Super-sub Ambrose grabs late Magpies equaliser

Leicester 1 Newcastle 1

The 19-year-old claimed his first Premiership goal for the club within five minutes of replacing full-back Aaron Hughes, heading home from close range after Ian Walker had parried Jermaine Jenas' shot.

It was a second bout of Ambrose-induced heartache for the Foxes, who saw him snatch a winner for former club Ipswich at the Walker's Stadium on St. Stephen's Day last year.

"He can get a goal," Robson said. "He knows where the goal lies and he's got a good shot, right and left foot, although he scored in the air today.

"He gets in the box he nearly got us a late winner last week.

"It wasn't a classic. There was a swirling wind, which didn't help, but you've got to play in the conditions.

"I thought both teams played from back-to-front too much. It was too much long-ball for me. The team that got the ball down and tried to pass it in sequence was going to be the one to win it.

"At half-time, we just said 'It's there for us to win, but we've got to be better'. Their danger didn't come from open play, it came from corners and free-kicks, and we dealt with it.

"As long as we did that, I didn't see any reason why they were going to score against us, so when the goal came, it was a surprise."

That goal came 67 minutes into a tight contest when Aaron Hughes dallied in dealing with Les Ferdinand's flick-on and Paul Dickov pounded to fire past Shay Given.

That looked like being enough to secure a precious win for the Foxes as Newcastle struggled to put Ian Walker's goal under pressure until Ambrose's late intervention.

The move which brought the equaliser started with full-back Olivier Bernard, which was remarkable because the Frenchman had earlier been floored by compatriot Laurent Robert's driven clearance.

"He's a bit groggy and didn't quite know where he was," Robson admitted. "He did well for the goal I told him 'You should get knocked out more often!'

"He's all right. He's been checked by the Leicester doctor and we just need to keep an eye on him."

Leicester boss Micky Adams was disappointed after seeing a victory which would have kept his side out of the bottom three snatched from their grasp, but he refused to be downcast.

"I'm disappointed to come so close to getting a win in the Premier League, but not surprised," he said. "We've got ourselves into so many positions this season of winning games and we haven't seen it through. That's happened to us a few times this year.

"But it's very difficult to be critical of a group of players who have given you everything.

"What I want is to be competitive at this level and sometimes, that's really hard if you haven't spent millions of pounds. But at least we've given teams a game."

Adams believes his side faces a season-long battle for top flight survival, but has no intention of throwing in the towel.

"We're in there," he said. "We're in the frame like everybody else down at the bottom.

"A win will take us out of the bottom three, but it's disappointing, particularly when everybody is trying everything to get us a win today."

LEICESTER: Walker, Curtis, Thatcher, Howey (Elliott 16), Stewart (Davidson 71), McKinlay, Izzet, Scimeca, Scowcroft, Dickov, Ferdinand.

NEWCASTLE: Given, Hughes (Ambrose 85), O'Brien, Bramble, Bernard, Solano, Jenas, Speed, Robert, LuaLua (Chopra 86), Shearer.

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).