This was yet another diabolical display from our defence against a resurgent Leicester City, and although we woke up after Becchio pulled a goal back, it proved to be too little too late.
Much to my surprise Simon Grayson chose to name the same starting line-up as on Saturday, thus persisting with the awful Naylor/Collins partnership in central defence, even though Bruce was available once again after suspension. We got away with playing these two against a Midlesboro side who were equally slow and cumbersome, but last night Leicester gave them the run-around for much of the game.
They say that teams immediately improve after a change in manager, as the players need to impress the new boss, and Leicester certainly proved that last night. They came out looking determined and had our bamboozled by their neat passing moves, though it helped that none of our back four seemed to have any idea how to close them down. With better finishing they would have been three up in the first 20 minutes, but the best they could manage in the opening stages was a fierce shot from Berner that Brown had to tip onto the bar.
After each chance our keeper had a right go at his defence for giving Leicester so much time and space, though the back four were getting no protection from Faye, who was just wandering round aimlessly and looking well off the pace. When the substitute board went up after half an hour I hoped that he would be the one taken off, but in fact it was Watt, who was replaced by Johnson on the left hand side. In truth, Watt had also made little contribution and perhaps he was still feeling the knock he took on Saturday, but if that was the case then why did he start?
We improved slightly after that change and managed to get the ball into Leicester’s half once or twice, but the team still left the field at the break to a chorus of boos. We were still enjoying more of the possession at the start of the second half, and although we weren’t creating any decent chances I dared to start hoping that Leicester would pay for their earlier profligacy in front of goal, but everything changed when the visitors grabbed the opening goal in the 64th minute.
Somma had gone chasing back into the left-back position as Naughton attacked down Leicester’s right, but only succeeded in getting in Mc.Cartney’s way so that neither of them could make a decent tackle. Naughton cut inside both of them before shooting from the edge of the box, and the ball took a deflection off Collins to loop over Brown into the net. Although there was a touch of fortune about the goal, you couldn’t deny that Leicester deserved the lead on the balance of play.
Six minutes after the goal Grayson made his final two changes to try to give us a few more options up front. At last Faye was removed and replaced by Kilkenny, while Gradel came on for Snodgrass, as the Scotsman had been yet another Leeds player who had been completely ineffectual on the night. Gradel seemed particularly keen to impress against his former club, though predictably this led to him losing possession when trying to beat too many defenders and shooting when he should have passed to a colleague in a better position.
And just as we seemed to be getting back into the game, another defensive howler presented Leicester with the chance to grab the second goal. Naylor completely misjudged the bounce of a long ball downfield to leave King racing through against Collins, and the Leicester man slipped the ball to his left to leave Howard the simple task of rolling it past Brown into the far corner of the net. Even though nine minutes remained, this was the cue for hundreds of Leeds fans to head for the exits, though I decided to beat the rush by staying right till the end.
Those who left early nearly had cause to regret it, as they must have the roar when Becchio pulled a goal back in the 83rd. minute. For once we had a decent delivery from the flanks from Gradel, and Becchio outjumped the defender to send a powerful header into the corner of the net. Finally the crowd got behind Leeds as we put Leicester under pressure for the rest of the game, but they pulled enough players back to prevent us getting any more outstanding chances in the time that remained.
As we moved into the four minutes of injury time Howson tried a fierce shot from outside the box, but the ball had taken too long to come down and a defender had time to position himself to block the shot. That was about it, and the referee eventually put us all out of our misery with the final whistle.
I suppose you could say that we were unlucky to play Leicester just after Sven had taken over, but on the other hand we were fortunate to meet Boro at just the right time on Saturday. Our defensive frailties are continuing to undermine our season, and until Grayson can sort it out we will continue to have this inconsistency. At this stage we don’t look anywhere near good enough to climb into the play-off positions, so this is shaping up to be a mid-table season at best.