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Leicester City match thread

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  • Tafazolli, Thompson, Gape and Wheeler all missing. Hopefully nothing major ?

  • I was impressed with Scowen, Obita, wakeley, pendlebury and Bayo looked good. Samuel and Kashket both looked sharp. Traillist CB was okay and the other triallists were keen to get involved in attack. The move for the goal from Stewart onwards was excellent. The start of a purple patch for Mr Horgan I hope!

  • Not taking sides @TheAndyGrahamFanClub and appreciate it must have been frustrating but:

    I thought parking in the upper car park was pre-booked these days? (And the limited capacity due to the fireworks well publicised)

    I struggle to imagine that 25 minutes after actual KO (45 minutes after published KO) the traffic jam was still mostly football traffic?

    Personally if I’d been in a car and moved 1/4 mile in 30 minutes and it was 30 minutes to KO I’d have pulled off and perked out the way and walked a mile and a half to the ground.

    But clearly the extent of the traffic problems wasn’t anticipated so hopefully they will learn lessons (which given the likely additional midweek games may be necessary)

  • @ReturnToSenda said:
    Tafazolli, Thompson, Gape and Wheeler all missing. Hopefully nothing major ?

    Indeed. And hopefully we are keeping them all. Would hate to lose any of those four.

  • The catering app seemed to be working. Order placed and a note to the kiosk for it to please be ready at half time. I knew something was wrong when queuing for the food and nobody was walking away with anything hot. Got to the front and the guy said we haven’t got any Vegan burgers. Got my money refunded and had a packet of crisps for dinner.

  • Didn’t attempt the Fetch app after asking the bloke running the kiosk nearest to us in the Family Stand what number it was. He confidently told me “6!”. There was no kiosk 6 on the app.

  • In what was otherwise a very positive night, I'm afraid I absolutely do blame the club for the traffic chaos. I decided not to ride my bike to the game because of the weather forecast and so caught the train. I was lucky with connections and got to Wycombe with loads of time and so decided to walk.

    As soon as I turned off the A40 onto Mill End Road, there was traffic queuing from about 100 metres from the A40. I would guess that it was moving at between half and a quarter normal walking speed.

    When I got to the ground, a car park attendant was talking to the driver of the car at the front of the queue for a full minute. Obviously, people who pre-booked their tickets would have sailed through. But it was very clear that many hadn't and were being turned away at the gate.

    This, surely, was entirely predictable. Many people will not have realised that the car park was now pre-booked only. The club should surely have had half a dozen people in high viz walking up the queue telling those with no bookings to turn back. That would have prevented each one of them taking 30 seconds or even a minute while the car park attendant explained things to each of them individually, while all the time they held up the whole of the queue.

    When you plan a project, you just have to plan for things to go wrong on launch. I would shoot any project manager who did not do so. This was really incredibly bad project management by the club. It didn't affect me, but it must have soured the evening for the many it did.

  • I.must be very rose tinted as their site seemed to think it was an awful game with no chances. I thought it was entertaining and we possibly edged them with regard to chances. Funny old game football innit?

  • The best part of the night for me is the way we played with so much composure against a top Premier League side. We weren’t overawed & did extremely well. I’m massively happy with Stockdale as our no.1 keeper this season.

    The problems with the traffic near the ground seemed to have little to do with the A4010 closure. The parking outside the end factories was blocked by numerous hire vans which were coming in and out. The worst congestion was caused by the people on the gate checking cars against lists because the car park passes hadn’t been mailed out. It took an age to get through, which had a knock-on effect all the way back to the Hour Glass & beyond. The guy who appeared in charge obviously wasn’t & had no idea what chaos was developing down the road. The club need to have a full investigation because this was a P.R. disaster from a “matchday experience” point of view.

  • Not sure the club could have done much about the traffic - it’s been shite for 20+ years and isn’t going to change anytime soon. I do hear the comment about the steward though - he was having deep chats with people on Hillbottom Road and that must have added to the significant delays tonight … I think the days of people rocking up to park outside are sadly gone. Luckily I can walk within 30 mins but it was nice to have the option to get a bit closer when in a rush.
    I thought the stadium looked classy tonight - great job from volunteers - I did my bit over the weekend painting - and the lighting and sound system were great. Even the WiFi was pretty decent. The food / fetch app clearly needs more work. Why there is only one person taking orders & doing the payment when there are 3 hatches makes me mad. Not hard to predict a surge & when it’s likely to happen. Food was ok. Burger a solid 7/10 taste was decent.

  • wi fi was great, we measured 80Mbps download which compares to our home broadband which is 16Mbps.

    Food was overpriced for the cheese burger and the pulled pork burger.

    The team played really well and looked fit, which was great. Bayo had a good game, more touches than Harry Kane at the Euros. We thought the trail lists did well and great to see Josh Scowen back and taking a Roy Keane ‘no prisoners’ approach to the match.

    Traffic was incredibly bad, but we had booked and when we got to the front we were allowed in to park where others were turned away,

  • Regards the traffic which was terrible, there are lessons to be learnt irrespective of how much the closure of the A4010 was to blame. A few I've thought of are :-

    1) The club has to get the message to people that the car park is limited capacity and must be pre-booked in advance. Sadly I think many people will have experienced tonights debacle and may already have decided not to return!
    2) The club has to repeat that message at the end of Hillbottom Rd and the double roundabout by The Hour Glass. How much does it cost to hire a guy with a sandwich board for a couple of hours once a fortnight?
    3) The club has to advertise the new Park & Ride service to reduce the number of cars anywhere near The Hour Glass / Hillbottom Rd. This is especially true of fans of the visiting team fans, who will by default try to park as near the ground as they can unless advised otherwise.
    4) The club has to make better use of the car park marshalls - counted 5? between the guy half way down Hillbottom Rd and the car park. Only the 1st guy was doing anything, it wasn't his fault he had to tell each car it was full BUT why didn't anyone walk back down the queue telling the other cars?

  • I should add that, although we had an upper tier parking pass, we bailed out on Mill End Rd at 7:10 and walked. It took 20 minutes to get to the ground. Why people sat in that queue of traffic for as long as some did I don't know.

  • @Twizz said:
    Regards the traffic which was terrible, there are lessons to be learnt irrespective of how much the closure of the A4010 was to blame. A few I've thought of are :-

    1) The club has to get the message to people that the car park is limited capacity and must be pre-booked in advance. Sadly I think many people will have experienced tonights debacle and may already have decided not to return!
    2) The club has to repeat that message at the end of Hillbottom Rd and the double roundabout by The Hour Glass. How much does it cost to hire a guy with a sandwich board for a couple of hours once a fortnight?
    3) The club has to advertise the new Park & Ride service to reduce the number of cars anywhere near The Hour Glass / Hillbottom Rd. This is especially true of fans of the visiting team fans, who will by default try to park as near the ground as they can unless advised otherwise.
    4) The club has to make better use of the car park marshalls - counted 5? between the guy half way down Hillbottom Rd and the car park. Only the 1st guy was doing anything, it wasn't his fault he had to tell each car it was full BUT why didn't anyone walk back down the queue telling the other cars?

    Twizz I agree with all your observations. It was a real mess. An additional problem was that the two marshalls on the gate were working off about 5 sheets of paper to designate if and where people were allowed to park. Not their fault but it slowed things down considerably as they seemed unsure as to layout. I was told to park in a space which wasn't there. Indeed it didn't exist and like some others had to use my best instincts to find a space. Surely the passes which seem to be late every year should have been sent out beforehand or scanned onto the phone whatever. It was a real mess and should have been forseen by the club. Not a fan experience that I would like to live through again. And what were those rental vans doing there at the gates parked on double yellow lines. Nightmare.
    The club should take note.

  • I thought we played some good football last night and we have the makings of a promotion challenging squad with a Plan A,B,C and more. Well done to Gareth, Dobbo and the Couhigs on the new signings and the improved stadium.

    Talking of plans, I had a fairly stress free drive in and easily found a space at 6.40. Myself and my young son left West Berkshire at 4.45 to see my mum in Flackwell Heath. Arrived at hers at 5.30 and I was already aware of the problems at Handy Cross. We had a quick dinner and decided to leave early due to reports of bad traffic at Handy Cross and Sands. Left Flackwell at 6.20 and used the Sat Nav and my brain to arrive at the Lane End Rd Industrial area at 6.40. Found a sensible and free space immediately and was sat in the Vere by 6.55.

    Did not try the food in the club apart from some chips in the Vere. They were a big improvement on previous offerings but now £3.50, a huge increase on 2019/20. The portion was reasonable and equivalent to the price(£3.45) and size of Five Guys fries at Handy Cross. As a general rule I will now eat at home before leaving for the game and arrive around an hour before kick off for a pint and to meet up with friends. If you have children it’s not easy to say no to extra food at the ground but ultimately everyone has a choice.

    Walking through those gates in to the ground was just the best feeling but was topped off by my 10 year old who seems to have caught the football/Wycombe bug, not having had it 18 months ago.

    Happy days indeed!

  • My thoughts on tonight.
    Okay I know it’s a new thing but not enough people used the park and ride it was £5. I was car 32 and there wasn’t too many parking after me.
    Sam Vokes what a coup.
    Josh looked sharp as did Macca.
    Did I mention the park and ride

  • @MorrisItal_ said:
    My thoughts on tonight.
    Okay I know it’s a new thing but not enough people used the park and ride it was £5. I was car 32 and there wasn’t too many parking after me.
    Sam Vokes what a coup.
    Josh looked sharp as did Macca.
    Did I mention the park and ride

    £5 when they publicised it as £6?

    Did you count the cars or do you get a number on a receipt or something?
    Do all 3 mini coaches go off together at the end of the game?
    If it was well utilised, it could be a right scramble getting on the first ones out, or be faced with waiting 30mins for them to return?

  • I expected to pay £6 but the very chatty guy on the gate said £5 he also told me that I was the 32nd car.
    If it was well utilised it would become a virtuous circle fewer cars on Hillbottom = faster turn around of coaches = more people using it = fewer cars

  • I hope you havnt just got the very chatty guy on the gate the sack for under charging

  • @HolmerBlue said:
    I hope you havnt just got the very chatty guy on the gate the sack for under charging

    No just checked the window ticket and that was printed £5 so he lives to chat another match day

  • @MorrisItal_ said:
    I expected to pay £6 but the very chatty guy on the gate said £5 he also told me that I was the 32nd car.
    If it was well utilised it would become a virtuous circle fewer cars on Hillbottom = faster turn around of coaches = more people using it = fewer cars

    Does the park and ride have the potential for winter mudbath? Also anyone who parked at tbe industrial estate...have prices gone up?

  • Just going back to the game, I thought the trialist centre half that played the 2nd half was absolutely outstanding

  • @Wendoverman said:

    @MorrisItal_ said:
    I expected to pay £6 but the very chatty guy on the gate said £5 he also told me that I was the 32nd car.
    If it was well utilised it would become a virtuous circle fewer cars on Hillbottom = faster turn around of coaches = more people using it = fewer cars

    Does the park and ride have the potential for winter mudbath? Also anyone who parked at tbe industrial estate...have prices gone up?

    Still a fiver in the estate.

    Isn’t the Park and Ride on the wrong side of town?

  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:

    @Wendoverman said:

    @MorrisItal_ said:
    I expected to pay £6 but the very chatty guy on the gate said £5 he also told me that I was the 32nd car.
    If it was well utilised it would become a virtuous circle fewer cars on Hillbottom = faster turn around of coaches = more people using it = fewer cars

    Does the park and ride have the potential for winter mudbath? Also anyone who parked at tbe industrial estate...have prices gone up?

    Still a fiver in the estate.

    Isn’t the Park and Ride on the wrong side of town?

    Depends where you're coming from.
    For the Aylesbury crew, maybe it's perfectly placed.

  • and for those coming down the M40, who can get off a The Mark West Memorial Junction (is that it, @LX1 ?).

  • On the actual football, one thing that struck me is how many options we have.

    I've we're to play 3-5-2, you've got at least 3 players fighting for the 10 spot. You'd think if McCleary's legs don't go he'll be class at this level, hopefully Horgan will find form, and Mehmeti was a huge bright spot of last year.

    Playing in the way we did last night, whipping crosses in at every chance, you have to feel Vokes will have plenty of chances. Think he could really bully the poorer teams in the league.

    I'd like to sign a nippier striker to get in behind against the better teams... especially if Kashket is now a left back (?!)

  • @OakwoodExile said:
    In what was otherwise a very positive night, I'm afraid I absolutely do blame the club for the traffic chaos. I decided not to ride my bike to the game because of the weather forecast and so caught the train. I was lucky with connections and got to Wycombe with loads of time and so decided to walk.

    As soon as I turned off the A40 onto Mill End Road, there was traffic queuing from about 100 metres from the A40. I would guess that it was moving at between half and a quarter normal walking speed.

    When I got to the ground, a car park attendant was talking to the driver of the car at the front of the queue for a full minute. Obviously, people who pre-booked their tickets would have sailed through. But it was very clear that many hadn't and were being turned away at the gate.

    This, surely, was entirely predictable. Many people will not have realised that the car park was now pre-booked only. The club should surely have had half a dozen people in high viz walking up the queue telling those with no bookings to turn back. That would have prevented each one of them taking 30 seconds or even a minute while the car park attendant explained things to each of them individually, while all the time they held up the whole of the queue.

    When you plan a project, you just have to plan for things to go wrong on launch. I would shoot any project manager who did not do so. This was really incredibly bad project management by the club. It didn't affect me, but it must have soured the evening for the many it did.

    This is exactly how we saw it. Cars were queuing for parking they weren’t going to be able to access. Totally pointless.

    There needs to be signage away from the ground stating that the car park is pre book only or something.

    One bloke explaining the same thing on the gate time and again is madness.

  • I'm still struggling to see a place for Freeman going forward. Sticking him at WB was pure experimentation and there's no role (or at least not an obvious one) for him in either of our most likely midfield set-ups.

    More generally speaking, I quite liked the 3-4-3 - it allows us to accommodate an extra one of our numerous excellent wide/10 options - although it will always suffer from its susceptibility to leaving gaping holes between the lines. A box midfield - so more of a 3-4-2-1 akin to Tuchel's Chelsea would be interesting, and we do have players capable of sitting behind the striker who will also track back well enough to remain part of a solid midfield unit. If Vokes is better in a front two, though, then that probably means a move back to 3-4-1-2.

    I think we're still short of a left-footed wide player - ideally one who can also play WB - a quick striker who will also link the play - so I guess not dissimilar to Muskwe - and a centre-back, unless Wakely is seen as first team ready. But we've still got two spots for over 21s - and more for anyone younger - so I'm sure they'll be filled very soon.

    The squad looks almost as strong as last season anyway - it's far stronger than last time we were in this division (although that could count for nothing come May) - so let's go and win that first ever EFL title!

  • @ReturnToSenda said:
    Tafazolli, Thompson, Gape and Wheeler all missing. Hopefully nothing major ?

    Tafazolli was in the stand and Thompson did a walk about the pitch before the teams came out. He was in his training kit so hopefully just a niggle picked up pre match.

  • Clearly some lessons to be learned from last night off the pitch, hopefully mostly teething problems with so many changes and so long since the last game. Will only be heightened by increased pricing. Good reminder maybe for some people at the club that "fan experience" starts from the minute you book your ticket and then from when you enter the stadium. It's not just about having better stuff on offer, it's about being able to access all the offerings in a clear and easy way. Let's hope they are open to feedback.

    Football-wise it was pretty great all round and will have reassured many about the strength of the squad. As much as a friendly could do.

    One of the stand outs was Stockdale hitting a Wycombe player out wide almost every time with his Goal kicks and clearances, maybe hopeless punts down the middle are a thing of the past.

    Also please can we never sell or loan out Kashket too, there's just something about him when he gets into a bit of space that seems to be a big boost to the crowd and that follows through to the teams attacking intent. Sure he'd score plenty given starts alongside Vokes too although he isn't likely to be first choice.... Not sure about him at Wing back but like to see them trying things and there's some sense to having attacking players in other positions ready to break with the right cover.

    Thought Bayo looked pretty sharp again too, got involved and won the ball and created chances against some fairly expensive defenders.

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