Leicester City 2-0 Middlesbrough: Match Report

Leicester City extended their lead at the top of the Championship with a home win over Middlesbrough in very wet conditions thanks to goals from Jamie Vardy and Richie De Laet in the second half. The Foxes were forced to make an early change following a collision between Liam Moore and the Middlesbrough goalpost as he tried to follow in Anthony Knockaert's swinging free kick. He was taken off minutes later with a possible rib injury and was replaced by Marcin Wasilewski after just 9 minutes on the clock. The torrential downpour played a major part of the game in the first half as the heavens well and truly opened up minutes before kickoff, and throughout the rest of the half. Both sides were unable to play their usual style of football due to the slippery surface and the scores remained 0-0 at the break. The conditions improved substantially in the second half, and so did the football. Leicester drew first blood as Dave Nugent did well to prevent the ball going out for a goal kick by taking advantage of the slippery conditions, and played it well to his strike partner Vardy, who comfortably slipped it past Shay Given in the Boro' net. On 71 minutes, Rhys Williams made a silly tackle on Vardy in his own box to give away a careless penalty. Nugent took the kick from the spot and failed to find the back of the net as Given guessed the right way to deny him. But their lead was eventually doubled just two minutes later as Belgian De Laet netted following a City corner to wrap up all three points for Nigel Pearson's side. Veteran Kevin Phillips and Riyad Mahrez were intoroduced to the King Power Stadium crowd for the first time since their arrival this January, and both were welcomed well by the City fans. The former Sunderland striker even came close to getting his name on the score sheet in the dying minutes. The Foxes could easily have increased their lead by a margin after De Laet's goal but they had to settle for just two. The three points is all that Pearson wanted and he got what he set out to achieve. Leicester: Schmichel, De Lae, Konchesky, Drinkwater, Morgan (c) James, Vardy (Phillips 78), Dyer (Mahrez), Moore (Wasilewski 9), Knockaert, Nugent Middlesbrough: Given, Friend, Williams, Leadbitter (c), Varga, Jutkiewicz (Kamara 59), Ledesma (Chalobah 77), Whitehead, Carayol, Ayala, Adomah. Attendance: 26,057 (1,176 Middlesbrough supporters)