Carling Cup News: Portsmouth vs Leicester City - Full time 1-2 Report Analysis (Part 2)
At the start of the encounter Leicester blasted off in a promising way and it was Dyer who even in the beginning had forced Jamie Ashdown to parry across when Morrison made a splendid turn in events, and scored from close range
just 3 minutes into the game.
Dyer, was hailed as the orchestrator for the first goal and it was he himself who was on the score board when he became the man who delivered just two minutes away from calling it half time. The goal occurred via a low struck shot
from the left foot that came sliding in from the edge of the box. By the end of the half the score sheet read 2-0.
The match had already seen its fair share of bizarre from the start as Sousa had nearly changed the whole of his team after he got defeated against QPR. The match that forced him to change his decisions was an opening sides weekend
defeat and after it Sousa had confirmed that he was going to change a lot of his tactics and strategies this season.
Fans and experts ultimately found him keeping only the two goal scorers of the match along with Andy King in the team and that left the rest of the eight men out of contest as the new eight filled in for their positions. Many believed
that this big a change would certainly affect the performance of the club as the new players had not understood each other well enough but the match clearly showed a very different picture.
The manager of Portsmouth Steve Cotterill on the other hand had called back his old men Ibrahima Sonko, Richard Hughes, Matt Ritchie and Nwankwo Kanu, therefore making it half the changes from Leicester. Nevertheless even four
changes in a squad are massive and that unlike the Foxes was seen in the Pompey team.
Earlier Cotterill had admitted that the changes had come as a result of the club’s defeat at Sheffield United. Nonetheless he had collaborated that he trusted all his men and was optimistic about his win.
Kanu was in fact very close in nullifying Leicester and Morrison’s first goal in the 4th minute when he shot the ball from 12 yards into the posts but the ball went away just narrowly missing the target.
The other veteran included in the team Steve Howard was high on expectations too. He had two chances to increase lead but failed at both instances. The brawny forward missed two easy opportunities before the 10th minute
and in the end it seemed that he had given up all together to win the match.
The latter try was much more impressive as it caused the goal keeper to make an extraordinary save. In the end no harm was done as Conrad Logan had indeed pulled on his game face to the match. He saved brilliantly with his legs
on an attempt to refuse a goal to Lawrence which helped keep the 1-0 lead safe after the 13th minute.
Next came Paul Gallagher who managed to strike a 12 yard blast that unfortunately claimed a nit on the woodwork. It happened just before the last minute goal of the first half. It was Ashdown who proceeded with a plan of a long
range shot that was performed by Joao Moreno but the try was never successful.
Leicester never backed down on their aggressive play and charged on with waves of remorseless onslaughts. Every attempt of theirs threatened a second goal and that kept the Portsmouth defenders always on their toes.
The goal arrived at least in the 43rd minute when Dyer received a pass from King and he thwarted Ashdown finishing with a beautiful angled in shot right to the bottom corner of the goal posts.
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