Loud and Proud!

For the first time in a very long time, there was actually an atmosphere at the Walkers Stadium against Aston Villa on Tuesday. Over 27,000 fans were in the stadium and for 120 minutes the fans made their voices heard.

Leicester have now been in the Walkers Stadium for the last 5 seasons and yet there are still some fans that do not feel settled in the stadium. They like to reminisce about the old days at Filbert Street when there was a 'real` atmosphere and the away supporters were situated next to the kop. Allowing for banter between the two sets of fans to liven up so games.

However, the game against Villa showed that the fans can create a good atmosphere in the stadium. Although the way in which Leicester approached the game against Aston Villa on Tuesday probably helped increase the atmosphere. City were missing several key players and yet the team still gave 100%. The majority of football fans will always leave the ground happy if they know their team have given 100% and City fans made sure that the players knew that they were right behind them.

This was epitomised by the Leicester crowd standing up and clapping the players when Villa scored their third in the last minute of extra time. Several City players had dropped to the floor when Gabriel Agbonlahor scored and it was clear they were all gutted to have lost it at the end. The fans needed to show the players that the result didn`t matter, although the fans would have liked to get one over Martin O`Neill it was more important to show the players that the fans appreciated that they had given everything, but in the end they just ran out of luck.

Last Saturday Leicester drew against Crystal Palace, with Peter Taylor once again returning to the club. Even though the majority of Leicester fans despise Taylor, there was still a lack of atmosphere compared to Tuesday night. There were more fans at the Crystal Palace match but there was nowhere near the same amount as singing or noise in a game, which potentially could have been a cauldron of hate for Taylor.

It`s brings up the age old question, does the team playing good football lead to a good atmosphere or does a good atmosphere lead to the team playing good football?

The next game at home for Leicester will again be under the floodlights against Stoke City on October 31st. The City fans will be hoping that the players can show the same kind of passion and commitment they did against Villa and maybe the players will be thinking the same about the fans.

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