sport news Simon Grayson: My Leicester team won at Man City but still went down!

Leicester City winning at Manchester City? It can happen. It has happened.

Just three years ago, Claudio Ranieri's Foxes went to the Etihad Stadium and won 3-1, a statement that Leicester City could indeed be champions. So it proved.

And the first time the clubs met in the Premier League era, Leicester also won in Manchester. The transformation in both clubs makes it feel a lot longer than 24 years ago. 

Former Leicester defender Simon Grayson played against Manchester City in January 1995

Former Leicester defender Simon Grayson played against Manchester City in January 1995

There were 21,000 there, it was played at Maine Road, where Brian Horton was the manager. Leicester had nine Englishmen in their team, a Welsh striker in Iwan Roberts and a Northern Ireland defender in Colin Hill.

Compared to Leicester, the home team were exotic — including Germans Uwe Rosler and Maurizio Gaudino and Dutchman Michel Vonk.

But by the end of the day, Mancunian focus, and the country's, would be elsewhere.

This was a tale of two very different Cities. While Manchester's played at Maine Road, Leicester's ground was Filbert Street. It was January 1995 and both teams were struggling to keep up.

For Man City there was the resurgence of their noisy neighbours, United, and for Leicester there was the problem of simply treading water. The hosts were 11th in the table, the visitors were 22nd.

'Man City were miles away from what they are now,' says Simon Grayson, who was Leicester's captain then. He had become the first at the club to lift a trophy at Wembley in the previous season's play-offs.

'Maine Road still had an aura about it, the pitch was massive and the club was still a big club even if it was going through tough times.

'We had just come up, promoted through the play-offs, and we knew quite early on in the season that we would be at full stretch just to survive.'

Leicester's first season back in the top flight since 1987 started with three straight defeats. It was mid-September before they won, beating Tottenham with a couple of goals from Julian Joachim. When in October new signing Franz Carr scored the winner at home to Southampton, Leicester were out of the relegation zone.

They returned to it quickly, however, and in November manager Brian Little was offered the job at Aston Villa following Ron Atkinson's departure.

Leicester's Nicky Mohan is pictured sliding in on City’s Paul Walsh, watched by Colin Hill

Leicester's Nicky Mohan is pictured sliding in

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