Leicester City v Leeds United: Keane strikes late to break Whites hearts
By Phil Hay
The next time archaeologists go digging in Leicester they might find the bones of Leeds United’s season. Another injury-time equaliser – the bane of the club’s recent existence – threatens to send them and their manager the way of Richard III.
Neil Warnock turned 64 on the day when Leeds last won a league game anywhere other than Elland Road and the form of his side has done nothing to counter the onset of older age.
Since August, United’s results away from home have been the barrier between them and the play-offs. That barrier remains intact.
Relief appeared to be at hand last night when Leicester City’s Michael Keane rose to convert a late, late chance, with 93 minutes played and Leeds close enough to a 1-0 win to smell it.
This was Wolverhampton Wanderers revisited, two points thrown away in the dying embers of a match.
Until Keane appeared unmarked at the back post, Warnock was poised to bank a win as timely in its nature as away wins get.
Sam Byram’s second-half goal and a tight, disciplined performance left City scrambling for an equaliser as their crowd turned hostile and began to drift towards the exit.
While all around them abandoned hope, Leicester swarmed into United’s box and forced Warnock’s defence to buckle. It remains to be seen if Leeds can return to the well again.
This week had the potential to destroy United’s season and an unfortunate draw at the KP Stadium has done them no demonstrable good. A win last night ahead of a trip to Crystal Palace would have changed much; a cruel draw, inevitably, felt much like a defeat.
City do not ship points cheaply at home but what United found in Leicester was another team who image on paper is considerably more impressive than their quality in the flesh. Nigel Pearson’s side are fifth in the Championship but every bit a club on the slide while Leeds and others attempt to close in. They were jeered in spells before Keane brought the ground to life.
Prior to it, Byram’s deadly volley turned a tight contest in United’s favour and Leicester laboured badly after that, prone on the counter-attack and prone to a group of players who have warmed to the challenge of chasing the play-offs since defeat at Middlesbrough on February 12 virtually ruled them out of the equation.
Settled and injury-free, Leeds are in the right sort of shape and form. But time is against them and so is the league table. Never in Warnock’s time as manager – or in the time of any other manager since Dennis Wise – has United’s team shown more continuity than it presently does, albeit over a period as short as a fortnight.
His line-up was unchanged for the fourth game running last night, a reflection of their form but also an admission that his squad has little more to offer.
Luke Varney, a Leicester supporter, did not allow shins battered and bruised over the weekend to keep him from the field.
The game at the KP Stadium threw together two teams with meagre away records – away records as poor as most in the Championship – and on that simple basis, the advantage was Leicester’s. Nigel Pearson’s programme notes were nonetheless tinged with caution, talking of the “need to get back into the habit of winning games regularly.” He is not yet able to assume that the play-offs are the worst-case scenario for City.
He spoke also of Warnock’s future, saying football would lose one of its “most colourful characters” if the 64-year-old took the end of this season as his cue to retire from management.
A cagey start in Leicester and an opening spell dominated by fouls and stoppages befitted a crucial evening. Better was to come. Warnock deployed his now familiar formation, pushing Ross McCormack onto the right wing and asking Steve Morison to play through the middle, but his forwards were kept at arm’s length for much of the first half.
Initially, Pearson’s side had no more than occasional moments of promise themselves, with Anthony Knockaert producing a wayward shot in the first minute and David Nugent heading over the crossbar from close range in the 11th, but an even contest was visible from the outset. Schmeichel produced the first save of note, spotting a free header from Byram late and anxiously knocked it clear with both fists.
His diving stop from David Norris three minutes later was routine and more comfortable but it was clear by then that United’s fluid system would find gaps and holes in Leicester’s defence. Byram missed another chance when he directed McCormack’s corner straight at Schmeichel, who had time to fumble the ball before gathering it safely.
The trouble Leicester caused was largely at Leeds’ instigation. Byram’s failure to pick up Wes Morgan invited an attack which United repelled with some desperation, and Paddy Kenny was lucky to see Harry Kane’s shot bounce off his arms and evade the in-running Nugent. There was less he could have done about Kane’s fierce strike on the half-hour, driven inches wide from 20 yards.
The on-loan Tottenham Hotspur forward grew in influence as City emerged from their shell towards the end of the half. His low cut-back gave Chris Wood a tap-in which struck the foot of Tom Lees before it could cross the line, and Wood’s own lob on 35 minutes was brilliantly saved by Kenny, falling back to tip the ball onto the roof of his net with one hand.
United were as frustrated by Norris’ loose volley, bundled past Schmeichel’s left-hand post after Byram’s beautiful cross picked him out five minutes before half-time.
But it took a diving block from Kenny to stop Knockaert dipping a free-kick into the top corner of his net on the stroke of half-time. Both teams left the pitch knowing the match was begging to be won.
Nine minutes into the second half, United appeared to have done just that. Ritchie De Laet denied Morison a goal by turning Paul Green’s cross behind at the far post but when Leicester allowed Varney’s corner to fly across the face of their goal, Byram ran in and met the ball with a flying volley which Schmeichel barely saw.
Pearson had already introduced Lloyd Dyer and Ben Marshall followed soon after as City faced up to their predicament. United fed on their anxiety, peppering Schmeichel with shots from long range and the crowd began to bite at Pearson’s players. When Kenny’s goal finally opened up for Wood 10 minutes from time, his goalbound strike deflected top safety off the heels of Lee Peltier.
Far from voicing disbelief, the deflated reaction from the stand behind Kenny suggested that City’s chance was gone and Leeds fought to fend off a late onslaught which Schmeichel joined eventually.
Norris fluffed a one-on-one as injury-time arrived but Warnock thought his side were out of the woods when Keane timed his run perfectly to meet a far post corner and cushion it into the net. Unsurprisingly, the faces of United’s players painted a picture of devastation.