Coventry 3 Leicester 1
Post Match Analysis by Kate Thompson
This was always going to be a tricky match as Coventry have been on a good run, and despite City leading 1-0 at half-time they had had to work hard for their lead and Hermansen was busier than he has been on many occasions recently.
There were apparently over 4,000 Leicester fans so it was a full house. The two teams were fairly evenly matched with some stout defending from Faes in particular, who seemed determined to let nothing get past him.
The City fans felt we should have had two penalties for handball but the referee waved them both away, so it was a surprise when he pointed to the spot for a foul on Dewsbury Hall. It looked like just a clash of two players but watching the highlights afterwards it was clear that the defender had raked his studs down the Leicester player’s thigh. The BBC report described it as a fair challenge, but it was the player’s follow-through that caused the problem. You hear ‘but he won the ball’ but that often doesn’t tell the whole story.
Dewsbury Hall picked himself up and took the penalty himself, slotting it into the left-hand corner of the net and sending the goalkeeper the wrong way. This was only just before half-time but there was still time for one last piece of drama, when Fatawu went into a reckless challenge and received a red card. Apparently, Nigel Pearson was commentating, and he saw it as reckless challenge, and said that the player deserved to be sent off.
This meant that City had to play the whole of the second half with only ten men and it was backs to the wall stuff. Mavididi came off for the second half and replaced by McAteer. Their forays into the Coventry half were few and far between. I’m sure I wasn’t the only Leicester fan watching the clock! The players held out until 11 minutes before the end, but sadly they then rather fell apart. After the equaliser, they lasted for another nine minutes until Coventry took the lead and then rubbed salt into the wounds in added time with a third goal.
The mood of the Leicester faithful was not helped by learning that the three clubs immediately below them all won, cutting their lead over Ipswich to seven points. This makes the match a week on Monday against Ipswich an archetypal six-pointer.
City have now lost four matches – one more than they lost in the Premier League title winning season (although they had more draws then). If this was a one-off, we can live with it, but it is very worrying if it starts a trend.
I just hope Maresca can pick the players up and get them back on the winning trail. Too many of them had a ‘bad day at the office’ on Saturday and, frankly, they got what they deserved.
Coventry City: Bradley Collins, Milan van Ewijk, Bobby Thomas, Liam Kitching, Jake Bidwell (Jat Dasilva 67), Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Josh Eccles (Jamie Allen 67), Ben Sheaf, Kasey Palmer (Ellis Simms 79), Callum O’Hare, Matt Godden. Subs (unused): Ben Wilson, Luis Binks, Kyle McFadzean, Joel Latibeaudiere, Liam Kelly, Fábio Tavares
Goals – O’Hare (79, 90+4), Van Ewijk (88)
Booked – Palmer (38), Thomas 42, Sakamoto 43, DaSilva (90+3), Van Ewijk (90+4)
Leicester City: Mads Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard, James Justin, Cesare Casadei, Harry Winks, Abdul Issahaku, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Stephy Mavididi (Kasey McAteer 45), Thomas Cannon (Hamza Choudhury 83). . Subs (unused): Jakub Stolarczyk, Conor Coady, Callum Doyle, Ben Nelson, Marc Albrighton, Dennis Praet, Yunus Akgün
Goals – Dewsbury-Hall (44 pen)
Sent Off – Fatawu (45+2, straight red) Booked – Maresca (74), Winks (78), Cannon (83), Casadei (84)
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.