the stark contrasts to their adversaries.

Perennial underdogs, at Millwall Kenny Jackett has built a side with a bite every bit as bad as their bark. Just nine months on from that conquering of Leicester at The Den the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. From hunting pack to promotion pack, Jackett’s men have flirted with the play-offs so strongly they look odds on to secure a date. From overpaid and underperforming, Nigel Pearson has built a team that on its day can beat any other in the division. Yet last Saturday Leicester were the latest to join the line of teams sent packing from The Den.

Déjà vu.

Whimsical, thoughtless, sterile. When Millwall took the battle to Leicester the response was as chilling as the December wind from Cold Blow Lane. Leicester withered. As the trademark vitriol rolled from the stands of the Millwall end, in the Leicester one the same question resounded countless times: where is Leicester City’s midfield enforcer?

Neat and tidy, at times Andy King and Danny Drinkwater can be two of the finest midfielders outside of The Premiership. In the scrap at The Den, they were afforded neither the time nor space to display such talents. When a midfield battle ensues, too often have they displayed a tendency to go to ground; not in the tackling sense. Give them possession and they are supreme, give them altercation and they are subdued. It is in times like these that Pearson needs that extra midfield dimension.

Cast into the shadows, the forgotten man, sent on loan to Bristol City, the name of Neil Danns has not been heard with such regularity since the post-match dissections of the Burton Albion League Cup horror show during which he was woeful. Later speaking on Danns’ absence from the team, Nigel Pearson reiterated the importance of togetherness, desire, professionalism and commitment. The implication was that Danns had displayed none. 

 

A man more likely to keep a congratulatory tweet than the ball, more likely to record a song for YouTube than a match-winning display, Danns is not the answer to Pearson’s problem. Energy he may have, right may be the things that he says online or in a paper, but when it comes down to it, with Neil Danns the end product is invariably flattery with a penchant for deception.

So to January Pearson must now look, and top of the bill must be a central midfielder wretched by nature but with the influence to help City win in his image. Leicester have to start winning ugly if they are to contend for the automatic promotion spots. Recent form has seen Leicester slip from the summit of the table down into the promotion pack through a propensity to play the intricate football that has seen them dominate opponents this season.

At times Leicester City have been unplayable, but in the heat of the battle at Millwall they melted again. A midfield general to master the battles that will win Leicester City the promotion war is all that Nigel Pearson wants this Christmas.

Standing Up To Be Counted

Standing Up To Be Counted

Jamie Barnard on how MPs vote on safe-standing presents football with an opportunity to move forward...

 

“Standing should never, ever come back. I do not think there is anything safe about standing”. They were the words of one woman, Margaret Aspinall, mother of Hillsborough victim James Aspinall. Few words, uttered by one woman, yet representative of the ignorant many. For those opposed to the return of standing at English football matches voices such as Margaret Aspinall carry the torch with no light.

This week the Football Supporter’s Federation hope to gain support from MPs for a small-scale trial of safe-standing at Premier League clubs. That’s the backing of MPs for a trial period of people being able to freely watch a football match stood on their feet rather than anchored in a plastic seat.

Safe-standing is the elephant in football’s room.

No-one is willing to talk about safe-standing but football supporters are beginning to stir. The elephant is becoming restless. In the dawning of the commercialisation of football with its soaring ticket prices, goal music and penchant for experience over atmosphere, out of the despair comes promise in the form of thirteen clubs backing this pilot scheme.

By no means a monumental number of The Football League’s ninety-two clubs, but nonetheless a start, safe-standing is at least now on the agenda twenty three years on from the horrors of Hillsborough.

Headway, albeit slow.

That English football move to all-seater stadia was a recommendation made in The Taylor Report which followed that tragedy in Sheffield in April 1989. In the twenty-three years that has passed since that report was published the face of English football has changed and, brandished unsafe, the terracing once found in football stadiums across the country has now become a rarity. In Peterborough’s London Road home, there remains just one ground in the top two tiers of English football with terracing.

For those wishing its return, the campaign for the re-introduction of standing at football matches in England has favoured progress over protest. Persuasive, considered, respectful. The argument for safe-standing is built on evidence not assumption, logic not speculation. Real, tangible working examples of how stadiums may be safely transformed are in existence, there to be tested and now here to be discussed.

Over in Germany ‘The Old Enemy’ are now safe-standing’s closest of allies. Every week at Bundesliga fixtures thousands of fans safely stand whilst watching matches. No incidents, no tragedies and a supremely favourable match day experience.

Contrast this to England, where Brighton & Hove Albion FC this month demonstrated quite spectacularly a deficiency in their understanding of their fan base in being the first club to come out against safe-standing: “The club does not support any move for safe standing in football... (on standing areas) a large percentage of the general football watching population are excluded because they would be unable to actually see the pitch. In turn, standing areas create the potential for poor behaviour to go undetected and unresolved.”

A choice.

The choice to choose whether or not to stand when watching football is all that an ever increasing number of football fans desire. A choice given or a choice taken, that will now be determined in Parliament. At every club, including Brighton & Hove Albion FC, fans are already standing in seated areas, speaking with their feet. But MPs now hold the power to give those people the opportunity to stand at matches unperturbed, and in facilities specifically designed for them to do so with railings and assigned positions with fold down seats.

There is nothing inherently dangerous about safe-standing, and this is the point that both Brighton & Hove Albion FC and people such as Margaret Aspinall neglect to see. If MPs back the trial of safe-standing they will not be accountable for a new Hillsborough, they will not burden clubs with the costs of installing compulsory standing areas, they will simply present the opportunity for clubs and fans to develop, through choice, a greater consumer experience together. And modern football after all is increasingly geared towards exactly that; the coveted and ultimate ‘consumer experience’.

In the twenty-three years that have passed since Hillsborough issues have become clouded. Outlawed because of safety concerns, from objectors now come unsubstantiated and speculative cries of costs, impeded views and unacceptable behaviour, all of which only serve to move further away from the point of why football fans are currently forbidden to stand during matches. In search of the truth, through reports, inquests and campaigns for justice we have passed. And now we have the truth: standing at football can be safe.

"There are 96 reasons why it should not be allowed," said Margaret Aspinall on safe-standing. In those who currently, and who would like to continue to, stand at football matches, there are thousands more reasons why it should.