Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Leicester City: Match Report

Leicester City managed to stop the rot of a two-game losing streak after playing out an entertaining goalless draw away to Bolton Wanderers.

On a freezing cold night, it was Leicester who looked the most promising from the get-go, with David Nugent going perilously close to putting the visitors one goal to the good, only for Hungarian goalkeeper Adam Bogdan to pull off a fantastic reflex to save his teams blushes.

Bogdan would very much become the key man in the first half, making further saves to prevent Lloyd Dyer and Danny Drinkwater netting for the Foxes. Despite Leicester’s continued attacking presence, Nigel Pearson’s team were clearly a shadow of the team enjoying a six-game winning streak not two games previous, with an array of ill-judged passes and lack of understanding blatant in the eyes of the 1,227 travelling Foxes fans; Antony Knockaert and Danny Drinkwater the worst offenders.

The half-time whistle couldn't come soon enough for Dougie Freedman’s men, as the visitors continued to press the Trotters deep into their own half, yielding no less than nine corners within the first forty-five minutes of match,  despite how fruitless they proved to be. But Bolton soaked up the pressure well, with former Leicester captain Matt Mills leading Bolton’s back-line well, to the echoes of the boo-boy’s sitting in the away end.

The second half proved to be an entirely different kettle of fish, with Bolton severely picking up their game and threatening the score-line in favour of the home-side’s fan base. Lee Chung-yong went closest for Bolton shortly after the break, with Kasper Schmeichel parrying a long-range effort from the South Korean player. Lee in fact was the man of the match for Bolton in my eyes, with a string of brilliantly weighted passes orchestrated across the pitch to awaiting team-mates being highly commendable.

Despite Bolton’s increased presence in the game, and the introduction of play-maker Martin Petrov in place of a flagging Lee Chung-yong, Leicester remained the team enjoying the best chances on goal; Antony Knockaert, Andy King and Martyn Waghorn all with rasping efforts from outside the penalty area failing to foil the ever-impressive Bogdan between the sticks. King was as-ever, the man to keep Leicester ticking throughout the match, quiet and subtle but not to be understated as his set-up play and vision was at the very heart of Leicester’s offensive play. But it was Waghorn and Lloyd Dyer who put on the best display for Leicester, with Waghorn’s consistent ability to win balls and threaten the goal mouth alongside Dyer’s blistering runs down the wing and improved service to the box, most probably helping their respective quests for a solid position in Pearson’s starting line-up.

With Leicester squandering chance after chance, and with Bolton unable to maintain pressure on the visitors yet organised and strong as a unit, the game finished as a perhaps fair result of 0-0, sending the Trotters to 17^th in the table and carrying on Dougie Freedman’s undefeated run as Bolton’s recently appointed manager.

As for Leicester, the result see’s them remain in the Play-Off places, a mere four points off of the summit. Despite a clear need for work on set-pieces, Pearson can take many positives away from the trip to the Reebok Stadium, most potently the resumption of his team’s intensity on the pitch, and the individual performances of Lloyd Dyer and Martyn Waghorn, but also a strong display from Andy King and Ritchie De Laet, both putting in solid shifts in holding the midfield and defence units together respectively.