Charlton Athletic 2 - 1 Leicester City
Former Leicester City players Michael Morrison and Yann Kermorgant both scored against their former club to give Charlton all three points at the Valley this afternoon. The match finished 2-1 to condemn the Foxes to their first defeat of the season. It was an unfortunate defeat for Leicester and manager Nigel Pearson will be unhappy about several key incidents that occurred during the match. Referee Darren Deadman had a very poor game, inexplicably sending off Matty James, incorrectly awarding a corner to Charlton which lead to one of their goals and failing to give the Foxes an obvious penalty. City now go into the International break, reflecting on a very respectable haul of 10 points from 5 games and 5th place in the league at this stage.
Despite their legitimate concerns about the referee's performance, Leicester did not play well - particularly in the first half. Just before the half hour mark, Morrison was left unmarked from a corner and headed home the opening goal. Charlton held onto the lead until half-time. Early in the second half, James was fouled in the box and Leicester should have been awarded a penalty. Instead, referee Deadman deemed the protest of Matty James a second bookable offence and sent him off. Incidentally, the first offence was a harsh booking after just 11 minutes.
Leicester's misery was compounded just before the hour mark as Kermorgant headed home from a corner to double Charlton's advantage. Schmeichel believed he was fouled as the cross came over but again, the referee saw things differently. Drinkwater pulled a goal back for City just two minutes later, rifling the ball home from the edge of the box. It was scant consolation for Leicester who wanted to extend their unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions. Leicester will look carefully at the referee's report and are bound to appeal against the red card shown to Matty James. It would be fair to say that Nigel Pearson will not be pleased to see Deadman walking in to officiate another Leicester game in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment