Football: Canny Carbone outfoxes lame Leicester

Leicester City 0 Sheffield Wednesday

IN THE conventional division of the Premiership into three leagues within a league, Leicester City have tended to be placed in the middle group - those with European aspirations - and Sheffield Wednesday among the wretches happy merely to survive.

Even in a season largely devoid of shock results, however, a team from the lower orders playing well should beat a team from the middle section playing badly, and that was the way of it at Filbert Street on Saturday. Indeed, there is now only a point between them. Wednesday are three wins clear of the relegation places and Leicester's failure to live up to expectations means that Continental ambitions appear to depend on qualifying via either the Worthington Cup or the dreaded InterToto Cup, into which ring their chairman has flung his hat.

Even the normally loquacious Martin O'Neill could not find much to say about his team's flaccid performance and consequent defeat. "The long and short of it is that we deserved to be beaten," was the manager's unusually pithy and entirely accurate summary. His postbag this morning may well contain another missive from the supporter of 50 years' standing, who wrote to complain that the recent 3-0 FA Cup defeat by Coventry was the worst display he could remember for a long time.

It was certainly better than Saturday's, if only because in the cup tie Leicester created numerous chances and were still in with a shout until stoppage time. Against Wednesday, they threatened once in 90 minutes, when Muzzy Izzet wriggled cleverly past three defenders, only to have his angled shot blocked on the line by Andy Hincliffe's lunge.

After that, the little man who caught the eye, wriggling and jiggling to best effect in the land of the giants, was Wednesday's Benito Carbone, allaying any worries that Matt Elliott, Steve Walsh and Gerry Taggart would batter him, butter him and serve him up on toast. Carbone believes that Wednesday have been allowed much more space playing away from home, which is why their only two League wins since 12 December have come at West Ham (4-0) and now Leicester.

He was unmarked when forcing Kasey Keller to a desperate save in the first half and cracking in Niclas Alexandersson's cross for the second goal. So was his partner, Andy Booth, in testing Keller again and then setting up the opening goal for Wim Jonk.

Wednesday's attack floundered in the immediate wake of Paolo Di Canio's push on Paul Alcock, but Carbone has now scored seven times in 11 games. "He does so much running off the ball, and assesses situations so quickly," said Wednesday's manager, Danny Wilson. An extra striker to replace Carbone's fellow-Italian nevertheless remains a priority. Wilson must have feared that Arnar Gunnlaugsson from Bolton, having turned down his approaches, might give him cause for further regret on Saturday, but the Icelander was brought on in midfield, too far from goal to hurt a solid Wednesday defensive line.

He will be ineligible for the Worthington Cup semi-final in 10 days' time at home to Sunderland, who, despite their 2-1 deficit, must have taken as much encouragement from this game as Wednesday.

Goals: Jonk (48) 0-1; Carbone (77) 0-2.

Leicester City (3-5-2): Keller; Elliott, Taggart (Sinclair, 56), Walsh (Gunnlaugsson, 56); Impey (Zagorakis, 77), Izzet, Lennon, Ullathorne, Guppy; Cottee, Heskey. Substitutes not used: Kaamark, Arphexad (gk).

Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Srnicek; Atherton, Walker, Thome, Hinchliffe; Alexandersson, Jonk, Sonner, Rudi; Carbone, Booth. Substitues not used: Newsome, Humphreys, Briscoe, Stefanovic, Pressman (gk).

Referee: G Willard (Worthing).

Booked: Leicester: Taggart.

Man of the match: Carbone.

Attendance: 20,113.