Palace lose ground in promotion race

Leicester 2 Crystal Palace 0

Matty Fryatt’s late magic show lit up a lifeless second half as Leicester took all the points against promotion-chasing Crystal Palace at the Walkers Stadium.

The 20-year-old striker, who has impressed since signing from Walsall, had been quiet most of the night but showed sublime skill and timing to set up Stephen Hughes to seal victory.

On-loan Sunderland midfielder Andy Welsh had given the Foxes a slender lead at the break, while Palace lacked any cutting edge even when chasing the game.

City boss Rob Kelly had opted to bring Welsh into the starting line-up, with Alan Maybury dropping back into the defence to cover for the injured Richard Stearman.

For the visitors Andrew Johnson had shaken off the effects of a nasty blow to the head in the 3-1 win over Watford last Friday to partner Clinton Morrison in attack.

Leicester threatened within two minutes as Gareth Williams’ swerving shot was well saved by Gabor Kiraly.

The home side were enjoying good periods of possession and Hughes should have made Kiraly work harder to save his right-foot effort, after he had worked a good opening on the right-hand side of the area.

But it was Palace who worked the first clear sight on goal on 20 minutes. The ball was played into Johnson, who knocked down for Ben Watson to hit a stinging snap-shot from just inside the box that Paul Henderson gathered well.

Iain Dowie’s men were starting to piece together slick passing moves as they tried to get a sharp-looking Johnson in on goal.

As the game opened up defences were stretched and Fitz Hall received a deserved yellow card for going through the back of Iain Hume.

It was Hume who then created the opening goal, after being played in by a clever backheel from Williams who had robbed centre-back Darren Ward of the ball in the build-up.

Hume’s shot was blocked but from the rebound he found Welsh at the back post who sidefooted home on 42 minutes.

Palace were forced to remove Morrison at the break following a collision with Henderson, with Dougie Freedman coming in.

The home side stood resolute at the back as Palace came out all guns blazing in the first 10 minutes, but the game settled down with both sides enjoying long periods of ball retention.

Maybury had to come to his side’s rescue after 64 minutes as his last-ditch tackle diverted Jobi McAnuff’s goal-bound driven shot for a corner.

As the game wore on it became a sluggish, scrappy affair with passes going astray and no real chances being created.

Dowie threw Marco Rich and Jon Macken on to add some urgency but it was only nervous defending from the Foxes that gave Palace a series of corners, from which they never looked like threatening.

Fryatt shot just over late on before moments later he won the points with some wonderful trickery.

The youngster turned Gary Borrowdale inside out four times before squaring delicately for Hughes to sidefoot past Kiraly with three minutes remaining.