Leicester City 0 – 1 Sheffield Wednesday
Report by Stuart Dawkins
For those of you who were at Tuesday’s match against Leeds and who want the abbreviated version of this report, here goes: the first 80 minutes of the two matches were pretty much identical, but City did not get a last minute equaliser this time.
So, two ‘easy on paper’ home games in a week each saw bigger, stronger, more aggressive and more hard-working teams out-play Leicester and, more importantly, saw five points dropped.
There were two changes to the City starting eleven: Schlupp was recalled from Manchester United to take the left-back spot from the injured Konchesky, and Marshall replaced Knockaert as one of the two wingers.
I’d like to be able to tell you who was on the City bench, but – for some reason best known to the club hierarchy – there is no longer any announcement of the substitutes at any stage during the game. I’m mystified by this: discussing which sub to bring on is one of the many pleasures of watching a football match – a pleasure no longer available at the King Power stadium. Presumably this is designed to ‘enhance the customer experience’, like a number of other recent changes; unlike others, however, I can’t see any how it improves the club’s revenue streams in any way.
Anyway, rant over; back to the match …
Very little of note happened in the first half. Nugent was lively and got in a number of shots from distance. Marshall took quite a few corners, all of which were caught by Wednesday ‘keeper, former City-man Chris Kirkland. Sheffield Wednesday had the better chances and won most of the headers in midfield and defence; they are a huge team – looking taller and physically stronger than City in almost every position.
City’s best chance of the half was in the 41st minute, when De Laet – not for the first time – muscled his way into the Wednesday box to have his close-range shot well blocked by the keeper.
Nil-nil at half time, and neither side made any substitutions.
The second half was a little livelier. Wednesday, again, had the marginally better chances; they were knocking Leicester off the ball in midfield, and hitting long balls for the lively Leroy Lita – their lone striker – to chase. The whole City team were just slightly off their game.
With about an hour gone, Conor Wickham replaced the huge Reda Johnson for Wednesday; shortly afterwards Knockaert replaced Kane – with Marshall swapping to the left wing. Kane had barely touched the ball all game, and had given City no width on the left-hand side.
Shortly afterwards, City fashioned one of their few clear chances: their best cross of the day was made from the right by, of all people, Wes Morgan, Wood headed the ball back into the middle, but Marshall’s volley flew well over the bar.
In the 70th minute, Wednesday crossed from the right wing, Morgan was out-jumped and the ball fell to an unmarked Wickham, who hammered home from 10 yards. In truth, I’m not sure either side deserved to take the lead in what had been a scrappy game, but now surely City could and would up the pace, as they did on Tuesday, to press for an equaliser?
The answer was ‘no, not really’. Gallagher replaced Marshall, taking up a central position with Nugent moving to the wide left. Marshall had had a lot of possession, but his passing and crossing were both consistently poor; he is a good player, but has had a number of disappointing games recently.
With 10 minutes to go, Semedo replaced Lita for Wednesday, who had played well, always threatening the City defence. A few minutes later, a Wednesday player caught De Laet from behind well after the ball had been passed: it looked a nasty foul leaving De Laet lying motionless just off the pitch near the dugouts. The referee, rightly, played advantage but was clearly wrong not to at least book the offending Wednesday when play next stopped. De Laet was immediately substituted, being replaced by St Ledger, and – worrying – was stretchered down the tunnel a few minutes later.
City attempted to repeat the last-ditch tactics of Tuesday: Wes Morgan moving to centre forward, Kasper Schmeichel going forwards for a City free kick on the half-way line. The referee indicated five minutes of injury time, a fair reflection of the copious time-wasting by Wednesday, and City did manage to fashion a couple of chances.
Morgan scrambled a cross to Wood, but the ‘keeper smothered the ball before the City striker could shoot, then – seconds later – Morgan headed another cross to Knockaert at the edge of the box, but he looped his shot over the bar. The final action of the match was Gallagher putting in a decent shot from the edge of the box, but Kirkland saved comfortably – and that was that – the match ending with a victory for Wednesday, to the delight of their large and noisy following of fans.
The positives for City? Schlupp had a generally steady game. De Laet played well, and was involved in a number of City’s goal-threats: let’s hope his injury is not as serious as it looked. Nugent looked lively in the first half, but his shooting was awry – a trait he shared with the rest of the City team – and it was good to see St Ledger back in the team after his long injury.
Opposing teams seem to have sussed City out: they are easily out-fought, particularly in midfield. Today, this was helped by an over-lenient referee, who let a lot of niggly pushes and challenges go un-punished – but that is not to blame the ref for the defeat: he was consistent throughout, and Wednesday were the team who took advantage of it.
City will have to play a lot better than this to have any chance of having a play-off position at the end of the season.
Leicester City: Schmeichel, De Laet, Morgan, Keane, Drinkwater, Marshall, King, Schlupp, Nugent, Kane, Wood. Substitutes: Logan, St Ledger, Gallagher, Wellens, Knockaert, Vardy, Waghorn
Sheffield Wednesday: Kirkland, Buxton, R Johnson, Gardner, Llera, Antonio, Helan, Pugh, Lee, Prutton, Lita. Substitutes: Bywater, Taylor, Semedo, A Johnson, McCabe, Madine, Wickham
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