Leicester City 0 – 1 Preston North End
Excluding three disallowed goals, Leicester managed no shots on target during a game in which they dominated possession. Preston managed one shot on target and won 1-0. This was not quite the worst game I have seen all season- there has been a lot of competition for that title – but I think it was the dullest, with neither goalkeeper making a save in the whole match.
City started with the same 11 as they played against Cardiff, giving Hendrie his home debut playing in the left midfield of a 4-4-2 formation.
In the first minute, Henderson had to be lively to come off his line to smother a through ball, thwarting what was to be Preston’s best move for nearly 90 minutes. In fact, Preston looked the sharper team in the first 15 minutes, but City’s defence was unthreatened.
Hendrie and Hume swapped wings mid-way through the half, coinciding with Leicester’s most coordinated period of attacking play. Hendrie looked lively, appearing in the box a number of times, but City’s attack failed to get any meaningful strike on goal. The pair reverted to their more usual roles for the remainder of the match.
Throughout the game Preston showed no real ambition, other than to pump high balls for their forwards to chase. City played the better football in patches, but there were few real highlights, with City’s best move in the first half a 50-yard breakaway run by Hume, passing to Campbell who released Stearman, but he could only shoot across the face of goal.
Half-time: 0-0…..
My notebook records nothing of any consequence from half time to the 59th minute, when Mattock came on to replace Clemence. Mattock took the left wing slot, with Hendrie moving to central midfield. City continued to dominate possession, but with no end product. The game was, frankly, dreadful. A series of poor decisions from the referee and linesman did not help, and to make matters even duller, both sets of forwards were caught offside far too often.
The home crowd’s calling for Matty Fryatt bore fruit in the 71st minute, when a double substitution saw Hayles and Fryatt replace Howard and Campbell. The new strike pair managed to get the ball into the Preston goal twice in the next 10 minutes, but both were correctly, though somewhat unfortunately, given as offside.
Preston were wasting time whenever possible from midway through the second half, clearly happy with a draw. With 90 minutes almost up, they got better than that: their number 11, Carter, showed their only moment of quality, collecting the ball 25 yards out, then turning and beating Henderson from 20 yards.
The three minutes of stoppage time reverted to an all-too familiar pattern this season. Leicester, 1-0 down with little time left, suddenly looked urgent and incisive, and began to look like they might score. Fryatt headed a decent chance wide after 91 minutes, then City got a right-wing corner in the final minute. Henderson joined the strikers in Preston’s box, the ball came over and found its way into the Preston goal, only to be disallowed by a flag from the linesman. Game over.
City’s performance was simply not good enough. As ever, the defence looked solid – and N’Gotty was the best player, dealing with Preston’s direct approach very well. Hendrie looked lively in the first half, but faded. Hume looks out of place on the right; he is the only player of the starting eleven who looks like he knows how to score, so why play him there? Campbell hustles and bustles but has yet to look like a goal-scorer in a City shirt, and Howard looked slow and ineffectual.
City probably have just about enough points to make relegation unlikely, but they are by no means safe. Holloway needs to make changes to do something about the lack of goals. There have been too many games now with no cutting edge.
Try playing Fryatt, there is no real downside. Try playing Hume where he should be played. Give the midfield more scope to attack. For the faithful 19,000 who decided not to watch live Champions League football live on TV and instead went to the Walkers on a bitterly cold evening, try anything rather than having to watch City give away yet another loss to a mediocre, guileless team playing with no ambition.
Teams:
Leicester: Henderson, Stearman, N'Gotty, Kisnorbo, Clapham, Hume, Oakley, Clemence (Mattock 59), Hendrie, Campbell (Fryatt 71), Howard (Hayles 71). Subs Not Used: James Chambers, McAuley.
Preston: Lonergan, St. Ledger, Mawene, Chilvers, Hill, Sedgwick, McKenna, Carter, Whaley (Lewis Neal 77), Brown, Beattie (Mellor 38). Subs Not Used: Chris Neal, Hawley, Jones.
Booked: Hill, St. Ledger. Goals: Carter 90.
Attendance: 19,264 Referee: Roger East.
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