Manchester City 0 Leicester City 3Paul Dickov received 600 messages of support last week. They came from Manchester City fans wishing their former favourite well on his first return to a club where he became a cult hero.
They knew Dickov as "The Pest" for his relentless style and cherished him for the stoppage-time equaliser scored against Gillingham at Wembley in the 1999 second division play-off final.
Dickov was released by Kevin Keegan in February last year but before kick-off yesterday was given the biggest reception of any player from either side. Less than an hour later, though, Dickov was the subject of Sky Blue bitterness rather than adoration.
The reason was the exuberance of his celebration after he had calmly side-footed in the Leicester City penalty that made the score 2-0 to all but confirm Manchester City were in for a miserable afternoon.
Five minutes after Dickov's penalty, Marcus Bent rose to power in a cross from the insistent Leicester captain Muzzy Izzet and Leicester had their first away point of the Premiership from their first away win. After the 2-0 victory over Blackburn last Sunday, the three points and three goals lifted Leicester to 15th place, above Aston Villa on goal difference.
As a response to the capitulation against Wolves a fortnight ago, Micky Adams could hardly have milked more from his players.
"Terrific," said Adams. "I said to them at half-time I'm delighted at what you've done because you've learned the lessons of Wolves. But we mustn't become complacent, we're not that good."
But for Manchester City this was little short of disastrous. In the race for fourth place that Premiership II has become, Keegan's side had the opportunity to move above Charlton. With alleged rivals Liverpool and Newcastle United also losing, a home win would have felt like six points.
But City deserved the nothing they got. Eyal Berkovic, who has not been in league action since August, and Steve McManaman, who may have had other matters on his mind - he and Robbie Fowler's solicitors issued a statement yesterday regarding tabloid allegations - tried to prompt forward activity early on.
But Nicolas Anelka was sluggish, while Paulo Wanchope was not as good as that. No doubt Dickov smiled inside.
Later on, Fowler was introduced, but the game was gone by then. Ian Walker made a sixth-minute save from Joey Barton but was near redundant after that.
Things had begun to drift even before Jordan Stewart opened the scoring in the 12th minute. Dickov was wrestled to the ground on the halfway line and the loose ball was taken forward by Stewart.
He was allowed to run more than 20 yards, sizing up the situation as Richard Dunne backed off. Stewart decided to bend the ball around Dunne and the debutant goalkeeper Kevin Ellegaard. It was a bad start to the 20-year-old's career; veteran David Seaman was out with a hamstring strain.
One-nil at half-time, Dickov's moment made it two-nil soon after. Sylvain Distin, City's captain, felled Dickov with a foolish raised fist after a meaningless argument. The Pest stepped up, then fell to his knees following conversion. Dickov is a Leicester cult now.
