City 0 Hull 0
Report by Ian Bason
In another frustrating afternoon at the King Power stadium, City fans watched as a one year stay in the Premier League looks ever more likely, with Hull having the three best chances to find the net, while City failed to show any real penetration.
As indicated in the media, Nigel Pearson stuck to an unchanged 3 man central defence, but at least selected a more attack minded pair of wing backs in De Laet and Schlupp. Upfront, Pearson chose to recall Vardy, rather than try the Ulloa and Kramaric combination, and that decision seemed to be the main downfall, in an unproductive first half.
I really couldn’t decide what the actual formation was supposed to be upfront, certainly a Vardy/Kramaric combination didn’t work, in part because any head height balls up forward were easily swallowed up by the Hull back three, but also because Kramaric consistently either came deep or moved wide to get the ball, and no one was going into the space created, so five Hull defenders only had one player to mark.
The best first half City effort, came from Kramaric drifting wide and then cutting back in again, with little ahead of him, tried a chip which just cleared the angle of the bar & post. However Hull should have gone into the dressing room at half time in the lead, after Jelavic fluffed a fairly easy chance. Jelavic did manage to get the ball in the net soon afterwards, but N’Doye had clearly fouled Schwarzer.
Half time crowd talk mainly revolved around “can’t see us scoring”, and the second half seemed to start at a leisurely pace, which made it much easier for fans to watch the clock tick through the 47 mins and 50 seconds, so the 1 minute applause in memory of City fan, Terry Orton who passed away on the way to the Everton game, started exactly on time.
As soon as the 1 minute was complete, the Union SF section struck up a passionate “Leicester Till I Die”, quickly followed by L1 joining in. As someone not prone to it, this brought a lump to my throat, and was a fitting further tribute.
On the hour, Pearson made his first switch, replacing Kramaric with Ulloa, and this seemed to bring Vardy to life in the knowledge that if he made pacey runs, Ulloa would be in the box to get on the end of any crosses.
Vardy now became our main threat, winning a series of free kicks as Hull struggled to contain him, and on yet another run Huddlestone’s challenge just outside the area saw him receive his second booking, and City now had 18 minutes to beat 10 men.
The resulting free kick, saw City’s best shot, when the ball was rolled to Schlupp whose shot looked goal bound until it hit Ulloa, another unlucky moment.
Facing 10 men, the crowd became increasingly restless that 3 central defenders were still on the pitch, the next substitution saw Tom Lawrence replacing a presumably tiring De Laet, with Mahrez pushed more centrally.
Once again, the lesser spotted Albrighton was nowhere to be seen. I do wonder if Pearson ever watched the video of Ulloa’s goals for Brighton from last season, the vast majority of which came from decent crosses, which was why I thought Albrighton was brought in to provide them, Lawrence had no impact on the game.
Vardy continued to be the main threat and soon after Nugent had finally replaced Morgan in the 84th minute, another bursting run ended with a cross which Nugent could only deflect into the side netting.
However the closet chance to a goal in the half came at the wrong end when N’Doye took a quick free kick and Schwarzer did well to save Hernandez’s shot.
Looking at the options on the bench, I do remember a time when Andy King was regarded as the best finisher at the club, facing 10 men, it would have been worth swapping him for the more defensive minded James (who had a poor game by his standards) and isn’t known for his finishing skills (assuming De Laet could have lasted).
I always try to look for positives from a game, for this game these all came off the pitch, with the 48th minute applause and then walking away from the ground I walked alongside a guy on the phone who was speaking positively about the Union FS meeting he had attended earlier in the day and declared “I’ll be here next season and beyond regardless of which division we are in”.
The next conundrum for LCFC off the pitch, will be how to retain the vast majority of the 7,000 new season ticket holders they gained this year, assuming a year of Championship football will be served.
Leicester: Schwarzer, De Laet (Lawrence 76), Morgan (Nugent 84), Huth, Upson, Schlupp, Mahrez, Cambiasso, James, Vardy, Kramaric (Ulloa 61). Subs not used: Schmeichel, Drinkwater, King, Wasilewski
Hull City: McGregor, Dawson, Bruce, McShane, Elmohamady, Livermore, Huddlestone, Ramirez (Hernandez 85), Robertson (Meyler 79), N'Doye, Jelavic (Quinn 78). Subs not used: Figueroa, Davies, Harper, Aluko
Attendance: 31,456 Referee: Jonathan Moss
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