City 4 Macclesfield 3 – Carling Cup 1st Round
In a surprisingly enthralling encounter, albeit more one-sided than the scoreline suggests, Leicester emerged 4-3 victors against League Two visitors Macclesfield Town in the first round Carling Cup clash.
New boss Paulo Sousa, making his bow as the ELEVENTH manager in the short history of the Walkers Stadium, made six changes from the side that suffered an opening-day setback at Selhurst Park.
Recent signings Tom Kennedy and Moreno were brought into the starting eleven, along with Conrad Logan, Richie Wellens, Steve Howard and the fit-again Paul Gallagher. Those displaced took their places on the subs bench, with the exception of King who was absent on international duty.
However, any hopes that the changes would bring about extra stability in defence were soon dashed, as Macclesfield forced a save from Logan in the opening two minutes.
Jack Hobbs, last season's player of the year, is having an uncertain start to the current campaign, and a collision with Logan did nothing to dispel his nerves. Worse was to follow from the resultant corner, as visiting centreback Nat Brown headed past a static defence to put Macc ahead…..
This stung City into action and for the rest of the half, the attack, prompted well by Gallagher and Howard, created opportunities virtually at will. But a combination of good goalkeeping and weak finishing meant that reward was limited to a strike from Robbie Neilson, who tapped home a rebound from a Howard drive.
It seemed only a matter of time, though, before the home side made their superior quality tell, and two fine strikes from Matty Fryatt in the opening minutes after the restart gave a more accurate reflection of the balance of play.
The scoreline sufficiently satisfied Sousa to replace Matt Oakley and the tiring Gallagher with Michael Morrison and the rejuvenated DJ Campbell, who received a warm reception from the Foxes faithful.
But it was the Macclesfield substitute Vinny Mukendi who was next to find the scoresheet, after further lapses in the home defence. Although a fine passing move saw Wellens restore the two-goal margin within minutes, the uncertainty at the back persisted and a late strike by Colin Daniel gave the visiting hordes, numbering just over 100, faint hopes of parity.
As the final tally of 27 efforts on goal (18 of which were on target) showed, the creative elements of the new-look City side are in fine working order. The same, however, cannot be said of the defence, where Chris Weale and Bruno Berner, among others, were definitely missed.
But Sousa's first two games in charge have gone a long way towards dispelling his previous image as a dour, defence-oriented tactician, Most players seem to relish the emphasis on passing football and there are signs that this approach can pay dividends as the season progresses.
Far too frequently in recent years, midweek matches at the Walkers have possessed all the allure of do-it-yourself dental surgery. This game, at least, was welcome contrast to the usual fare, and gave many onlookers reason to believe in football again.
City: Logan, Neilson, Hobbs, Moreno, Kennedy, N'Guessan, Wellens, Oakley, Gallagher, Howard, Fryatt. Subs: Weale, Morrison (Oakley 65), Dyer, Berner, Parkes, Verma (Moreno 78), Campbell (Gallagher 65).
Macclesfield: Veiga, Brisley, Bencherif, Brown, Tremarco, Daniel, Butcher, Bolland, Hamshaw, Barnett, Sinclair. Subs: Cudworth, Reid, Chalmers (54 for Bolland), Draper, Beardsley, Wedgbury (71 for Hamshaw), Mukendi (54 for Mukendi).
Referee: Jock Waugh (South Yorks). ATTENDANCE: 6,142
GOALS: Neilson 35, Fryatt 47, 51, Wellens 70 (City), Brown 15, Mukendi 64, Daniel 83 (Macclesfield).
Colin Hall is Lord Mayor of Leicester and Chair of the Forget-me-not charity Appeal for enhanced dementia care in the city.
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