Leicester City stay bottom after Joe Ledley header for Crystal Palace
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Version 0 of 1. That Leicester City failed to score, and therefore take even a point, from a match that until well into the second half they had created four or five good chances for every one created by their opponents, makes it very hard to see how they can possibly stay up. As it was, Joe Ledley’s header shortly before the hour was enough for Alan Pardew to oversee his fifth win from his six matches in charge at Crystal Palace, and to increase the gap between these clubs from six points to nine. With Leicester’s next three league fixtures taking them to Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City, any optimism generated by a useful run of results around Christmas has been comprehensively dissipated. Nigel Pearson, who left Andrej Kramaric, the striker he signed last month for £6.7m, on the bench until the final 20 minutes, was clearly aware he sounded something like a broken record. “Once again I have to front up to the thing that’s costing us, our inability to convert chances,” the Leicester manager said. “What can I do? Keep working with the players to turn it around. Today was a game we needed to get something out of it, we haven’t, so the gap’s bigger, but there’s still a long way to go. It’s not necessarily a defining moment.” Related: Nigel Pearson plays down drama after James McArthur touchline tangle Many a Leicester supporter will be feeling it was precisely that, though, after watching their team’s now customary profligacy make itself felt early on when David Nugent, offered the opportunity to test Palace goalkeeper, Julián Speroniafter being found in space in the penalty area by the lively Riyad Mahrez, tried, and failed miserably, to float a cross to the far post instead. Soon afterwards Wes Morgan headed a corner down and straight into the hands of Speroni, but as the half-hour approached Leicester built up a head of steam. First Mahrez skinned Martin Kelly in the Palace area and drove in a low shot, which the diving Speroni touched back into the six-yard box and Esteban Cambiasso very nearly turned into the empty goal. Then Nugent, running away from goal, twisted to head a Mahrez corner against the angle of post and bar. Jeffrey Schlupp was the next to go close, allowed time to chest down a Nugent cross before firing in a low, bouncing volley that Speroni saved two-handed to his left. Related: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal | Premier League match report Pardew made a double switch at half-time, Brede Hangeland replacing Scott Dann, who was suffering the effects of a clash of heads with Morgan, and Yaya Sanogo coming on for the ineffective Jordon Mutch. Leicester continued to look likeliest to score and Paul Konchesky’s low cross-shot was almost turned in by the sliding Leonardo Ulloa, but Sanogo’s presence quickly became a factor and he won the corner that Hangeland headed back across goal for Ledley to head past Mark Schwarzer. Leicester looked certain to equalise when Nugent intercepted a back pass and rounded Speroni, only to decide the angle was too narrow. He tried to cut the ball back to Cambiasso but the Argentinian could not control it. Pearson sent on Marc Albrighton, then two more strikers in Kramaric and Jamie Vardy in a desperate attempt to salvage something. Vardy came close to doing that, with a glancing header, and then with a powerful shot from an angle, but Speroni blocked both. “We showed great resilience and though we didn’t have the right balance between attacking and defending, particularly in the first half, we had a much better second half,” said Pardew. “I don’t think Nigel can be disappointed with the way his team played. They had a couple of chances, particularly on the back pass, and if they’d scored then it could have been a different result.” |