Watford 0 City 1
Report by Kate Thompson
On a bitterly cold night in Watford, those of us who are longer in the tooth wondered if this was the day it all unravelled – but we needn’t have worried. City brought back the influential Kante and the unfortunate King dropped to the bench.
As in so many games, City started at a rate of knots and Watford were struggling to cope with them. Despite this there were few chances and the nearest either side came was a Watford shot that narrowly went over the bar in front of the vociferous City fans.
In one lovely move, some inter-passing between Vardy and Mahrez should have led to a goal but our top goal scorer put this one slightly wide. Even Fuchs got in on the act and his snap shot was finally scrambled away. Although Schmeichel didn’t have a lot to do, he needed to be alert to some difficult shots and crosses.
After half-time Ranieri showed his usual tactical astuteness by bringing on two substitutes – King and Schlupp – for Albrighton and Okazaki. Neither of the replaced players had done much wrong but Ranieri saw that we were being a bit overwhelmed in midfield and also pushed Mahrez up to support Vardy. As so many times before, what an inspired decision!
Within 11 minutes of the re-start, King put a lovely pass to Fuchs on the left wing and the resulting cross led to a scuffed attempted clearance; it landed at Mahrez’ feet; he took one step to control it and then let fly with his left boot into the top corner where the keeper had no chance of reaching it. As this happened in front of the City faithful, cue the usual pandemonium.
Watford had no answer and their normal dynamic pair of Ighalo and Deeney were pretty toothless. City could have gone further ahead, with Huth perhaps the most unlucky player,
While on another rampaging run up the right flank Mahrez suddenly pulled up clutching the back of his leg and we immediately thought it was his hamstring. He seemed to recover, so much so that he was very reluctant to be substituted when Amartey came on for him in the 85th minute. We were told afterwards that it was only cramp.
So a very workmanlike performance – a team performance which seems to be the key to the wonderful season we have had. If we needed reminding, we know now that a team who work hard for each other and never give up can beat 11 over-paid and over-hyped superstars any time. So job well done and we are now on 60 points, five clear of the chasing pack.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez (Amartey 85), Drinkwater, Kante, Albrighton (Schlupp 46), Vardy, Okazaki (King 46). Subs not used: Gray, Ulloa, Wasilewski, Schwarzer
Watford: Gomes, Nyom (Anya 82), Prodl, Ake, Holebas, Amrabat, Mario Suarez (Abdi 65), Watson, Capoue (Oulare 88), Deeney, Ighalo. Subs not used: Behrami, Paredes, Guedioura, Pantilimon
Attendance: 20,884 Referee: Jon 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