Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

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Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

Leicester City had endured a tough season during the 2007/08 Championship campaign, but there was a glimmer of hope when they visited West Bromwich Albion on 15 March, 2008.

2020-09-12T15:56:00.000Z

by Sam Jones

Published

12 Sep, 2020

Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

Leicester City had endured a tough season during the 2007/08 Championship campaign, but there was a glimmer of hope when they visited West Bromwich Albion on 15 March, 2008.

Sam Jones

2020-09-12T15:56:00.000Z

Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

Leicester City had endured a tough season during the 2007/08 Championship campaign, but there was a glimmer of hope when they visited West Bromwich Albion on 15 March, 2008.

Sam Jones

2020-09-12T15:56:00.000Z

Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

Leicester City had endured a tough season during the 2007/08 Championship campaign, but there was a glimmer of hope when they visited West Bromwich Albion on 15 March, 2008.

Sam Jones

2020-09-12T15:56:00.000Z

Remembering Howard's Hat-Trick At The Hawthorns

Leicester City had endured a tough season during the 2007/08 Championship campaign, but there was a glimmer of hope when they visited West Bromwich Albion on 15 March, 2008.

Sam Jones

2020-09-12T15:56:00.000Z

Under the stewardship of Ian Holloway, City's third manager of the season after the departures of Martin Allen and then Gary Megson, the team travelled to the Hawthorns without a goal in their last three games, as a stalemate with Bristol City was sandwiched between 1-0 defeats to Southampton and Preston North End.

West Brom, managed by Tony Mowbray, meanwhile, were gunning for automatic promotion back to the Premier League.

And when the teams met at King Power Stadium earlier that season, the Baggies had ran out 2-1 winners, thanks to a late winner from Craig Beattie.

Despite the differing form and league positions of the two sides, City knew they needed a positive result from the game to stand any chance of surviving in the second tier.

However, in the first-half, the contest was going according to the form book. A superb long range strike from Robert Koren put the Baggies ahead on 22 minutes, but the game turned on its head when Albion forward Luke Moore was sent off for a foul on Richard Stearman, 10 minutes before the break.

From then on, it was Leicester who imposed themselves on the game. Gareth McAuley equalised soon after the red card, heading in from a corner, to see the Foxes into half-time level.

Howard then tucked away a penalty on the hour-mark to put the Foxes into the lead, expertly slotting his spot-kick past Dean Kiely despite the Albion keeper diving the right way.

And it would be a lead they extended, courtesy of Howard's second, as he poked Lee Hendrie's pass home with a deft touch 10 minutes from time, in front of the travelling Blue Army.

His third came via a well-taken low drive from 18 yards out, moving the ball onto his favoured right foot after being played through by Barry Hayles, sealing victory and a vital three points in the closing stages.

Speaking about the game earlier this year to LCFC.com, Howard said: “I did get a hat-trick at West Brom. It was great! The team was flying that day and we thought we’d turned the corner and we would be safe, but it never happened."

Holloway's line-up for the encounter was: Henderson; Kisnorbo, N'Gotty, McAuley; Stearman, Oakley (Wesolowski 83'), Hendrie (Etuhu 88'), Mattock; Fryatt, Hayles, Howard (Hume 89').

Leicester were unable to beat the drop, despite subsequent 1-0 victories over Scunthorpe United and Barnsley. The Foxes were eventually relegated on 52 points, finishing in 22nd place and just a single point behind Coventry City, who survived.

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