Leicester failed to close the gap to the play-off positions away at Peterborough, as the travelling Foxes’ went down a disappointing 1-0 at London Road.
Nigel Pearson had no new injury concerns entering the fixture, but was blessed with Richie Wellens being available once again after recovering from a hamstring injury. Andy King also continued his injury recovery process by being named on the bench.
Leicester began the game brightly, with Ben Marshall’s direct free-kick rattling the crossbar and the resultant inswinging corner threatening the Peterborough goalmouth, only for Posh keeper Paul Jones to prevail.
City continued to push, with David Nugent and the relentless Marshall continued to threaten Jones with an array of efforts on goal and inswinging crosses from both wings. Leicester made good use of the wide-play which they have seemingly worked on throughout the season in terms of creating chances, yet the Posh continued to ensure that the spoils remained shared.
Towards the end of the first half, it was the home side who began to take control. Efforts from Garry McCann and Paul Taylor put pressure on Kasper Schmeichel, but the latter was able to hold off the efforts of Peterborough’s attack before the end of the first half.
The second half started very much like the first half ended, with Peterborough being the driving force in the game, dominating possession and creating many chances to test Kasper Schmeichel and the Leicester defence. George Boyd became the most potent threat for the home side, and on 52 minutes it was only a superb save from Schmeichel that kept the score level.
But the keeper’s efforts were rendered fruitless just 6 minutes later, as Taylor latched onto a pass from McCann and scored a great goal from long distance to the bottom right corner of the goal.
It wasn’t long before Pearson decided to switch his underfire defence around, by bringing Wellens on in-place of Shaun St Ledger, in a move that allowed Sol Bamba to drop back to his preferred position in the middle of defence. But Leicester’s perils got even deeper just two minutes later, as Peterborough were awarded a penalty. Referee Michel Oliver deemed Kasper Schmeichel to have fouled Tommy Rowe in the box, and in doing so received a yellow card. Luckily for Leicester, Schmeichel is somewhat of a penalty-saving specialist, and made it three saves from three penalties this season by preventing McCann’s placed penalty from entering the net.
Shortly after the penalty, Leicester began to heap the pressure on Peterborough in desperate search of an equaliser. Jeffrey Schlupp was brought on in place of Lloyd Dyer as the game geared up for a frantic remaining 20 minutes. Nugent was at the centre of Leicester’s attack, but could easily have been sent packing after he reacted to comments made by Peterborough’s Craig Alcock. Both were eventually presented with yellow cards on 78 minutes.
The remaining ten minutes consisted of heavily reinforced onslaughts on goal by Leicester, with a vast array of crosses from by Danny Drinkwater, Wellens and Marshall not providing the successful assist that we longed for. Peterborough could have easily made it 2-0 had their counter-attacks been more potent, but Emile Sinclair’s effort that crashed into the side-netting on 91 minutes was as close as The Posh came to extending their lead.
However, one goal was enough for Peterborough as Leicester’s roller-coaster season of form continued it’s unstable, unpredictable journey.
Leicester City: Schemeichel, Peltier, St.Ledger (Wellens 64′), Morgan, Konchesky, Marshall, Drinkwater, Bamba, Dyer (Schlupp 69′), Beckford, Nugent
Peterborough: Jones, Little, Alcock, Brisley, McCann, Rowe, Frecklington, Tomlin, Boyd (Kearns 86′), Barnett (Sinclair 29′), Taylor
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