Watford 2 City 1
Report by Kate Thompson
Watford is the nearest Championship ground to where I live, but I haven’t seen City do well there for a long time; in fact the last time I can remember them winning was when Muzzy Izzet scored to put us into the Premiership!
Sadly, this match followed the pattern of the previous seasons, as a woeful City side were swept aside by a team who took the game to them. It seems to be that City have been rumbled by other clubs, who have realised that if they take the game to Leicester from the outset, and stop them playing their slick passing game, there is no plan B.
After writing about last week’s disappointing performance against Palace, I was hoping for better things, but as a Leicester fan of 50 years, I should have known better. The players looked like 11 individuals who didn’t know each other very well and some of the passing was woeful.
I was pleased to see Ben Marshall returned to the side, but sadly he did little to cement a permanent place; my other favourite, Danny Drinkwater, was marginally better than he was last week so his substitution at half-time was puzzling. His replacement, Dyer, did little either; he may have blistering pace but that is useless if there is nothing at the end of it.
Watford scored their first goal in the 14th minute and deserved it, as City looked like a poor non-league team, incapable of passing to a team-mate and of holding onto the ball; Watford harried them into mistake after mistake.
After about half-an-hour City woke up and looked a bit like the side they can be, but there was nothing to show for their domination of the game. This time, the second goal didn’t come until the 69th minute but all credit to City, they kept going and Nugent was rewarded with a goal four minutes later. They could have got an equaliser out of it, which would have been undeserved, but went down to ten men after Whitbread was dismissed for a second yellow card.
When Morgan and Moore collided halfway through the second half, the latter needed a long spell of treatment and it was surprised to see him come back on. Up to then, he had been disappointing but ironically he improved afterwards – I think the bang on the head had an effect and he thought he was a right winger!
Apart from Dyer, Waghorn and Futacs came on in a double substitution in the 64th minute, for Knockaert and Marshall. Apparently there were boos for Knockaert being taken off but he had done little to deserve to stay on. Waghorn, who I have criticised recently, actually had a good cameo role and played more of an all-round game.
Of the rest, Schmeichel was back to his imperious self and could do nothing about the two goals. Nugent ran tirelessly all match and his solitary goal was some reward. I was particularly impressed when he ran to get the ball for a Watford throw-in, to keep the game moving when it was clear that the Watford players were going to waste as much time as possible.
Whitbread looked shaky and once St Ledger is fully fit I can’t see him getting back in the team; Konchesky was his normal solid self. In midfield King and James did their best but the former in particular was a shadow of the player we saw earlier in the season, when he seemed to have got back to his old form.
Futacs didn’t do a lot but I would like to see him given more time to play, as he is one of the few tall players in the side; against some giants in the Watford team (about half of them on loan from the Italian club Udinese) the Leicester players were always second-best.
I wonder how long it will be until we get the ‘Pearson out’ brigade again? Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that our spell of poor performances has coincided with Nigel being on crutches after a knee operation? Maybe the sight of him prowling the line spurs the players on!
Next week, it is the arch rivals Nottingham Forest – surely a game that will excite the players to a higher level of performance, as defeat in a local derby is unthinkable. City have dropped to fourth, which is not too bad, but they need to turn the performances around before they get too far behind. One consolation is that Cardiff lost to Bolton, but who are we playing next?
Leicester: Schmeichel, Moore, Morgan, Whitbread, Konchesky, Drinkwater (Dyer 46), King, James, Marshall (Waghorn 62), Knockaert (Futacs 62), Nugent Subs not used: Logan, Danns, Gallagher, Schlupp
Watford: Almunia, Cassetti, Hall (Anya 90 +1:26), Doyley, Hoban, Pudil, Hogg, Abdi (Smith 86), Chalobah, Deeney, Forestieri (Vydra 79) Subs not used: Bond, Yeates, Geijo, Battocchio
Attendance: 12,954Referee: Andy D'Urso
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