F.A. Youth Cup 4th Round
Friday 14th January 2022
Kick Off 19.00 Actual 19.04
Leicester City U18 1 Crewe Alexandra U18 0, attendance 448
90’ 1-0
@ Leicester City F.C. Training Ground, Stadium Pitch
Park Hill Lane
Seagrave
LE12 7NG
£3 Admission, plus £1-50 booking fee, Print at Home Ticket
Team Sheet, free.
I was surprised to see last Sunday that tickets for this game had gone on general sale. It was the perfect opportunity to visit the club’s brand new training facility and guarantee that the game would be played on the Stadium Pitch here, which has a 499 seat stand. Apparently there were 448 tickets available for the match and they had all sold by Wednesday evening. As with the training grounds of most Premier League clubs theses days, it is an impressive set up, which along with numerous other pitches, there is also a full size indoor one as well. It is a far cry from their Belvoir Drive Training Ground in Aylestone, where I saw their U18 side draw 1-1 versus Birmingham City, in a Midland Youth League match back on 19th September 1992.
It was advertised that there was limited parking at the site, but on arrival at 17.45, it was clear this wasn’t the case and there were plenty of spaces and everything was well organised. The only problem there would be tonight was the weather. It was very foggy and there were doubts that the game would reach the ninety minute mark, let alone extra time and possibly penalties. It certainly looked bleak approaching halftime, as the fog began to descend again, but thankfully, it started to lift early in the second half.
The first half wasn’t great. Crewe hit the crossbar early on and Leicester never looked like scoring. The second half improved. If there was to be a breakthrough, then it was the hosts that looked to be the more likely to achieve it, especially as they piled on the pressure in the last 15 minutes. The winner came with just 57 seconds of normal time remaining. Joe Wormleighton flicked the ball over one defender, then beat a second, before playing the ball across the 6 yard box for Jack Butterfill to net the winner. What a relief. I certainly didn’t fancy having to watch another half hour of what had been a poor game overall.
