FA Carling Premiership Game 25: Saturday 07 February 1998 Leicester City 1 - 0 Leeds United (Half-time: 1 - 0) Crowd: 21244 Referee: N S Barry (Scunthorpe)
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Match Report - Kev Lewis

The ref seemed a bit keen to book players, but he seemed to have a case in most instances other than Kelly's. It looked like Cottee made the most of it, and did try to talk the referee out of it, but the damage had been done.

Penalties: Heskey seemed to be backing-in an blocking Halle off. Halle was pulling him, could have been given either way. From MOTD it seemed like Heskey was doing more bloackin, and started it, that Halle was pulling. He also seemed to go down very easily for a big, strong lad. So it looked more like a free-kick to Leeds. Leicester fans would've seen it differently though.

On the Leeds penalty, I didn't see a handball, but then from where I was, I couldn't see much. On MOTD it looked more like his chest, but que sera sera.

I always thought that Jimmy's hop, skip & pirouette on the run up looked dodgy. Certainly it did not fool Keller. Of course it makes Jimmy look twice the pratt when he misses. However, everyone misses or has them saved from time-to-time.

Scores.

Martyn 8. One aberration a number of good games.
Halle 6. Defended OK, but never got forward when leeds were behind.
Wetherall 7. Heskey gave him a tough time, but pretty solid.
Kelly 7. Kept Cottee fairly quiet.
Robertson 5. Defensively poor, passed to Leeds players more than usual.
Haaland 5. Ran around a lot, but achieved nothing.
Hopkin 6. Not influential enough.
Ribeiro 7. Tidy and compact.
Kewell 7. Looked to be Leeds main threat.
Walace 6. Involved in passing moves.
Hasselbaink 6. Reasonable game.

GG 5. See below.

Although Kelly had a decent game at C. Back, he was sorely missed on the right. Halle never pushed up, Haaland made up a 3rd central midfielder. This gave Guppy a field-day - no-one to mark, no-one to mark him.

Although Kelly & Wetherall were OK individually the defence was not good as a unit, and were certainly not able to cover Robertson in the way Lucas can.

Although he did not have much choice on the bench, GG only gave the subs 5 minutes. It was crying out for something fresh up-front, but obviously he did not feel Matthews was up to being sent on as a positive move. To only give his strangely rearranged team 5 minutes was puzzling. McPhail did find a Leeds player with every pass. He could have done worse than send Wetherall forward for the last 15.

Leicester, well I was quite impressed. Elliot not only won everthing in the air, and dictated Leicester's tempo at times from the back. Parker, even though old and slow, played just the sort of game, hard work and guile, that seems to be beyond Hopkin. Heskey looks much bigger than on the telly. He leaps like a gazelle, although often got away with his arm in Wetherall's face, has good control and pace too. Funnily/luckilly he seems to fall apart when he gets to within 25 yards of goal, and I can't remember him having a decent shot/header.

Mike S, They also showed how to play three at the back - with 2 wide players essentially wingers who are prepared to track back. Guppy was easily good enough to take advantage of the space he was given. Savage and Kewell had a good battle up their side, with honours ending about even. The trouble was that on the occasions Kewell got caught up field or in-field, Robertson was totally unable to get near Savage.

Robots plague Graham's dreams - Phil Osborn

Two embarrasing misses by Leeds leading scorer Hasselbaink, in the opening and closing stages of the game, presented Leicester with their first Premiership home win of the year.

After their victory at Old Trafford last week, Leicester were understandably brimming with confidence and Leeds keeper Martyn was given plenty of opportunities to demonstrate the form he hopes will earn him the England job on Wednesday.

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