A tight game
Although Leicester went into the M69 derby fifteen points and 11 places below Coventry, they were in reasonable shape. Since the Boxing Day defeat to Watford, they had won three out of four games although, admittedly, one of these was against lower league opposition. Moreover, Foxes players should have been well rested after, for the first time in a while, having had a full week to prepare for the game. By contrast, Coventry had been, of late, struggling to maintain their early season form failing to win any of their last four games and losing four out of the last ten.
Foxes’ fans, therefore, had reason to suspect their team might have a chance of adding to the Sky Blue’s discomfort. It was not to be. In the first half, Leicester put in a very good performance, probably the best of the season, and went into the break ahead courtesy of a well-worked goal, his ninth of the season, by Jordan James. Coventry offered little going forward.
The second half was a different matter, Coventry equalising with a scrappy goal by Ellis Simms. That’s now 21 league games since Leicester have had a clean sheet. It took a further ten minutes before the Foxes got some semblance of control back. The game could have gone either way but Coventry won it with a tap-in by Haji Wright after Luke Thomas allowed Tatsuhiro Sakamoto to get free. Wright looked suspiciously offside.
Another 45-minute performance
This season, Leicester have been notoriously inconsistent failing, in most games, to put in a 90- minute performance. At the CBS Arena, the first half performance - marked by sharp passing, high work-rate and strong defending – was impressive. In the second, despite the fact that Coventry upped their game, there was an obvious drop-off in the Foxes’ game.
In the second half, the Foxes looked lightweight, losing far too many second balls, and the passing went to pieces. There seems to be a fitness problem. It is not insignificant that the stats revealed this week that the distance covered by Leicester players is the lowest of any Championship team this season.
Missed chances
Whilst true that the Foxes’ second half performance at the CBS Arena was much inferior to their first, the fall-off alone was not responsible for the defeat. Rather, the result was the product of missed chances, particularly in the first half, and poor defending in the second.
In the first, Bobby DeCordova Reid should have scored once, if not twice, and, in the second, Abdul Fatawu missed two good chances. The defence was solid in the first half but, in the second, both Caleb Okoli and Luke Thomas were very poor. The failure of the club to strengthen up front and at the back is proving very costly.
Defeat at Wrexham on Tuesday evening, coupled with the incoming points deduction, probably ends any prospect of finishing in the play-off places. The future of the club will then look very uncertain.