They came to condemn Dejphon Chansiri but Sheffield Wednesday’s 3,500-strong following stayed to applaud the players the Thai had failed to pay properly over the summer, plunging the club into chaos.
The post-Jamie Vardy era at Leicester City began with a victory under the new manager Martí Cifuentes as second-half goals from Jannick Vestergaard and the substitute Wout Faes overturned Nathaniel Chalobah’s opener.
Yet even in defeat Wednesday, who only had 15 senior players to call upon, had exceeded expectations. City only just attained theirs, with Faes’ 87th-minute goal coming after the Wednesday captain Barry Bannan had been sent off.
“Dejphon Chansiri, get out of our club” sang the away end at regular intervals but the noise they made at the end was reserved solely for the manager Henrik Pedersen and his players.
“It’s togetherness in some ways,” said Pedersen after his first competitive game as Danny Rohl’s successor. “Our fans are a big inspiration to our players. Of course it was a big help. The boys and the fans were a really good couple today.”
A huge majority of those fans had been absent until the fifth minute in protest against tuna magnate Chansiri’s substandard stewardship in his tenth season as owner. Missed wage payments in June and July led to a depleted squad refusing to play a pre-season friendly, and with Rohl already having engineered his own exit it was dismal preparation for a 46-game slog, especially as a points deduction will surely follow.
Pedersen confirmed that “five or six” players had made their own way to the Midlands on Saturday so they could stay in a hotel. These were joined by the rest of the squad at a pre-arranged time before kick-off. “It’s how it is right now,” said the Dane, who added that he did not know whether the bill had been paid by the players themselves.
Despite all this the underdogs excelled from the moment Pierce Charles, the goalkeeper, made his first of 11 saves — and it was noticeable that the Leicester fans applauded their counterparts when finally they began coming in.
Chalobah’s goal was his first for the club he joined in July last year
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Some were still not in their seats when Chalobah hit a post or even when he gave his side the lead in the 26th minute, latching on to Yan Valery’s pull-back to unleash a shot that was diverted past the goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk by City midfielder Oliver Skipp.
Chalobah had to go off injured soon after, however, but luck was back with Wednesday when Vestergaard somehow headed wide from four yards.
The Denmark defender made no mistake with his feet nine minutes into the second half when Wednesday failed to deal with a low free kick, although Harry Winks, a half-time replacement for Skipp, appeared to be offside and involved.
Wednesday survived a nervy spell with nine men when Jamal Lowe and Valery were hurt and were down to ten for the remainder in the 76th minute when Bannan, cautioned five minutes earlier, was shown a second yellow card for catching Winks as both players slid for the ball.
Fans left seats empty except for banners for the start of the televised game…
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… and a plane flew over the King Power reinforcing the message to the Wednesday owner
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After players including Josh Windass left for nothing over the summer, travelling Wednesday fans held banners during their season opener
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The teenage substitute Jeremy Monga saw his diving header saved by Charles but Faes, another late replacement, nodded home the winner when Wednesday failed to pick him up from the resulting corner. The ten men, with little experience on the bench, had nothing left to give and it was up to Charles kept the score down.
Leicester, also owned by a Thai in Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, are off and running in their quest for an instant Premier League return but have their own financial problems, with the midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and goalkeeper Mads Hermansen both sold in the past few days.
A points deduction for a 2023-24 overspend is likely to happen and with Jordan Ayew so far a substandard inheritor of Vardy’s famed No9 shirt — which many fans felt should instead have been retired — Cifuentes, the former Queens Park Rangers head coach, has much to ponder.
“The Championship is a ruthless league,” he said. “It was a good lesson for everyone to understand that we cannot take anything for granted.”
Leicester City (4-2-3-1) J Stolarczyk 7 — J Justin 7 (P Daka 78min), C Okoli 7 (W Faes 70), J Vestergaard 7, L Thomas 6 — O Skipp 5 (H Winks 46, 6), B Soumare 6 — A Fatawu 6 (K McAteer 78), B El Khannouss 7, S Mavididi 7 (J Monga 70) — J Ayew 6.
Sheffield Wednesday (5-3-2) P Charles 8 — Y Valery 7 (O Kobacki 70), L Palmer 7, D Iorfa 7, G Otegbayo 7 (I Ugbo 90), M Lowe 7 — S Ingelsson 7, N Chalobah 7 (S Fusire 33, 6), B Bannan 6 — J Lowe 6 (C McNeill 90), B Cadamarteri 6.