Leicester City 1 – 1 Stoke City
City returned to league action after their fine win at premiership Aston Villa just 3 days earlier . Stoke were the visitors to the Walkers Stadium who themselves had started the season well. City Manager Gary Megson made 3 changes to the side that started at Villa, in came DJ Campbell Mark De Vries and Carl Cort replacing Matty Fryatt, Iain Hume and Radostan Kishishev as Megson gambled with a 3-4-3 formation.
Stoke started well and could have taken an early lead but Richard Cresswell failed to turn in a cross come shot. City were struggling to get a foothold in the match and it came as no surprise when after 15 minutes Ricardo Fuller twisted through the city defence and hit a deflected shot that deceived Foxes keeper Marton Fulop and gave Stoke a deserved lead.
City struggled to impress for the rest of the first half and the only real note was a Gareth McAuley header that was claimed by Stoke keeper Simonsen with Campbell and Cort both waiting to put the ball away
HALF TIME 0-1
Megson was clearly not happy with the first half display and made a double substitution at half time. Fryatt and Hume replaced the ineffective Campbell and De Vries. The Leicester boss could not have been happier with the impact……
James Chambers playing in a unfamiliar central midfield role picked up the ball 25 yards out and played a nice through ball to Fryatt who cut inside and placed a cool finish past Simonsen to get Leicester back on level terms.
Fryatt makes an immediate impact (Picture courtesy of Raymonds/lcfc.com)
City dominated for the next 20 minutes and should have gone in front but a Hume volley flew over following McAuleys flick on from a long throw. Stearman also had an opportunity late on but his tame shot was claimed by Simonsen.
The crowd of 23,654 again went home frustrated by a 1-1 scoreline, City must improve for the visit of Wolves on Tuesday night.
Leicester: Fulop, McAuley, N'Gotty, Kisnorbo, Chambers, Campbell (Fryatt 46), Clemence, Stearman, Mattock, Cort (Kishishev 72), De Vries (Hume 46). Subs Not Used: Henderson, Newton.
Booked: Chambers, McAuley. Goals: Fryatt 47.
Stoke: Simonsen, Wright, Zakuani, Shawcross, Wilkinson, Lawrence, Matteo, Delap (Eustace 32), Cresswell, Fuller, Parkin. Subs Not Used: Hoult, Sweeney, De Laet, Phillips.
Booked: Cresswell, Fuller, Wilkinson. Goals: Fuller 15.
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