MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE
LEICESTER CITY TEAM
After a hectic and wet summer the long awaited football
season kicked off last Saturday and at last we could get back onto the roller
coaster watching our boys in blue take on Peterborough.
After all the hype and expectation the first half was a bit
of an anti-climax and the team struggled to find any fluency to break down
Peterborough. Although in the second half we did enough to secure the points
without looking troubled and a typical Andy King scorcher sealed the win after
good work from Jamie Vardy. And a fine display from Wes Morgan sealed with a
good goal. All round a good three points to set us up for what we all hope will
be an exciting season ahead.
Watching from the stands I cast my mind back to previous
opening day seasons (and believe me there has been a lot of them) and thought I
would do my next few blogs trying to pick my all-time best Leicester City side.
Easier said than done because I have seen so many players over the years and to
pick just eleven players plus subs is going to be difficult. So here we go
starting off with Number 1
I will only be picking my team from players the club signed
so any loan signings will not be considered.
My first visit to Filbert Street was way back in the late
1950’s and I can remember Dave McLaren
being in goal, since then I have seen some good goalkeepers at Leicester and
even a couple of great ones.
The first goalkeeper that I can truly remember is Gordon Banks, a true great and
Leicester legend. Banks made goalkeeping look easy and his positioning sense
and agility made him England’s Number one goalkeeper, and he was Leicester’s
keeper when England won the world cup in 1966. Gordon Banks played 293 league
games for Leicester 34 FA Cup games (including two finals) 25 League Cup games
and 4 European Cup Winners Cup games. Banks eventually moved to Stoke City in
1967 because of the emergence of a young keeper that was to replace him in the
Leicester City and England team.
Peter Shilton. Shilton was 16 years old when he made
his Leicester City debut and he went on to play 286 league games, 33 FA Cup games,
and 20 League Cup games for Leicester. Shilton was a master between the sticks
and was probably one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, but I remember
him at Leicester making a breath taking save only to concede a goal with a
right howler. But he was that good that you just had to forgive him. And how
can we forget Shilton scoring direct from a kick at Southampton in a 5-1 win.
Anyone of you that can remember watching Gordon
Banks and Peter Shilton play for
Leicester City are truly blessed. It was ironic how Shilton replaced Banks at
City and replaced him in the England team and then replaced him in the Stoke
City team.
Mark Wallington. Wallington can also stake a claim as
a City legend; he replaced Peter Shilton as Leicester’s number one in the 1974
- 75 season after Jimmy Bloomfield sold Shilton to Stoke. Wallington was signed
from Walsall and became number one at Leicester for many years and made 412
league appearances, 25 FA Cup and 23 League Cup.
There have been many other good goalkeepers at Leicester City
over the years but I feel that the best keeper I have seen at Leicester is one
of those three.
Tim Flowers, Ian
Walker, Paul Cooper, Kasey Keller and Ian Andrews, all deserve a mention and
Kasper Schmeichel
will hopefully be up there with the greats one day.
A difficult
decision to make but taking his place as goalkeeper in the “meashamfox”
all-time greats Leicester City team is ------------------------------------------- PETER SHILTON
The new
season is now under way and let us hope that everyone gets behind Nigel Pearson
and the boys and we have an exciting season ahead. Leicester till I die
