Rotherham 1 City 2
Post Match Analysis by Kate Thompson
And so, the winning run continues, to my surprise and delight. As each match comes along, I get more nervous and, to be honest, yesterday’s game looked for a long time as if it was going to be the first time, we dropped points. Yet again Maresca had opted for two goalkeepers on the substitutes’ bench, at the expense of Nelson. Again, Iheanacho was preferred to Vardy and there was no place for Daka, one of the many rumoured to be on his way out of the club. Kasey McAteer came back from injury to play on the right wing, but Maresca resisted the temptation of start Casadei. Simon Hooper, a Premier League referee, was in charge, which was interesting.
One thing I noticed from the start was that both wingers stayed close to the touchline but came inside fairly frequently; McAteer was the busier of the two. Rotherham appeared to have taken the lead in the ninth minute but, to the relief of the Leicester fans behind the goal where it was ‘scored’, the linesman informed Hooper of an infringement, but there seems no clarity of the exact reason.
The first Leicester goal came soon after; Iheanacho did well to get a cross over from a tight angle and McAteer headed in from very close range – surely one of the easiest goals he will ever score, but all credit to him for being in the right place at the right time.
City were so dominant at times that it seemed a question of when, not if, they scored again. It was not an easy game and if Rotherham had had their shooting boots on, we could well have been behind by more than one goal. The Leicester fans singing ‘Straight back up…’ was asking for trouble!
As has become customary, City started the second half too slowly for comfort and it was no surprise when Rotherham equalised, a header from a free kick. For the next thirty minutes or so, the score stayed at 1-1 and to be honest, it would have been a fair reflection of the way the game went if it had stayed like that.
However, a superb cross-field pass from Doyle found McAteer in acres of space; he moved inside and unleashed a rocket into the top left-hand corner – cue wild celebrations from the Leicester fans! City saw out the rest of the game with few scares and continued their excellent run.
After all, the secret to success is to win when you are not at your best. Marasca was quoted as saying that the team are playing at only 10-20% of what he is looking for and the future looks exciting!
Vardy replaced Iheanacho in the 59th minute but missed more than one opportunity to score; I hope this doesn’t mean that his touch has finally deserted him but fear that might be the case. If as rumoured, Iheanacho goes to Forest, we will need another striker, but there will never be another Vardy. Casadei for Ndidi was another expected change, and it was nice to see Justin get a few minutes in place of McAteer, but I was sorry the latter didn’t have a chance to score a hat trick. The final change was Choudhury for Dewsbury-Hall, who had had a disappointing game by his high standards.
The most impressive player for me was Doyle and it is such a shame that he is only on loan. The other player who played well was Pereira, who started with the captain’s armband but gave it to Vardy when he came on. Vestergaard continued to defy expectations and the defence was generally good. Hermansen worried me with some of his clearances, but I can only hope he knows what he is doing! He was booked, but the reason was unclear; Mavididi was also booked for a poor challenge, along with two Rotherham players.
Leicester City
Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Faes, Vestergaard, Doyle, Ndidi, Winks, Dewsbury-Hall, McAteer, Iheanacho, Mavididi
Substitutes
Ward, Justin, Casadei, Vardy, Albrighton, Choudhury, Thomas, Stolarczyk, Castagne
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation.