Profondo Rosso
Well-Known Member
Having just been talking to my mate on MSN about Friday's match, he was already fired up for the Forest match over a month away, saying we'll thrash those bastards etc. but this has been an issue that's been bugging me for a while.
Like many, I was brought up to hate Forest. When I was a kid and first started following Leicester in the mid 90s, back when Mark McGhee had just left as our manager. Back then, I was brought up by my dad and the fans around me that Forest were our big rivals, at that time Derby were a distant second, and Wolves were also considered rivals at the time because of what had just happened with Mark McGhee and the obligatory Steve Walsh vs Steve Bull fight that would always end up happening.
Although, we moved to Hinckley when I was 7, and the Coventry influence kicked in, and the Derby rivalry seemed to become much fiercer at that time because of the endless classic games we had with them (Walshie play-off final, Iwan hat-trick, Marshall hat-trick, 4 up inside 15mins. etc.). I still considered Forest the big rival despite the fact I knew no Forest fans, knew loads of Cov fans and watched us play some classic games with Derby, simply because it was "tradition".
I think it was at that League Cup match a couple of years a go, where the Forest fans started cheering "We Only Care About Derby" to which our fans started booing and reacting in a hostile way, which made me realise how ridiculously illogical and well, embarrassing, this rivalry has become. As much as many City fans hate to admit it, we are not only a significant mile behind Derby, we have slipped behind the likes of Sheffield United now on Forest's radar.
I am well aware Forest and Leicester were big rivals in the 60s and 70s until the Clough effect kicked in and Forest's attention turned towards Derby, so I could understand why older fans would still enjoy beating Forest, but to me this rivalry has become ridiculously one-sided and depressing.
All that happens is we lose to Forest their fans get the bragging rights, but when we lose to Forest and they start bleating the "we don't care about you" line. It's win, win for Forest, they can hate us when it suited them, and it has become absolutely no fun as a Leicester fan. When our fans start trying so hard to get in on this rivalry i.e. booing their fans when they start chanting "we only care about Derby" it just becomes an embarrassing farce and makes our fans look so desperate.
So, I've come to realise that not only do I not look forward to the Forest games, I'm actually starting to dread them, it just seems like it will end up in our fans being mocked with no retort.
Like, I said, I can understand why some of the older fans still enjoy beating Forest, because of the big rivalry back in the day, and hell, they might even have been envious of Forest when they reached the dizzy heights in the late 70s and early 80s, but why nowadays, particularly for the younger fans like myself do people still cling on to this one being the big game. I don't see how our fans can get that much pleasure out of this any more. Forest fans always have the upper-hand on us and its no fun.
With Derby there have been many classic games over the past 15 years or so and with Coventry there is a much bigger reciprocality to it so you can actually get some genuine banter going with their fans, but there hasn't been a classic match or a particularly significant incident with Forest in the past 20 years, and for this reason the rivalry has waned on the Forest side, then how come it hasn't seemed to on the Leicester side?
So, why, do people, particularly of the younger generation, still consider Forest the big rivals over the likes of Derby or Coventry for the sake of tradition? It just seems illogical to me.
Like many, I was brought up to hate Forest. When I was a kid and first started following Leicester in the mid 90s, back when Mark McGhee had just left as our manager. Back then, I was brought up by my dad and the fans around me that Forest were our big rivals, at that time Derby were a distant second, and Wolves were also considered rivals at the time because of what had just happened with Mark McGhee and the obligatory Steve Walsh vs Steve Bull fight that would always end up happening.
Although, we moved to Hinckley when I was 7, and the Coventry influence kicked in, and the Derby rivalry seemed to become much fiercer at that time because of the endless classic games we had with them (Walshie play-off final, Iwan hat-trick, Marshall hat-trick, 4 up inside 15mins. etc.). I still considered Forest the big rival despite the fact I knew no Forest fans, knew loads of Cov fans and watched us play some classic games with Derby, simply because it was "tradition".
I think it was at that League Cup match a couple of years a go, where the Forest fans started cheering "We Only Care About Derby" to which our fans started booing and reacting in a hostile way, which made me realise how ridiculously illogical and well, embarrassing, this rivalry has become. As much as many City fans hate to admit it, we are not only a significant mile behind Derby, we have slipped behind the likes of Sheffield United now on Forest's radar.
I am well aware Forest and Leicester were big rivals in the 60s and 70s until the Clough effect kicked in and Forest's attention turned towards Derby, so I could understand why older fans would still enjoy beating Forest, but to me this rivalry has become ridiculously one-sided and depressing.
All that happens is we lose to Forest their fans get the bragging rights, but when we lose to Forest and they start bleating the "we don't care about you" line. It's win, win for Forest, they can hate us when it suited them, and it has become absolutely no fun as a Leicester fan. When our fans start trying so hard to get in on this rivalry i.e. booing their fans when they start chanting "we only care about Derby" it just becomes an embarrassing farce and makes our fans look so desperate.
So, I've come to realise that not only do I not look forward to the Forest games, I'm actually starting to dread them, it just seems like it will end up in our fans being mocked with no retort.
Like, I said, I can understand why some of the older fans still enjoy beating Forest, because of the big rivalry back in the day, and hell, they might even have been envious of Forest when they reached the dizzy heights in the late 70s and early 80s, but why nowadays, particularly for the younger fans like myself do people still cling on to this one being the big game. I don't see how our fans can get that much pleasure out of this any more. Forest fans always have the upper-hand on us and its no fun.
With Derby there have been many classic games over the past 15 years or so and with Coventry there is a much bigger reciprocality to it so you can actually get some genuine banter going with their fans, but there hasn't been a classic match or a particularly significant incident with Forest in the past 20 years, and for this reason the rivalry has waned on the Forest side, then how come it hasn't seemed to on the Leicester side?
So, why, do people, particularly of the younger generation, still consider Forest the big rivals over the likes of Derby or Coventry for the sake of tradition? It just seems illogical to me.
