There was a time, not particularly long ago, when Leicester City were walking out beneath the lights of the Champions League.
There were trips to Seville, Atlético Madrid arriving at the King Power Stadium, a Premier League trophy hoisted into the air and an FA Cup added to the cabinet. Even after the impossible magic of 2016 faded, Leicester remained a club accustomed to the Premier League and occasional adventures into UEFA competition.
On Saturday afternoon, they were at Meadow Lane.
And Notts County held them to a 1-1 draw.
That is not intended as disrespect towards County. Quite the opposite. The oldest professional football club in the world have spent years fighting their way back from the abyss and deserved every bit of their point. But there was something almost surreal about seeing Leicester begin their League One campaign in an East Midlands derby at one of English football’s great old grounds.
This was the first league meeting between the clubs in 32 years. A sold-out crowd of 17,172 squeezed into Meadow Lane, including 2,123 travelling Leicester supporters, creating the kind of atmosphere that immediately reminded everyone why local football matters.
Forget Leicester’s recent European passport stamps. Nottingham and Leicester are separated by little more than 20 miles, and County had absolutely no interest in treating their visitors like footballing royalty.
From the opening exchanges, they went after them.
Ollie Cooper almost produced the perfect introduction when he charged down goalkeeper Alex McCarthy’s clearance and watched the ball crash against the crossbar.
It established the afternoon’s pattern.
Russell Martin’s Leicester wanted possession. Martin Paterson’s Notts County wanted them to have possession.
Then they hunted.
Leicester finished with 69% of the ball and completed 560 passes to County’s 197. In another context, those numbers might suggest a comfortable afternoon.
They were anything but.
County won possession in the middle and attacking thirds 33 times. They attempted 16 shots to Leicester’s 11 and recorded 39 touches inside the opposition penalty area. Leicester managed just 16.
Possession became less a weapon and more a dangerous substance the Foxes kept passing between themselves.
There was an obvious philosophical clash.
Martin’s football depends upon bravery in possession, creating angles and inviting opponents forward before playing through them. County recognised the potential weakness immediately. Their narrow 3-4-2-1 squeezed Leicester’s central options and transformed every slightly loose pass into an invitation to attack.
Cooper was outstanding, registering seven tackles and setting the tone for a County side that refused to acknowledge the supposed gulf between the clubs.
New striker Luka Smyth did much the same.
Replacing Alassana Jatta was always going to be an unenviable assignment, but the 22-year-old Australian made himself a nuisance against Caleb Okoli and Harry Souttar. He competed, chased, held the ball and gave County somewhere to aim when Leicester’s passing threatened to pin them back.
It was wonderfully uncomplicated.
Leicester, meanwhile, provided a strange contrast between generations.
Some of their senior players carried the nervousness of a club that has spent two years losing football matches. The youngsters carried none of it.
Sammy Braybrooke was particularly encouraging in midfield, while Jayden Joseph supplied the moment that briefly appeared capable of separating the teams.
After 62 minutes, Leicester finally made their possession sing.
It was an extraordinary sequence of more than 40 passes, the ball travelling patiently around the pitch before Braybrooke pierced County’s defensive structure and Joseph hammered his finish inside the near post.
For a moment, this looked like the Leicester that Martin presumably sees in his head.
Patient. Precise. Devastating.
It was also Joseph’s first senior goal.
Perhaps there is something significant in the fact that Leicester’s brightest moment arrived through academy graduates rather than the expensive remnants of their Premier League squad.
But League One rarely cares about aesthetics.
County certainly didn’t.
Meadow Lane remained loud, Leicester became increasingly anxious and the home side sensed something changing. Martin admitted afterwards that “a bit of anxiety crept in” as the atmosphere shifted.
That anxiety was almost tangible.
Every Leicester mistake made the ground louder. Every County tackle carried a little more electricity. Every Leicester attempt to calmly recycle possession suddenly looked fractionally less calm.
This was an East Midlands derby, after all.
County weren’t going anywhere.
With nine minutes remaining, they finally landed the punch their performance deserved.
Nick Tsaroulla attacked down the flank and Leicester failed to properly extinguish the danger. Emile Acquah’s header struck the post, but substitute Conor Grant reacted fastest.
1-1.
Meadow Lane erupted.
For County, it was a goal representing just how far they have travelled themselves. This is a club that dropped out of the Football League in 2019 and spent four seasons trapped in the National League. Now, freshly promoted from League Two, they were standing toe-to-toe with former Premier League champions and wondering whether they should have beaten them.
Paterson admitted he was disappointed not to win.
That sentence alone captures the absurd reversal of fortunes.
Notts County were disappointed to draw with Leicester City.
And they had every right to be.
Leicester will point towards the youth of the side and the early stages of Martin’s rebuild. There were genuine positives. Braybrooke and Joseph provided optimism, and the move for the opening goal offered a glimpse of what this team could eventually become.
But the wider picture is impossible to ignore.
Ten years ago, Leicester were Premier League champions. Nine years ago, they were Champions League quarter-finalists. Five years ago, they won the FA Cup. They became accustomed to Premier League football, UEFA nights and occasionally collecting another piece of silverware along the way.
Now they have suffered consecutive relegations and opened a League One season at Meadow Lane.
Notts County have been travelling in precisely the opposite direction.
That is what made this derby so fascinating. Two East Midlands clubs collided at one of the oldest stages in English football, their trajectories crossing somewhere in the middle.
The River Trent has witnessed plenty of footballing history.
On Saturday, it witnessed another strange little chapter.
Notts County 1, Leicester City 1.
Thirty-two years after their last league meeting, the neighbours were reunited.
And remarkably, they looked like equals.
doragon sports 