Dazed Review – Leicester at the KC ?

Boxing day, traditionally a good crowd hoped for and after encouraging signs over the last couple of games a real chance of a good win against a Leicester team that had been patchy of late ?

There were two changed from the Leeds game, Ashbee returned to the middle of the Park having recovered from his illness and Livermore also returned having been not allowed to play against Leeds as a condition when we signed him ? Mcphee still being out from his injury therefore France had a forward role alongside Bridges and Fagan ?

As the game started we all came down to reality with a bump ? from the off Leicester were all over us hitting the bar early on from a free kick that Danny Coles should have seen red having been the last man when he brought down their forward ? as Leicester carried on dominating the Ref was being very whistle happy early on trying to get hold of the game from the off and Leicester were certainly making the most of this ? Ashbee got himself booked early on so technically that was the end of his game for fear of being sent off ? We slowly tried to create chances as the half wore on but nothing was going our way, we looked literally a couple of yards off the pace during the entirety of the first half and then out of nowhere Fagan had a half chance which he took superbly to give us an undeserved lead ? had we got out of jail was the thought at half time ?

Half time – Hull City 1 – 0 Leicester City

The answer to that question became blatantly obvious from the off of the second half as no we had not , Leicester picked up exactly where they left off creating chances at will ? It reminded me of Colchester all too much, and then sure enough they equalized with what was a bit of a comedy goal as Myhill seemed to just lose the ball as he caught it and it went into the net from there ?

We almost scored and Danny Coles would have done had he got any contact on the ball whatsoever but that just summed things up and then Leicester punished us in the worst possible way by scoring a cracking goal from 25+ yds ? take nothing away from the goal it was fantastic but we were so far away marking wise it was embarrassing! This was soon after Brown then tried playing his hand in this replacing France with Bridges which in my opinion was an absolute waste of time ? France was invisible all game sure but I would have gone with the big man Parkin and reverting to 4-4-2 with Fagan on the Right and Livermore on the left to try and force Leicester into changing the way they were playing ? they had us completely sussed out and it was punishing us badly ? To then replace Bridges who was trying to create something all be it not very well and to replace him with Parkin again was mistake number two as our forward line lost all its creativity (what little we had!) ?


As soon as that 2nd goal went in there was only going to be one winner and I am afraid it was never going to be us ? this became even more apparent when Coles repeated his neat “trick” off pulling the last man down and this time did not get away with it as he was shown a straight red ? summed up a terrible afternoon for Danny who now has three games to try and pick himself up and start again ?

The game was dwindling and Elliott coming on for Dawson could not pick it up, we looked a beaten side and some of them actually looked glad when the final whistle went at the end ?

A shameful display and it made an average team who had done their homework look a lot better than we should have done ?

Hull City – 1 – 2 Leicester City

Anyway Player Ratings

Myhill – 5 Badly at fault for the first, could not do anything about the second, his confidence though in his general play is looking worse and worse each game if you ask me ?

Dawson – 5 Better game from him although still not great, actually tried to create from the back and seems better when Livermore is in front of him ?

Delaney – 6 Worked tirelessly but when you are carrying the back four you are always going to not look as good as you can ?

Coles – 3 Shocking, should have learned from the first time when he got away with what should have been a red card In my opinion, maybe the fact it was so early saved him ? who knows he soon made sure the ref had another chance in the second half ?

Ricketts – 5 Looking more and more average each week on the right hand side , mind you so would you if you were played out of your favoured position each week like he has been, lets just hope Mills gets back so we can have him on the left hand side ?

Ashbee – 4 Not up to this level and never will be if you ask me, what he lacks in passing ability is outweighing his passion during the game too much now, we need more than fight, we need someone to play the ball properly, we cannot afford to carry him much longer ?

Livermore – 6 One of the few to come out of the game not too badly, showed what we had missed on Saturday and effectively carried the midfield like Delaney carried the defense ?

Marney – 5 so frustrating with this guy, brilliant precision pass followed by 10 minutes of mistakes, needs to iron these out to even start proving his fee and worth to the team ?

France – 3 Was he even there? played badly out of position, really think he does not know what position is his to be honest ?

Bridges – 5 Trying stuff that is too clever ? shows confidence but stupidity at the same time ? still getting match fit but with Barmby not far off how many more chances will he get ? ?

Fagan – 7 Carried the forward line and superbly taken goal ? Really hope what I have heard about him leaving for Derby in the next couple of weeks is untrue though ?


Subs

Forster – 4 Should not have come on at that point, did nothing to be honest ?

Parkin – 6 Actually we looked better with him on (did not take much !) and one tackle which took out about three players at once put a rare smile on my face that afternoon ?

Elliott – 5 Too little too late ? should have started IMO instead of France ?


Top Tiger – Fagan – no contest …

Tigers Tail – Coles, Worst game I have ever seen him play, I just hope it`s the last bad one for a long long while ?

Brown`s Performance – 4/10 Poor first Sub decision I think and showed he was unwilling to move from the 4-3-3 style until the game was lost ?

Crowd Watch – 6/10 Rightly nervous and was right to be as it happened ? 18,000 was not bad at all ? credit to Leicester for taking a fair few also ?

Ref Watch – 5/10 Whistle happy a bit too much maybe and did not see a few dives ?

Where to from here ? – Burnley at home and I really do not know what to expect ? I think maybe back to 4-4-2 for this one and allow Bridges and Parkin Up front with Fagan joining them from the right ? Livermore can then drift centrally to cover the midfield while Fagan does that ? We need a result end of story or I fear for us staying up now ? hell we need a run not just one result here or there !!!