City 0 Doncaster 0
City and Doncaster played out a largely unexciting 0-0 draw on a chilly evening at the Walkers Stadium. A nasty looking injury to Fryatt was, unfortunately, the only really memorable moment.
City lost the toss, kicking off towards the Kop end. Pearson adopted a 4-5-1 formation, not for the first time recently, with Doncaster playing 4-4-2. Fryatt was the loan striker, with Gallagher and N'Guessan swapping wings as the game progressed, and Oakley, King and Wellens making a solid central midfield. Morrison, Hobbs, Brown, Berner and Weale completed the line-up.
There were very few chances in the first half hour. Doncaster started fairly brightly, initially matching City with some neat passing, but as time progressed City's midfield began to dominate. N'Guessan and King both hit shots well off target, Doncaster had a couple of corners – but largely it was shapeless and chanceless, with the unpredictable quality of Sullivan's kicking from the Doncaster goal being just about the most entertaining item on show….
The key moment of the match occurred in the 29th minute. City attacked down the right, the ball broke towards Fryatt on the corner of the penalty box, and he was taken out by Stock in a "man and ball" challenge. Both players went down, Fryatt clearly unconscious. Play continued for a few seconds, with King heading down from close range, but the ball bouncing over the goal. In the scramble, Sullivan hit the back of his head, so there was a long period with three players requiring treatment. Fryatt was eventually stretchered off, after seven minutes prostrate on the pitch. As I write, the rumour is he has a broken jaw. Stock and Sullivan both recovered. It is difficult to be certain, but my impression was that the challenge on Fryatt was at the very least over-aggressive, and that Stock was fortunate not to receive some punishment.
Waghorn replaced Fryatt, and City had their longest spell of attacking play in the final ten minutes of the half, including the seven minutes of added time. However, Berner's 30 yard effort – that is an effort from 30 yards which missed the goal by about the same margin – was just about the only clear-cut shot on goal.
The second half started at a slightly more lively pace. City had two chances in the first five minutes. Waghorn being tackled when about to shoot in the box, then Gallagher being sent through one-on-one with the keeper for City's best chance of the game, before lifting his shot over the bar. Eight minutes later, N'Guessan was also one-on-one with Sullivan, but the keeper cleared what was, in truth, a far harder chance for City.
After 60 minutes, Dyer replaced Gallagher. City's midfield continued to dominate the game, but Doncaster created chances on the break and their pace occasionally troubled City. Pearson threw N'Guessan up front, with Waghorn dropping to the right, but it made no real difference to City's attacking threat. In the 89th minute, Howard replaced N'Guessan up front – not enough time to have any real impact on the game, but enough time to get a booking for complaining to the referee who had given a foul against him, harshly in my view.
It was a dull game, and unfortunately one in which the performance of the referee was more of a talking point than that of most of the players. Mr Booth did not make any absolute howlers, but he got more little things wrong than he should have (in neither sides favour). He could usefully have shown several yellow cards for time wasting and for pulling back players from behind, both of which were done repeatedly by Doncaster, who seemed happy to get a 0-0 draw right from the kick off. Ironically, when he did book a Doncaster player, Sharp, for punching the ball away when given clearly offside, it was an offence that the referee did not see, but his linesman did and flagged accordingly.
I wish Fryatt a full and speedy recovery. City will miss him if he is absent. The midfield completely dominated this evening, but there was only one decent chance created. Too often, City looked for the next pass when someone needed to take responsibility to go for goal. Indeed, for all their lack of possession, Doncaster created the better chances. Leicester need to find someone else with something approaching a goal-touch, or the push for promotion is likely to lose steam.
Leicester: Weale, Morrison, Brown, Hobbs, Berner, Oakley, King, Wellens, Fryatt (Waghorn 36), N'Guessan (Howard 88),Gallagher (Dyer 60). Subs Not Used: Logan, McGivern, Solano, Bruce.
Doncaster: Sullivan, Chambers, O'Connor, Martis, Roberts, Coppinger, Stock, Wilson, Oster (Hird 85), Hayter, Sharp. Subs Not Used: Smith, Mutch, Guy, Spicer, McDaid, Dumbuya.
Referee: Russell Booth
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