What a week it’s been for me! At the Thai Fight Night last Friday night, I met the David Beckham of Thai fighting, Buakaw, mixed in with the owners and management staff in the VIP area. I had a ringside seat for the night, so it doesn’t get much better than that! Some of the action reminded me about the games against Wolves when Steve Bull was in their side! A big thanks to Susan Whelan for the kind invitation, it was a phenomenal night. And, I had a good chat with Nigel Pearson and Leicester’s head scout, the other Steve Walsh! Steve has the same problem as me with people getting us mixed up, but he doesn’t have my looks or slim frame, so the similarity ends there!

And then there was the big kick-off at The King Power Stadium against Peterborough, a win was essential to give us a good start and help with morale. I met Peter Schmeichel before the match and reminded him of a goal I scored passed him at Filbert Street, and surprisingly he remembered; what a great guy! I then went on to meet a gold medal Olympian, Andrew Triggs-Hodge MBE, and that just made my day. I almost dropped his medal it was that heavy!

I am working alongside Matt Elliot and Ali Mauchlen in hospitality for every game at King Power this season. There was a good crowd of 23, 863 at Saturdays match, but I must say, the first half of the match got off to slow start with the loudest cheers at 41 minutes when the pop-up sprinklers accidentally came on!  We picked up the tempo in the second half and started to take control of the game. Nugent, King and Knockaert had a run out and looked very comfortable on the pitch, turning the game round.

Drinkwater is looking to be a class act, and I’m sure Vardy is going to develop over this season. The young Liam Moore was looking very comfortable alongside the big Wes Morgan. Overall, a solid three points.

Tuesdays match against Charlton gave us a chance to get a back to back win, which took so long to happen last season.  I didn’t attend the Charlton match on Tuesday, but by the sounds of it, we had a fairly slow start to the match; although Leicester were clearly dominating the second half and went down fighting. It’s such a same we couldn’t force that all important equaliser, that would have made a tremendous start to the season. It was ironic to see a goal from Yann Kermorgant as he missed the penalty against Cardiff that could have seen Leicester promoted in 2010. His popularity with Leicester fans throughout the game hasn’t changed! It was good to see Andy King score again, two goals in two matches, definitely a weapon for the future!

The key to past good Leicester sides has been the “bouncebackability”, so I’m really looking forward to today’s game; I think it’ll be a tough match for the lads as I have predicted that Blackburn are the team to beat this season. I’d like to see a bit more of Nugent on the pitch, as he seems to turn games around. I am a big believer of winning home games, so good luck to the Leicester City team!

With us playing Burton Albion in the next round of the Capital One Cup, it should be an easy move into the 3^rd round, but they will still need to be watched after putting 6 past AFC Wimbledon this week! There’s no such thing as an easy game in this day and age.

Our young centre half Tom Parkes from the Leicester academy has left to play for Bristol Rovers. I want to wish him the best for the future.

There are still tables available for the ‘an evening with Mike Tyson’ and we are also taking bookings for Christmas Parties. For more information go to www.kkongevents.co.uk

Walshy!

Hi all

Keep checking the blog this week as we have many upcoming features such as

- New Competition. This weeks prize will be a meal in Leicester with Steve Walsh!

- Fantasy Football. Put your starting Championship 11 against Walshy’s in the SWB private League

Steve Walsh Blog 18/08/2012

It has been another busy week for me, with the LCFC matches and seeing a few old faces!

It was great to see Steve Guppy come down from Sunderland at the weekend and Martin O’Neil returning to Leicester. I thought it was an excellent performance from Leicester as we managed to control the game start to finish. Danny Drinkwater and Wes Morgan stood out for me again as the better players of the match and our new French winger, Anthony Knockaert   certainly seemed to impress the fans in the second half with his pace and technical ability. He had an immediate impact; fast and skilful. He certainly looks like one to watch next season. It was good to talk with Stuart Pearce regarding the Olympic performance and we both agreed we could have gone on to win gold if Daniel Sturridge hadn’t missed the penalty!

I was invited to the Torquay away match by Martin Smith; he’s a Leicester fan and has lived in Torquay for twenty years. He sponsored the game as he’s such a massive fan! At the game I met the ex Man United manager, Frank O’Farrell and we went onto the pitch together; it’s the first time I’ve ever walked onto a pitch with someone who got a louder applause than me! I was sat right behind the goal and even managed to get a great film of Marshall’s goal on my iPhone! I will get this uploaded to the blog soon.

It was great to go down and see another pre-season match, I’ve seen three out of five pre-seasons and it was good to see that Nigel Pearson took the Cup game seriously! The team looked very comfortable and scored some good goals and took us to the next round of the cup without picking up any injuries. It was great to see a goal from Jamie Vardy. I’m a big fan of his and think he’s got loads of potential, certainly one to watch in the future! Dave Nugent was on the bench again, which I don’t think he was happy about, but I’m sure Pearson’s just keeping him on the bench ready for the season to make sure he doesn’t pick up any injuries. The crowd at the match were brilliant; I think there were 1600 Leicester fans at the match. It must have been one of Torquay’s better capacity games. A great turn out, it shows you the following we have as fans must have had to take time off work for that!

It was a bad week for Derby, losing their final pre-season friendly 3-1 against league 2 Chesterfield and then in the Cup against Scunthorpe on penalties. I’m sure this will have knocked their confidence for the season.

It’s hard to predict what team Nigel Pearson will start the season with as he has played a good mix of players in the pre-season and we are looking strong! I’m still very interested to see who he selects to play alongside Wes Morgan today against Peterborough. I would still like to see a little bit more communication between the players but I’m sure that will come with time. There is certainly no lack of support; the fans have been fantastic at all the pre-seasons and I know from my experience what a boost the Leicester fans can give.

Now the hard bit – I’ve come up with my season prediction! I reckon that Blackburn will win the league and be promoted alongside Leicester City.  I’m predicting that Blackpool will come third and be in the play-offs with Wolves, Birmingham and Middlesbrough. At the end of the season I think we will see Peterborough, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley get relegated!

I would like to wish Nigel Pearson, all the lads and the whole of the football club all the best for season. I’m really looking forward to it!

There are now only a few tables left for the Mike Tyson event, so don’t wait too long to book if you want to see one of the all-time boxing greats come to town, and we are now taking bookings for Christmas events. For more information, click the link below.

http://www.kkongevents.co.uk

Walshy!

The winner of the dedicated Steve Walsh play-off final photo is Chris Smith

The correct answer was Simon Grayson

Congratulations to Chris!

Its been a quieter week on the football front since my last blog as I have been busy with business and a family break in Preston. However I was determined not to miss a charity game last Sunday which was in memory of Matthew Needham. Matthew sadly passed away following Heart Surgery when he was just nine years old and was a huge football fan. Even though he had a complex heart condition this did not stop him playing for his local team, Stanton United!  The charity Matthew Needhams Treasure Chest was set up to raise money for much needed medical equipment for not only the PICU at Glenfield Hospital but also for the children’s ward. Since the charity was started it has been a huge success as it has raised almost £70,000. If you would like more information please view http://www.matthewneedhamstreasurechest.co.uk.

It was a great day and good to see some of the old Leicester faces in action. We had a strong team with Muzzy Izzet captaining us, with Stefan Oakes and Julian Joachim who was unfortunately injured on the day (no change there then!). Matthews brother Ben captained Matt’s Friends and managed to put one past me!

Next Tuesday I’ll be attending Torquay United away in the Capital One Cup. I would like to thank Martin Smith from Firewatch for sorting me some hospitality tickets. Hoping it will be a good game and interested to see who Nigel Pearson selects. Cant see him risking anyone he would like to start against Peterborough unless they’re still requiring fitness.

Even though I missed the Nuneaton game I wanted to make a special mention for Richie Norman who is an old Leicester legend and has been a physio at Nuneaton for the past 18 years. Just be thankful Richie that you didn’t have to look after my knees!

As most of my readers will know we have been running a competition for the past week or so and I’ll be drawing the winner of my dedicated signed photo tomorrow (11th of August) afternoon. I will also be starting my next competition soon which will be a dinner with me at a restaurant in Leicester! Keep a look out in the future for more competitions with match day tickets and memorabilia!

The start of the season is just round the corner now and I’m very excited to be contracted for every home game this season to hospitality at the King Power Stadium. I think todays friendly with Sunderland is key to see who Nigel Pearson will select to start the season. It will be great to see Martin O’Neil back in Leicester and give him and his Sunderland side a  good test before they start their Premier League campaign.

So far the friendlies have been a real mix and it’s been interesting to see the depth that we have. Peterborough is not an easy start to the season but I’m predicting 3 points for Leicester which will be a great boost for the lads and a excellent way to get the season under way.

Walshy!

It’s been a very successful first week for my new blog site Steve Walsh blog.co.uk, so I would like to thank everyone who is reading it and City Communications for their help and support. We’ve got loads of exciting ideas coming up including competitions for match tickets and a meal with me! We’re also hoping to launch a championship prediction league so keep checking back for updates on new content.

I’ll start this week with the game against Shrewsbury. Unfortunately I didn’t get to go and watch the game. Not that I would of been that welcome after my “incident” with David Geddis’ jaw resulting in a eleven match ban! I personally view these friendlies as a way to get into a ‘winning’ mentality but it is also about the player’s fitness and preparing for the start of the Championship season. At the same time Shrewsbury have just been promoted and are on a high so they want to go out and beat everyone.

Still not getting too disheartened by the Shrewsbury game and I was then quite fortunate to be given 4 corporate tickets to watch the Burton Albion game. Thanks to Nicholas Humphreys who is away sunning it in Spain! After a slow start Jeff Schlupp played an excellent one two and really showed his pace to score a good goal. Shortly into the second half David Webb awarded Burton a penalty, I’ve not seen any footage of the incident but the tackle looked clean enough from where I was sitting. With the game at 1-1 City managed to up the ante and finish the game off with goals from Lloyd Dyer and Neill Danns. Overall it was a decent performance and the lads are certainly getting up to top physical condition and showed an improved spirit. Old habits die hard as a former skipper, so I would still like to see more communication going on between the team but it was good to see Nigel Pearson standing on the line shouting out his instructions. I was impressed to see how many City fans turned out, it’s fantastic to see what strong support we have (shame about the Burton lot!).

Not sure what’s happening with Andy King at the moment, he seems to be on the sidelines and I’d be pleased to see him return soon. For me 6 players are standing out already and they are Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater, Wes Morgan, Neil Danns, Jamie Vardy and David Nugent. Also I should mention Liam Moore – he is progressing nicely for an 18 year old kid and he is another one to watch for the future. Hoping for a speedy recovery for Zak Whitbred and Sean St Ledger, his injury has come as a bit of a blow and De Laet now has an opportunity to show his potential as a centre back.

With the start of the championship just two weeks away I am looking forward to the team having a flying start which they are more than capable of with the squad now in place.

Finally, I would like to say thanks to the teams who turned up for my 5 a side Legends competition on Sunday and congratulations to the winners Active Together!

K Kong Events still has a few remaining tables for our “Evening with Mike Tyson” event on the 11^th of October.

I know it’s summer (just about!), but we have now put together a Christmas Party Menu, so for enquires please got to kkongevents.co.uk.   Our Web Site is currently under construction but City Communications will be getting a full site online for us in the next couple of weeks!

Walshy