Tuesday 8 March 2011

Conclusions from Norwich City

Leicester2-3Norwich City
(HT 1-1)
Wellens 23
Gallagher 90+4
Hoolahan 21
Holt pen 49
Wilbraham 59

Att: 23,398
BBC Match Report



  • Sunday morning football at the Walkers. Poor near-post defending from Yakubu cost Leicester a goal as Wes Hoolahan beat him with an easy header. That lead lasted seconds before Richie Wellens took advantage of a howler from Chris Foy, the referee missing Matt Oakley's handball to wave play on and hand the opportunity to Wellens who made no mistake to head home. From then, the Foxes were reminiscent of a Sunday League outfit, guilty of mistakes at both ends of the pitch. This was not the fault of one player - this was a dire team display.
  • Down and out? So. Farewell then Leicester City's hopes of promotion. Eight points adrift of the play-off places the dreams of automatic promotion of a month ago seem a long way away now. That night at the Cardiff City Stadium seems even more remote. Only a miracle could have saved the Foxes in this dark second period - and neither Martyn Waghorn nor Paul Gallagher could provide one tonight. This could well go down as the night that Leicester City stopped being play-off hopefuls and became, instead, a mid-table mediocrity. 
  • Paul Gallagher's free kick was sublime. A pity, therefore, it came only in the last seconds of the game and served only as an utterly academic statistic. The one consolation from this result is that, in terms of the scoreline, the utter disgrace that was the Foxes' performance was hidden by a farcical one goal deficit. Farcical? Because Norwich deserved more.



Winners
Bruno Berner
The forgotten man far too often, Berner not only delivered a blinder of a cross to feed Richie Wellens for the Foxes equaliser, he continued to ask the question of the Norwich defence throughout the game. Pushing forward, it was at times difficult to remember that the full back he was up against is nearly a decade his junior. A sterling performance from Leicester's model professional.

Richie Wellens
Insert regular superlatives here.



Losers
Yakubu
The lad needs to put some effort in if he is to prove himself at Leicester. There is no doubting his ability and skill, but he needs to put in a full shift - and avoid silly defensive errors - to become beloved of Foxes fans. His poor shooting tonight may well have cost Leicester a play-off place.

21-odd thousand Blue Army
What a poor way to spend your money on a Tuesday night. You'd have had a better time, as a Leicester fan, walking through western Libya in a Gaddafi mask.

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