Football: Whelan keeps balance

Leicester City 1 Wilson 78 Coventry City 1 Whelan 80 Attendance: 21,137

LEICESTER waited 77 minutes to see their endeavours rewarded with a goal but took only two to surrender the advantage as Coventry extended their unbeaten sequence to 13 matches.

When Stuart Wilson forced the ball home from close range to cap a powerful run by his fellow substitute, Graham Fenton, the home side felt they had done enough to further their optimistic hopes of a Uefa Cup place for the second year running.

But Coventry's reputation as a hard side to beat is justified. Leicester made the classic mistake of taking a breather after the goal and were guilty of ball-watching as Dion Dublin reacted first to a bobbling cross and then set up an unmarked Noel Whelan to hook it home.

"All season we have found it hard to kill sides off and this was another example," Martin O'Neill, the Leicester manager, said, lamenting his side's record of just 17 goals in 16 home matches. "We were brilliant in the first half and I thought we had done enough. But you never have if you are just a goal in front."

Indeed, Leicester had been the better side by some distance during the opening 45 minutes. The strength and pace of Heskey demanded constant vigilance, although the greatest threat to Coventry was presented by Leicester's midfield.

There Muzzy Izzet, who spent his formative years under Glenn Hoddle's tutoring at Chelsea, was an inspiring force, his clever footwork often making something from nothing both for team-mates and himself.

But Coventry had inspiration of their own in veteran goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic, the 40-year-old who has claimed back the place he must have felt he had lost for good when the Swede, Magnus Hedman, arrived. After denying Matt Elliott from point-blank range, Ogrizovic kept out three decent efforts from Izzet, his positional sense making the job look almost easy.

Izzet, above all, deserved a goal, although it was his partner, the rugged Ulsterman Neil Lennon, who seemed to have a case for claiming one eight minutes before half-time when Ogrizovic could only partially save a swerving drive and came close to allowing the ball to cross his line before snatching it back into his grasp.

The replacement of Tony Cottee with the taller and faster Fenton at half- time seemed a wise move but rather than gain momentum Leicester lost some, giving Coventry cause to believe that, having survived the first half, they might steal something in the second.

In the event, a breakaway launched by Steve Guppy's long ball enabled Leicester to do so as Fenton escaped from Roland Nilsson on the left and willed his own shot, deflected by David Burrows, to cross the line before 20-year-old Wilson applied the finishing touch. But the young man's joy was short-lived and if either of these teams is to grace Europe next season one suspects it will not be his.