MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE LEICESTER CITY TEAM

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