Leicester City v Huddersfield Town

Leicester City v Huddersfield Town
Tuesday 1st January 2013 at 3pm, The King Power Stadium

…"We’re playing Wednesday, Saturday and Tuesday - there will probably be a bit of rotation around the squad. Whatever team we put out will be put out to win the game"…
Simon Grayson 28th December 2012

The Manager

Nigel Pearson is currently in his second spell as manager of Leicester City, having previously managed Hull City, Southampton and Carlisle United. Pearson had a falling out with Milan Mandaric, after Mandaric had showed a consortium of potential club buyers round the club without Pearson's permission and invited Paulo Sousa to the second leg of the play-off semi final. He then left Leicester to take the job at Hull City and Paulo Sousa was later appointed as his successor. After Mandaric and Hoos had departed the club, Pearson was persuaded to rejoin Leicester City under their new ownership by chairman Vichai Raksriaksorn and after days of negotiations he was finally re-appointed as manager on 15 November 2011.

The Opposition

Leicester were founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse, playing on a field near Fosse Road. They moved to Filbert Street in 1891 and played there for 111 years, before relocating to the nearby Walkers Stadium in 2002. The club have only spent one season outside the top two tiers of English football. Leicester City reached the FA Cup final for the first time in their history in 1949, losing 3–1 to Wolves. Some well known past players and managers have been, Gordon Banks, Gary Lineker, Martin O'Neill, Gary Megson, Ian Holloway and Matty Fryatt.

Leicester's main rivals are Nottingham Forest and Derby County. However, despite being based in the West Midlands, Leicester's other rivals in more recent years have been Coventry City, who are based just 24 miles away. The game between the two clubs has become known as the 'M69 derby' taking its name from the motorway connecting the two cities.

Leicester have long been an established football club, their league status is pretty impressive!

English first tier (currently Premier League)
Runners-up (1): 1928–29

English second tier (currently Football League Championship)
Champions (6): 1924–25, 1936–37, 1953–54, 1956–57, 1970–71, 1979–80
Runners-up (2): 1907–08, 2002–03
Play-off Winners (2): 1993–94, 1995–96

English third tier (currently Football League One)
Champions (1): 2008–09

Their cup fortunes have been pretty good, they may have not won the FA Cup, they have had success elsewhere.

FA Cup
Runners-up (4): 1949, 1961, 1963, 1969

Football League Cup
Winners (3): 1964, 1997, 2000
Runners-up (2): 1965, 1999

FA Charity Shield
Winners (1): 1971

Danny Drinkwater, who now plys his trade for Leicester, had a loan period at Town. He impressed some, but for others, he was another average midfielder getting first team experience for another club.

Recent Form

Town DDD Leicester City LDW

Who would like to predict the result of this match? Town's form is still patchy, but Leicester's is hardly fantastic. Another draw, or another great away performance from Town, who knows?