Leicester City and Nottingham Forest gear up to renew East Midlands rivalry

Leicester City and Nottingham Forest will renew their rivalry today. Credit: PA

The East Midlands rivalry between Nottingham Forest and Leicester is arguably overshadowed in the eyes of Forest fans by their hatred of Derby County.

Nottingham Forest and Derby County do have a strong history (a certain Brian Clough comes to mind). but City and Forest have been going at each other for 111 years which has provided a number of classic contests.

THE RIVALRY:

  • The sides have faced each other 102 times in 111 years with Leicester holding a slight edge of 39-38 wins.

  • In 2007 Leicester defender Clive Clarke suffered a heart attack in a League Cup tie at the City Ground and the game was abandoned with Forest ahead 1-0. In the replay Leicester allowed Forest to restore their lead straight from the kick-off. Leicester eventually won 3-2.

  • Forest's biggest ever league win came against Leicester (then known as 'Leicester Fosse') in 1909 when they won 12-0. An FA enquiry found that a number of the Leicester side were hungover from the night before.

  • Stan Collymore, Scott Gemmill and Neil Lennon have in recent years played for both clubs.

  • More famously Peter Shilton played more than 200 times for both clubs and Garry Parker won a League Cup at both sides.

  • The most popular player to experience success In both blue and red is Martin O'Neill who won a host of trophies as a midfielder with Nottingham Forest and took Leicester City to the Premier League as manager.

Both sides have hopes of promotion with Leicester having started the stronger so far this season. The Foxes were leading the Championship early on but have slipped off the pace after a couple of surprise losses and find themselves in 5th.

Despite having one of the fewest losses in the division, Forest find themselves stuck in the mid-table chasing pack in 11th thanks to a high number of draws.