King: 'It's nice to be back'

WELSH wizard Andy King arrived just in time to clinch all three points against a valiant and battling Plymouth side on Saturday afternoon, opening his account for the season in the process.

The dynamic midfielder was on hand to prod home a stoppage time winner and move the Foxes into third place in the Championship, capping off a fantastic week after he skippered the Welsh Under-21 side in Bosnia on Wednesday night.

And despite suffering a 2-1 reversal, manager Brian Flynn handed the Foxes youngster the armband to lead out the Dragons just a week after he was withdrawn in the defeat to high-flying West Bromwich Albion with a suspected broken arm.

"I feared the worst. Obviously at the time there was so much pain I couldn`t move it," said the Maidenhead-born midfielder.

"I couldn`t move my hand, or anything like that and as I said, I feared for the worst.

"I`m not going lie, I thought it could well be broken. Then when we found out it wasn`t and the X-Rays came back clear and being able to go away with Wales that next week, it was great news."

And King appears to have come back from international duty revitalised and he insists there is more to come after getting off the mark today.

"I`ve started slowly this season but it is nice to be back in the team and if I can keep playing well and keep doing my best for the team then long may it continue," he said.

King notched an impressive tally of 11 goals from the heart of midfield as City bounced straight back to the second tier as Champions and King is confident he can recapture that form at a higher level.

"Definitely it is something I am looking to emulate again this season and if I could I would like to get a few more," said King.

"It`s been a slower start for me but if I can keep playing games and keep scoring goals I don`t see why not."

King found himself employed as the anchor-man in a diamond midfield against the Pilgrims, but insists that he is happy to play any role that manager Nigel Pearson wants him to.

"We played a different formation today, which allowed me to get forward a bit more and it gave me a bit more freedom," said King.

"But whatever the gaffer wants me to do, I am more than happy to do and try to help the team out.

"We had three or four strikers on the pitch today and because they`re going to be further forward, I`ve got a defensive responsibility as well," he said.
City dominated throughout the encounter with struggling Plymouth, but it looked as though the visitors would take a hard-fought point until King popped up in the dying seconds.

"When you sit back like they did there is always a chance," he said.

"You are just inviting pressure and at one point you are going to get broken down. We did have a few chances before that, and it just didn`t quite fall for us.

"But we`ve got a strong belief in the side that we will always score goals and we have that 95 minute mentality that`s been drilled into us," said King.

Leicester now sit third in the Championship behind West Brom and Newcastle, who came down from the Premiership last season and despite being considered by many as the surprise package, King believes City can continue their good form under Pearson.

"The mentality has been installed since day one," said King.

"Since he`s come into the club, at the beginning of last season, I think you only need to look at his track record as manager and we have scored a fair amount of late goals.

"We looked at the table at the start of the year and analysed where we`d like to be and we looked at it and thought there`s no reason why we can`t be top six or top eight and I think we`ve just carried on our good form from last season," he said.

But for only 21 years of age, the midfielder shows an admirable maturity beyond his years and knows there is still a long way to go.

"It`s such early days and the gaffer`s not going to let us get ahead of ourselves and we`re not going to get ahead of ourselves anyway," said King.

"There`s still a long way to go and we`re aware of that and we`re aware of what a strong league this is and how tight it is. You lose a couple of games and you`re back down to mid-table.

"So we`ve just got to keep our feet on the ground and keep going."

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