Blinksportsnews247Leicester 1 Coventry 3
Kate Thompson’s post-match analysis
Coventry has been playing well, so this was always going to be a difficult game. Even though City led 1-0 at the break, they had earned it through hard effort, and Hermansen was busier than he has been a lot lately.
It was a full house, with an estimated 4,000 Leicester supporters present. With some strong defensive by Faes in particular, who seemed determined to let nothing go past him, the two sides were quite well matched.
It was unexpected when the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty on Dewsbury Hall because the City supporters thought we should have had two penalties for handball, but he waved them both away. Although it appeared to be just a collision between the two players, it was evident from the replays that the defender had run his studs all the way down the Leicester player’s thigh. Although the player’s failure to follow through was what led to the issue, the BBC report characterized it as a legitimate challenge. “But he won the ball,” is a common refrain, yet it rarely provides the full picture.
Dewsbury Hall got up on his own and took the penalty, putting it into the left corner of the net and misleading the goalie.
This meant that it was backs to the wall football for City, who had to play the whole second half with just ten men. For the second half, McAteer took Mavididi’s position. Their incursions into the Coventry region were infrequent. I’m positive I wasn’t the only Leicester supporter observing the time! Sadly, the guys didn’t hold out until eleven minutes left in the game before they kind of fell apart. They went on for nine more minutes after the equalizer before Coventry grabbed the lead and added more misery with a third goal in added time.
Even though they had more draws in that season when they won the Premier League, City has now lost four games, which is one more than they did that season. We can tolerate it if this is an isolated incident, but if it becomes a pattern, it is cause for great concern.
All I can hope for is that Maresca can rally the players and get them back to winning ways. Far too many of them received what they deserved on Saturday after having a “bad day at the office.”
Bradley Collins, Milan van Ewijk, Bobby Thomas, Liam Kitching, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Josh Eccles (Jamie Allen 67), Ben Sheaf, Kasey Palmer (Ellis Simms 79), Callum O’Hare, Matt Godden, and Jake Bidwell (Jat Dasilva 67) are the Coventry City players. Ben Wilson, Joel Latibeaudiere, Kyle McFadzean, Luis Binks, and unused substitutes
Goals: Van Ewijk (88), O’Hare (79, 90+4)
Palmer (38), Thomas (42) Sakamoto (43) DaSilva (90+3) Van Ewijk (90+4) are booked.
Leicester City: Abdul Issahaku, Harry Winks, Abdul Hermansen, Ricardo Pereira, Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard, James Justin, Cesare Casadei, Stephy Mavididi (Kasey McAteer 45), Thomas Cannon (Hamza Choudhury 83). .. Unused substitutes: Yunus Akgün, Marc Albrighton, Ben Nelson, Conor Coady, Callum Doyle, Dennis Praet, and Jakub Stolarczyk
Dewsbury-Hall (44 pen) goals
Fatawu (45+2, straight red) was sent off. Maresca (74), Winks (78), Cannon (83), and Casadei (84) are scheduled.
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