My Greatest Leicester Goal: Super Steve sinks Leeds (April 2009)
In the last six or seven years there have been some incredible Leicester goals, in both quality and context.
Tielemans in the FA Cup Final, Vardy vs Liverpool, Albrighton vs Sevilla.
In reality, one of those probably takes the accolade as my favourite ever Leicester goal, but allow me to bring a bit of nostalgia by talking about the goal that held the position for the best part of a decade.
Super Stevie Howard.
It’s 2009. The landscape for Leicester City simply could not be more alien to where we are now. The Foxes have just endured one of the darkest seasons in the club’s long history and find themselves outside the top two divisions for the first time in 125 years.
As a fan, I had grown up in the O’Neill era. Trips to Wembley, European nights, Izzet, Heskey, Walsh and Elliot. My old man regularly warning me that “it’s not always like this”, and how right he was.
Into my teens the football was somewhat different. Our descent from Premier League top 10, to yo-yo club, to simply Championship nothingness was rapid and unforgiving. Eventually the Royal Blue was being worn by Alan Rogers, Elvis Hammond, Barry Hayles and Jamie Clapham. Relegation, when it eventually arrived, was devastating.
A 0-0 draw away at Stoke (I will still to this day never understand why we waited until the 85th minute to make a change) was enough to seal our fate, and provide the proverbial cherry on top of what had been a torrid time to be a Leicester fan.
Despite all expectation, that season in League One reminded us all that football could actually be fun. A new manager, who ironically had kept his Southampton side up at our expense, joined the club and set about refreshing the squad. The likes of Gareth McAuley, Richard Stearman and Iain Hume all left to be replaced by relative unknowns such as Michael Morrison, Lloyd Dyer and, incredibly, Aleksander Tunchev for £850,000. They were joined by the experienced Chris Powell, Leicester legend Paul Dickov and a host of Premier League loanees.
Despite only four league losses all season and holding on to first place since November, the game against Leeds arrived with Leicester having not yet secured an instant return to the Championship, but knowing that just two wins from their remaining four games would be enough. Leeds, on the other hand, were fighting hard for a play-off place, looking to bounce back at the second time of asking.
A season-high crowd of around 25,000 welcomed the players to the pitch, with a genuine sense of anticipation. Despite not being mathematically significant, the general feeling was that if Leicester could come through this game, then that was it. We had won just one of the previous four, including a loss to Peterborough and a late draw at home against Carlisle. Given what we had seen from City in the preceding years, not a single thing was being taken for granted.
The crowd were up for it. Leeds, as always, brought a good following and played their part in creating a fantastic atmosphere, something that had been sorely missed at the then Walkers Stadium. You felt that the players were all too aware of the significance of the game. Up until this point in the campaign Leicester had played with real freedom and attacking verve. Leicester finished the season with a goal difference of +45, scoring four in a game on five separate occasions. This game, however, was one of few real openings.
In reality Leeds could have opened the scoring, David Stockdale mistiming a punch on to his own bar, but in the end, it took a moment of quality from one of our key players to win the game.
Leicester won a corner in the 92nd minute and sent all the big lads forward. Leeds, of course, packed the box. Max Gradel delivered an out-swinger from the right into what is commonly referred to as “the mixer”, the ball perfectly placed about 8 yards from goal. And there, arriving from outside the box was the man who personified everything that team was about. Steve Howard, a big man full of heart, grit and deceptive quality rose over his man and placed an inch-perfect header into the top corner. Andy Robinson was on the post but it didn’t matter. The ball almost grazed the bar on its way in.
What followed was delirium. Scenes in the stands, scenes on the pitch. To use a modern term: limbs.
Nigel Pearson, usually calm and stoic in his approach, mimicked the header before celebrating wildly with his coaching staff on the bench.
My dad and I celebrated madly with those around us (except my Leeds-supporting school mate who had joined us for the game who could only clap, somehow, furiously).
I suppose the question is: “yeah, sure we get that it was important, but why is this one of your favourite ever goals?”
Because as cliché as it sounds, you really felt it was significant. That it was the beginning of something special. Away from the moment, away from the fact it was a 92nd minute winner against a club like Leeds, I could believe that this team could really do something.
Of course, the real pinnacle was to follow several years later, but was this goal one that set us on that path?
