Foxes Finish Beats Brum

Leicester City 3 - 2 Birmingham City 

Three goals in the final 12 minutes were enough to give Leicester all 3 points against Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium this afternoon. Up until that point, it had been a frustrating afternoon for the Foxes who had created a plethora of chances without managing to find the back of the net. By contrast, Birmingham created one good chance in the entire game and took it. Leicester lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, with Morgan missing from the side due to a back injury. Whitbread partnered the impressive Moore at centre-back, with De Laet and Schlupp (continuing to deputise for Konchesky) as full-backs. 

It was a bright start to the game for Leicester and the only criticism of the first half would be the poor finishing. Vardy, Wood, James and Drinkwater all had at least one opportunity to score for the Foxes in the first half. Instead, on 12 minutes, the visitors took the lead. Ferguson's excellent cross was met by a flying Matt Green on the edge of the 6 yard box. It was a clinical finish although Schmeichel may be disappointed that he didn't attempt to intercept the cross. Frustratingly, it remained 1-0 until half-time. A 3-1 lead for Leicester may have been a better reflection on the pattern of play.

Credit must go to Nigel Pearson for the changes that he made at half-time. Criticised so often last year for being slow to react, he switched to a 4-4-2 formation and replaced Wood and Drinkwater with Dyer and Knockaert. In the end, these changes paid off. To be fair, Birmingham had their best spell midway through the second half and seemed to win all of the 50-50 balls. To compound this, the referee had a poor second half and missed several clear free-kicks that should have been awarded to the home side. However, 12 minutes before the end of the match, the Leicester players finally found their shooting boots.

First, Dyer burst through and squared the ball to Vardy on the edge of the box. He fired a right-footed shot, with the help of a slight deflection, low into the bottom right-hand corner of the net. It was a well deserved goal for a much maligned player who has looked fit, sharp and tenacious in the opening few games of the season. Just 4 minutes later, King, on his 250th appearance for Leicester fired into the same corner of the net from an almost identical position. To top it off, Nugent scored a penalty in the 90th minute after Dyer was felled in the box. The spot-kick was fired high and hard into the centre of the net. Birmingham got a consolation goal in injury time, Chris Burke curling a lovely, left-footed effort past Scmeichel's outstretched right hand. That goal deprived City of top spot in the division, although I am sure that Foxes fans will settle for 2nd place, unbeaten and a tally of 10 points from 4 games - a fabulous start.