Russell Martin’s painfully awkward Leicester celebration has made us feel sorry for him | OneFootball

Russell Martin unwittingly became the subject of an awkward group hug on the touchline during Leicester’s EFL Trophy game on Tuesday.

The Foxes, who not too long ago would have been eligible to send their Under-21s to this competition, faced Fulham’s kids with the trophy serving as a perhaps needed distraction for their so far stuttering League One campaign.

But Martin again found himself as the subject of an embarrassing moment after Leicester opened the scoring in the 15th minute.

New signing Admir Bristric scored his first goal for the club and, to celebrate, he beckoned his teammates over to the sideline to celebrate with Martin.

Unfortunately, just two further players joined in meaning it was a rather awkward-looking group hug between Martin, Bristow, Memeh Caleb Okoli and Warren O’Hora.

Fair enough, it’s the Jersey Mike’s Subs Trophy and not the Champions League final. But it did hint at not all being well within the Foxes’ dressing room.

It’s not just the players who are underwhelmed by the current situation and the fans’ discontent was best demonstrated by just how few of them turned up. Only 1,706 fans were in attendance, meaning the King Power was just 5% full.

Walsall, who are in the same group as Leicester and have a stadium a third of the size, had just 500 fans fewer than that.

Despite almost no one being there to see it, Leicester did in fact win 6-1 thanks to a Bristric hat-trick who had not scored in his previous six outings for the club.

Will that provide some much-needed confidence for Leicester to take into their league campaign? Probably not but they could do with it.

The Foxes are 13th in the table having at one point been the clear favourite to return to the Championship but after a disastrous start, Martin has at least turned the tide somewhat.

Leicester picked up their first win against Plymouth and while they were then hammered 4-0 by Oxford, they have at least gone unbeaten in their previous two.

They face Blackpool next, a team one point below them but on a run of four games without a win so the onus will again be on the Foxes to secure all three points.

It’s obvious to say but Martin could really do with a couple of his players going on a goalscoring run with Emil Riis Jakobsen and Liam Cullen currently being the top scorers in the league on just two, six short of division leader Jack Marriott.

Martin still has work to do to win back a lot of the fans, and seemingly parts of the dressing room, and it’s getting to the ‘win or you’re sacked’ stage.

By Sam Cooper