Coventry 1 City 1
After the somewhat unexpected win against Middlesbrough on Tuesday, hopes were high for a repeat at Coventry. All the talk before the game started was about D J Campbell being named among the substitutes. Once again, Kermorgant started in place of Howard and Gallagher continued with his free-moving role behind the two main strikers.
City took nearly 5,000 fans with them, giving Coventry their biggest gate of the season, but there were lots of empty seats in the home sections compared with the packed end behind the goal where the City fans were.
City started quite brightly although most of the action was at the end furthest from the City fans so it was difficult to see everything that happened. When Coventry did manage to get past the halfway line, they didn’t cause much of a threat with a number of wayward shots from their top strikers…..
So the free kick they were awarded just outside the box, which led to their goal, was against the run of play and it was a bit hard on Gallagher, especially as a similar incident in the second half was ‘rewarded’ by a free kick to Coventry! The referee incensed the City fans with some of his decisions and poor old Howard, when he came on, continued his pattern of being penalised nearly every time he went for the ball.
Fair play to Coventry, the free kick was a beauty but they really didn’t deserve their lead and at the beginning of the second half City were struggling to get any sort of game going. Their earlier fluency had deserted them and Pearson obviously believed that a radical solution was needed. It was certainly a bold step to bring on three strikers and was taking a bit of a risk if any of the other players had picked up a serious injury. Campbell was one of the three and so far as I could tell his arrival was met with a muted response, certainly I didn’t hear him booed.
The substitutions proved inspirational and two of them crafted a simple route one goal – but what a strike! I’ve looked at it several times on the BBC web site and it was a cracker, certainly ranking with the best that a City player has scored. A long punt from Weale was headed down by Howard to Waghorn, who took one step and fired it into the top corner. It was one of those that might have gone anywhere but thankfully it found the net. It appeared to have been scored by Wayne Waghorn – is that Martyn’s brother?
City looked the more likely to get the win and for a while it looked on the cards, but in the end they had to settle for a draw. Nevertheless, four points out of a possible six from two tricky away games is promotion form. A personal point, though; I am not sure that promotion this season is a good idea, as we would probably come straight back down again. My dream is to win the FA Cup, but I know that a lot of younger fans will not understand this.
So no real complaints about the result although I’m sure Pearson and the players were disappointed at having to settle for a draw. They all had a good game with no real weaknesses, although Fryatt was rather subdued; he grafted away but little seemed to work for him. Weale didn’t have a lot to do but made a couple of first-class saves, and I prefer Morrison at right-back.
Ironically, we went up to 7th in the table, four points above Coventry, and this is quite a good place to be. It was an entertaining match with both sides looking to come out on top.
Leicester: Weale; Morrison, Hobbs, Brown, Berner, Gallagher, Oakley, A King, Dyer, Fryatt, Kermorgant. Subs:Logan; McGivern, Adams, Wellens, Waghorn (60 for Fryatt), Howard (60 for Kermorgant), Campbell (60 for Gallagher).
Booked: Gallagher, Brown.
Coventry City: Westwood; Wright, Clingan, Ward, Best, Eastwood, Morrison, van Aanholt, Cranie, Gunnarsson, Cork. Subs: Konstantopoulos, Osbourne (71 for Clingan), Walker, Cain, Grandison, Clarke, Jeffers.
Referee M Oliver. Attendance: 22,209.
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