Blue Army out in force for Leicester City's opening games

More than 2,000 fans took their pick on which end of the M42 to watch their football action at the weekend.

Leicester City won 3-1 at Loughborough Dynamo in a noon kick-off and, three hours later, another City line-up were pegged back for a 1-1 draw at Tamworth.

The most encouraging aspect of the double-header was that it brought such a positive reaction from the Leicestershire footballing community with more than 1,000 at Loughborough and around the same at Tamworth.

City manager Nigel Pearson chose to take a watching brief, with reserve-team coaches Steve Beaglehole and Gerry Taggart in charge at Loughborough and Tamworth respectively. And many of the City supporters were not far behind the City boss when he left the Nanpantan Road Sports Ground with No.2 Craig Shakespeare to make the 32-mile trip to Tamworth's Lamb ground.

Andy Davies, of Shepshed, was perfectly placed to catch action from both the games, making the short journey from his home to see a strong City side win 3-1 at Loughborough. The familiar names on the team sheet included Joe Mattock, Wayne Brown, Max Gradel, Nicky Adams and Paul Dickov, who scored one of the City goals from the penalty spot, with Adams and teenager Billy Kee also on target.

Davies then hot-footed to Tamworth and was able to catch his breath during a half-time cuppa. He said: "I'm glad I've done both the trips because I wanted to have a look at the new players. It was good to see Astrit Ajdarevic at Loughborough but it was actually Kee and Aman Verma who really caught my eye."

The Tamworth clash resulted in a 1-1 draw with Ashley Chambers prominent in attack for City and having their best chances before the breakthrough came from an unlikely source with Bruno Berner toe-poking the ball home following good work by Chambers.

But Tamworth themselves posed a decent attacking threat, particularly impressive youngster Jake Sheridan, who would have caught the eye of the City coaches. And the Lambs squared the contest with a strike from Nick Wright three minutes from time.

Tony Smith, of Narborough, was also following City for some of the Loughborough game and all of the Tamworth match.

He said: "It was just what City wanted. Tamworth are no mugs and the lads know they have had a tough 90 minutes. It will set them up nicely for the next few games. I'm glad I've done both matches and I'll probably go and watch the kids at Hinckley on Wednesday night."