Hull City’s Tom Huddlestone sent off in stalemate at Leicester City
Leicester 0 - 0 Hull Hull's Tom Huddlestone, right, challenges Leicester's Andrej Kramaric in the Premier League
When you’re managing a team seven points adrift of the 17th-placed team with 11 games remaining, and you’ve just watched your side fail to beat another side in trouble, despite playing at home and against 10 men for the final 20 minutes, the last thing you want is to look up to see one of your highly successful predecessors sitting alongside the owner.
Martin O’Neill’s presence at the King Power, was, according to a Leicester City spokesman, the merest coincidence, but having already been sacked and reinstated once this season, Nigel Pearson badly needed a much better performance than the Foxes produced.
For much of the game, certainly before the dismissal of Tom Huddlestone, they were outplayed by the Tigers, and had Hull striker Nikita Jelavic not missed an absolute sitter, and Mark Schwarzer not made an outstanding late save from Abel Hernández, they would have been beaten and all hope of survival extinguished. as it was, the boos at the final whistle suggested few Foxes’ fans expect to stay up.
Contrary to speculation, Leicester (and of course formerly Hull) manager Pearson chose to retain the veteran goalkeeper Schwarzer, despite Kasper Schmeichel having finally recovered from the foot injury that had kept him out since the beginning of December.
Pearson also stuck with the three centre-back line-up he believes is the best way of giving his side the defensive solidity they have so often lacked this season, but this time in a genuine 3-5-2 formation, the experienced trio of Robert Huth, Matthew Upson and much-criticised captain Wes Morgan operating with Ritchie De Laet and Jeffrey Schlupp pushing up on either side as half-backs. He also added pace, in the shape of Jamie Vardy, to work with Andrej Kramaric up front.
Bruce made one change, bringing in Gastón Ramírez for David Meyler in midfield. It was interesting to note that the Uruguyan, and Scotland international left-back Andy Robertson, were the only members of the Tigers’ starting XI under the age of 25: experience, Bruce clearly felt, was going to be important in what was certain to be a tense affair, though he too opted for a attacking 3-5-2.
Openness and width, then, was intended to be the order of the day, an impression borne out in an opening few minutes which saw play swing from penalty area to penalty area with bewildering speed. In terms of chances created, however, the presence on the pitch of six tall and what might be termed old-fashioned centre-halves ensured crosses were being delivered in hope rather than expectation; in the first 20 minutes, neither goalkeeper was required to make a save.
Schwarzer should have had to, though. Tom Huddlestone’s throughball was beautifully timed, and turned perfectly across goal by Ahmed Elmohamady so that the unmarked Jelavic, no more than six yards from goal, had only to make a reasonable connection to turn it into an empty goal. Somehow the Croatian failed to do so, a candidate for miss of this and many another season.
The next quarter of an hour saw Hull begin to exert a measure of control, Huddlestone in particular looking something like the player he did last season. Kramaric’s badly sliced shot after 36 minutes was the home team’s first serious effort on goal, but signalled something a revival by the Foxes, though Pearson will have been a mightily relieved man to go in level at the break.
Leicester had to improve, and briefly did, Esteban Cambiasso playing his way into the Hull penalty area only to see his low shot blocked by a sliding Michael Dawson. The pattern of the game soon re-established itself however, and again Jelavic should have done better than flash a header from a Ramirez corner over instead of under Schwarzer’s bar on the hour.
Dame N’Doye shot when Jelavic was in a better position, but the dismissal of Hudddlestone for a second yellow card with 20 minutes remaining changed the game. Now it was Hull’s turn to hang on, and Leonardo Ulloa, on for Kramaric, inadvertently blocked a Schlupp shot that looked to be goal-bound.
Otherwise, however, Hull saw out the game, not without alarm, but generally in reasonable comfort.
Guardian
