Lennon's Four Years In Leicester

Lennon's Four Years In Leicester – In His Own Words

Neil Lennon, who celebrates his 50th birthday today (Friday) was an essential component of Martin O'Neill's starting XI at Filbert Street. He was the midfield engine alongside Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet in the heart of a side which still holds legendary status in Leicester City folklore.

2021-06-25T07:09:00.000Z

Lennon's Four Years In Leicester – In His Own Words

Neil Lennon, who celebrates his 50th birthday today (Friday) was an essential component of Martin O'Neill's starting XI at Filbert Street. He was the midfield engine alongside Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet in the heart of a side which still holds legendary status in Leicester City folklore.

2021-06-25T07:09:00.000Z

Lennon's Four Years In Leicester – In His Own Words

Neil Lennon, who celebrates his 50th birthday today (Friday) was an essential component of Martin O'Neill's starting XI at Filbert Street. He was the midfield engine alongside Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet in the heart of a side which still holds legendary status in Leicester City folklore.

2021-06-25T07:09:00.000Z

Lennon's Four Years In Leicester – In His Own Words

Neil Lennon, who celebrates his 50th birthday today (Friday) was an essential component of Martin O'Neill's starting XI at Filbert Street. He was the midfield engine alongside Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet in the heart of a side which still holds legendary status in Leicester City folklore.

2021-06-25T07:09:00.000Z

Lennon's Four Years In Leicester – In His Own Words

Neil Lennon, who celebrates his 50th birthday today (Friday) was an essential component of Martin O'Neill's starting XI at Filbert Street. He was the midfield engine alongside Robbie Savage and Muzzy Izzet in the heart of a side which still holds legendary status in Leicester City folklore.

2021-06-25T07:09:00.000Z

In early 2020, the former Foxes midfielder sat down with LCFC TV as part of a feature-length documentary – 20 Years On: Leicester's League Cup Triumph – to remember the Club's second major piece of silverware in just three seasons in the late 1990s.

To celebrate a landmark birthday for one of the Club's most admired former players, we revisit that interview, including some material which was not included in the original broadcast. This is Neil Lennon's take on his four-year spell at Filbert Street in his own words...

The quality in Leicester's XI – 'Teams didn’t like playing against us'

"In ’96 we’d got promoted and we’d come a long way in a short space of time. They’re great memories from my football career at a club where I was so happy as well. I think we had four top-10 finishes in the Premier League while I was there and, when I left, the team was third in the Premier League.

"It was a very talented team. I would put Muzzy in any team. I loved playing with him, he was a quality finisher, a very talented player. Emile [Heskey] went on to have a fantastic career, he played for England.

"Matty was so consistent. Tags (Gerry Taggart) was consistent. Frank [Sinclair], who’d played for Chelsea, and won things for Chelsea, he won things with Leicester… he knew how to get it done. Teams didn’t like playing against us. We weren’t overly aggressive, but we played at a good tempo and could pass the ball when we needed to.

"The midfield three could look after the ball. We had players who could head the ball in both boxes. That’s what Martin liked, so right through the spine of the team, it was always strong. We had four games at Wembley… we had Crystal Palace, and then you get the three League Cup Finals as well.

"I wouldn’t say Wembley became a second home, it’s something you never get used to, you don’t take it for granted, but it was very, very special for us."

A surprise package in the league – 'The spirit played a huge part'

"The only regret in my time at Leicester is we maybe didn’t get more of a run in the FA Cup. We had a really debatable penalty against Chelsea which cost us a replay, that’s the closest that we got, and if we’d gone through that one, we might have got to the final that year as well.

"They were magical times and a great group of lads to be around – and quality players as well. Martin was very good at that and John [Robertson] and Steve [Walford] played a huge part in that as well.

"I think the spirit played a huge part in it because not many of us had played in the Premier League. He gave us that belief and confidence that we could do it and then we went on to have four or five really successful years in the Premier League, on top of the cup games.

"When you look back on it, it’s pretty impressive really, for a provincial club like Leicester. Then we get outdone by the team in 2016 who go on to win the Premier League, but 20 years earlier was very, very special."

Beating Villa in the semi-finals – 'The fans were going ballistic!'

"They would probably have been the favourites going into the game, but over the piece, whether it was in the Premier League or in the cup, we had a really good record against Villa. I don’t remember them beating us at all in the four years under Martin, so we were quite confident.

"Obviously, I missed the first one (with an injury), which was frustrating, but to play in the second one, at Filbert Street was great… with a packed crowd, you knew what was at stake.

"I hadn’t played for a while and Martin threw me in. All the emotions go through your head. We missed out last year but what an opportunity to get back. How big could this be? And Matty was actually playing centre-forward at the time and he did it very, very well.

"Matty used to score some really important goals for us at times. I don’t know how he did it. I remember him scoring against Arsenal and against some of the other big teams, but he was always a threat in the air, and he scored that night, he got the winner.

"We were able to hang on and enjoy that feeling of relief and emotion and celebration afterwards. We believed that, no matter who we got in the final, we were going to win it.

"The funny thing was, me and Muzzy had come off at the time, and I was up the tunnel and I couldn’t watch the last couple of minutes and then when the final whistle blew, we just sprinted out onto the pitch, celebrating with everyone.

"The crowd were going absolutely ballistic and it was just a great feeling to know you were going back to another cup final."

Lifting the League Cup in 2000 – 'An amazing feeling'

"There was a motivation for us that year because we’d lost the final the year before. We didn’t play well on the day and lost it in heart-breaking circumstances. It was a real motivation for us to try and get back to Wembley having won it in ’97 and lost it in ’99. You don’t get that opportunity very often.

"What we did in the League Cup in that period was absolutely fantastic. The mindset was we were probably the favourites because we were the Premier League team. This is a dangerous team to play against, but we felt we had the quality.

"We believed we had the quality and we had the memories of the season before and how that had got away from us and how we hadn’t played anywhere near as well as we could have done. No matter who we’d have played that day, we’d have won.

"Going down Wembley Way is an amazing feeling, you still had the Twin Towers in those days as well. It was the last League Cup Final that the Twin Towers had seen, so to be part of that… the anticipation was building and you’re just saying to yourself: ‘Right, just learn from the experience of last time’.

"Tranmere were the surprise package in the League Cup, I think they’d beaten Southampton, coming from three down, and they had players like David Kelly in the team and obviously John Aldridge was the manager. They were a good side and they had goalscorers in their team.

"We controlled the game for long periods. Clint Hill got sent off as well and then we got sloppy and we allowed them to equalise. That just galvanised us even more. I think we more or less reacted straight away. Matty came up with the goods again. He scored two great headers."

The spine of the team – 'We had a really strong bond'

"We had characters like Frank, Tags, Matty, Sav, myself, Muzzy, Emile, Garry Parker and Ian Marshall. We were quite a close-kit group and we used to have some great nights in Leicester. We used to be either down at Willie Thorne’s place, or we’d go to an Italian called Baffone.

"Martin would put Oasis on after the games. They were the group at the time. We'd go back to the Sketchley Grange. You can imagine what the bus ride was like after we won the cup... a few beers and glasses of wine, lots of singing. We had that realisation that we'd done something really special again.

"The karaoke would go on to maybe 3am/4am in the morning, so it was one of those special nights that went long into the night and then it gave us momentum in the league. On the pitch, we had a really strong bond. Right through the spine of the team, we were close."

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