Bristol City 1-0 Leicester City: Jamie Vardy’s miss proves costly as Foxes slump to fourth defeat in last six games and could drop out of the automatic promotion spots… despite leading the Championship for six months
How this Leicester City machine once ran under Enzo Maresca. So slick and so ruthless that it threatened to eat everything before their eyes and the return to the Premier League was so inevitable that it got its own name. Everyone aboard the Marescalator.
Now it’s coughing and sputtering and the black fumes pouring out after the defeat to Bristol City thanks to Anis Mehmeti’s winner only thicken the dark clouds that threaten to engulf the club.
How Leicester needed a result here to lighten the air after an international break in which they were charged by the Premier League for breaching last season’s financial rules and hit by a Football League transfer embargo.
What a different result it could have been had Jamie Vardy not spurned four big chances at Ashton Gate.
It seems Leicester’s problems have even spread to their greatest ever player and the man who led the way for so long.
Leicester slumped to a third league defeat in their last five games as they lost 1-0 to Bristol City at Ashton Gate in the early kick-off on Good Friday.
Enzo Maresca’s team dominated the first half of the season, but are now in danger of missing out on automatic promotion
Leicester started the day going into a match not at the top of the Championship for the first time in six months. They probably won’t end the day there now either.
Whatever Ipswich and Leeds are tonight, automatic promotion remains in Leicester’s hands – but only barely. Now 13 points ahead of third place after New Year’s Day. Four defeats in their last six games.
If this is much more, the Marescalator could well go out of service.
Leicester boss Maresca spent the international break telling his players not to waste energy on off-field problems. Don’t think about the Premier League costs and a possible future points deduction.
Don’t forget the transfer embargo. Don’t think about the catastrophe that awaits us if they don’t get promoted this season.
Block all that. Instead, focus on making sure you get there, starting here at Ashton Gate, and don’t somehow rush into a promotional bid that will take most of the campaign looked like a victory parade of a season.
However, that message had little impact as Bristol City swarmed a languid Leicester with striker Tommy Conway at the heart of it.
Anis Mehmeti scored the only goal of the match as City climbed to twelfth in the table
The win puts Bristol City in 12th place in the Championship, 11 points behind the play-offs
Leicester squandered a host of good chances to take the lead before being punished
Jamie Vardy missed a glorious chance to put the Foxes ahead in the second half
He forced the first of a smart, crucial double save from Leicester keeper Mads Hermansen, who responded well to deny it, and then teammate Scott Twine.
Conway slipped away from Wout Faes before the Leicester defender pulled him down in the penalty area. Andrew Kitchen, the referee, was one of the few around Ashton Gate who didn’t think it was a penalty. Faes was also guilty in the other penalty area, when he headed a tame header over the crossbar from a free kick.
As has been the case so often over the years, it was Jamie Vardy who tried to breathe life into Leicester. His wild, almost signature, strike on goalkeeper Max O’Leary gave the traveling supporters something to cheer about.
Even Vardy, who had scored 10 in his last 11 games, couldn’t find the ruthlessness in the old dog as in the first half he shot wide of the post twice from the penalty area and then deflected the two biggest chances off the post . game in the second.
One-on-one you’d be sure he’d bury both the finish and the feeling of woe, but instead he fired straight at O’Leary, who then waved away the follow-up. Vardy kicked the post in frustration, but stopped just short of hitting himself in the head.
Leicester topped the table for the first six months of the season, but could now miss out on automatic promotion
If that wasn’t golden enough, just after the hour mark Leicester pounced on a poor pass from the keeper and Vardy found himself in the middle of the goal with the ball at his feet. He chose his spot, but again O’Leary dove across to make the save.
The series of missed opportunities caught up with Leicester, as it has so often done in recent months. Mehmeti’s attack ultimately proved the difference.
Maresca called the past week ‘intense’ for the club. Now they have dropped points again. The heat is rearing its ugly head again.