Swansea 1-0 Leicester

Leicester City lost their first game of 2010, going down 1-0 to Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.

The game was decided in the first half, with striker Gorka Pintado getting his first goal of the campaign to see off City, and drop them down to 7th place in the table.

As in the previous two matches this season in this fixture, the first half was dominated by Swansea, whose attacking flair and passing ability was clear to see. Leicester`s best chance of the first 45 minutes came from Matty Fryatt, who spooned Paul Gallagher`s cross over the bar from six yards out.

Swansea`s man of the match, Nathan Dyer, caused Leicester all sorts of problems on the left and right-hand side. It was his run down the right from a through ball, and cross into the box that very nearly led to the opening goal, with the ball scrambled away by the Leicester defence.

However there was no rest-bite for Leicester`s defence, and a carbon copy move of Dyer down the right saw the cross bypass the defence and gave Pintado an unstoppable volley into the net, and the Swans had a 1-0 lead for the third consecutive game against City.

Leicester looked ineffective in the first half, the front pairing of Fryatt and Yann Kermogant struggling with little service from the rest of the team. With the whole side looking flat, Swansea were looking comfortable for the win.

As has been a common factor this season, Leicester picked up in the second half and to look threatening, and increased the pressure on Swansea when in possession. Nigel Pearson rang the changes, and after a good second half, but no real penetration, he bought on Martyn Waghorn and Steve Howard for Kermogant and Fryatt.

Soon after coming on, Waghorn had a good penalty claim after being bundled over inside the box, but the referee waved away the appeals.

Waghorn caused Swansea problems, and it was his pressure that forced the Swansea defence into two almost costly mistakes. The first saw Lloyd Dyer hit a daisy cutter from 18 yards, but the ball whistled just wide of the post.

The second chance was gilt-edged. Waghorn crossed the ball from the by-line to find fellow sub Dany N`Guessan, but the Frenchman could only pass it straight to the keeper on the far post rather than find the net.

Matt Oakley caused another mistake, but Waghorn failed to get the ball out from under his feet, for what would have been a glorious opportunity for the equaliser.

That was Leicester`s last real chance of the game, Swansea looking comfortable in holding their lead by bringing on Craig Beattie to trouble the City defence. It was he and Nathan Dyer who saw out the game to give Swansea all three points, and send Leicester`s 930 away fans back home disappointed.

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