Leeds United Championship rival angered by Leicester City’s ‘non-league’ wind-up before Sunderland clash

A video on social media surfaced on Tuesday night which appeared to show Leicester’s ground staff tending to turf inside the penalty area at the King Power Stadium as Sunderland’s goalkeepers attempted to warm up.

Pictures showed Black Cats ‘keepers Anthony Patterson and Nathan Bishop complaining at the Foxes staff, for disrupting their warm-up with members of the Sunderland backroom team. Former Leeds coach Barcherini, who is now Sunderland’s first-team goalkeeping coach, was quickly on the scene, urging the ground staff to vacate the area where his goalkeepers were being put through their paces ahead of kick-off.

The video in question was posted by a Sunderland supporter on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: “Mate at the match sent me this. Dirty non league tactics of winding up our goalkeeper”.

The Sunderland players appeared to take issue with the proximity to which Leicester’s groundsmen were aerating the turf with their pitchforks. Enzo Maresca’s side continued their astonishing start to the Championship season, recording yet another win to take them onto 36 points after 13 matches, at Sunderland’s expense, who could not find an answer to James Justin’s first-half header.

Leeds visit the King Power Stadium on Friday, November 3rd in what could prove to be a table-topping clash come the end of the season.