And it was a tough game for us. We had to come from behind after a first half when Leicester probably thought they should have been more than one goal in front. They were better than us in that first 45 minutes and yet we conceded only once and that to a very harshly awarded penalty.
We worked so hard to stay in the game and got our reward with that early second half goal after which the confidence seem to flood back into us and we might even have gone on to win it. Having said that, this was a good point, make no mistake about that.
With the Sky cameras there it meant an early start from Burnley for the journey to Leicester via the M6, A50 and M1 and we were there in good time, our car expertly directed into a parking space for us by the Revd. Oeconomos Antonios Stavrinou who is the Priest in Charge at our regular parking spot at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas and St. Xenephon.
 |
| Dean Marney was back in the team after injury |
We arrived as the team news was just being confirmed and the news that Dean Marney was back. I'd spoken to someone on Friday who wondered whether he'd return via the bench but I reckoned once declared fit he would go straight back in.
He did, with Brian Stock dropping down to the bench, and there were no other changes, meaning the starting eleven and probably the seven substitutes were those Sean Dyche considers to be his strongest line up.
We are getting used to travelling to away games where the key defender for the home side is supposedly ruled out with illness only to see him in the team. It happened again yesterday with Wes Morgan lining up for Leicester but boss Nigel Pearson made three changes to the team that had lost at Brighton a week earlier.
In came fit again Ritchie De Laet, Burnley fan Matty James and Liam Moore who came in for Wasilewski, Dean Hammond and Andy King and I'm sure by about 12:30 Pearson was delighted with the team he'd sent out.
By then they'd gone a goal up and had totally dominated us right from the kick off. They really were up for it. Pearson had said ahead of the game that they would have to out work us and they certainly set out to do just that.
They were stretching us defensively. Lloyd Dyer was looking dangerous down the left. De Laet was a threat down the right and Anthony Knockaert, whose penalty miss at Watford condemned them to defeat in last season's play-offs, was just about everywhere as Leicester continued to pour forward.
We defended bravely. Kieran Trippier got in a couple of blocks in the box in quick succession but there were other occasions when only a last minute block kept the scores level. Yet only once did they really trouble Tom Heaton and that was from a Knockaert shot which he grabbed at the second attempt after parrying the first effort.
When a team gets on top like this you always think it can't last too much longer, and if it ends without a goal then so much the better, but on 14 minutes disaster struck.
Jason Shackell gave the ball away and when it was played back into the box a penalty was given by referee Andy D'Urso as Jamie Vardy went down. It was on the side of the penalty box where we, the Burnley fans, were situated and it looked soft.
I thought he'd given it against Shackell but it was Mee who was penalised. However, quite how on earth D'Urso, who sent off Mee at Blackburn last season, saw a foul there I don't know. Vardy is on his way down and the former Premier League official has fallen for it.
Now you know that at some stage of the game you are likely to see David Nugent's name on the scoresheet when he plays against Burnley so in some ways it was good news to get that out of the way rather than someone else take it. Nugent stepped up, sent Heaton the wrong way and Leicester were a goal up.
We'd been done again by a poor decisions but in truth we deserved to be behind, or more accurately Leicester deserved to be in front.
There was no way the game was ever going to continue like that and it didn't. We came into it a bit more and started to ask some questions of Leicester yet they always looked dangerous and there was always a real concern that they might snatch another.
Having said that there were opportunities down at the far end. Kasper Schmeichel was forced into one decent save and Ings hit the post from a Trippier cross.
It was the late surge from the home side at the end of the half when they came so close to getting that second goal. Maybe Nugent should have shot, but he got it to Vardy who saw his effort role just wide of the post.
A goal then, right on half time, would have been a killer but we survived it although still with some work to do to get anything from the game.
The big question being asked at half time was how good were Leicester and/or how bad had we been in that opening period? It's often a bit of both but on this occasion I really did think Leicester had played well; they'd took hold of the game but we got men behind the ball and defended for our lives at times.
We were though guilty of giving the ball away too cheaply at times and it was such an occurrence that had led to the goal and Shackell, more often than not so secure and careful, had probably been the biggest culprit.
We needed to change things in the second half; Dyche said after the game that we'd made a couple of slight tactical changes. Whatever he said to them; whatever changes he decided upon, they worked.
 |
| Danny Ings finished expertly from close range to earn Burnley a point from a 1-1 draw |
We were a different side in the second half but we certainly benefited from scoring our equaliser just 86 seconds in. Leicester played a ball forward right from the start of the half but Vardy pushed Michael Duff and conceded a free kick on the edge of our box.
Heaton took it; the ball was too high for Ings but Sam Vokes was able to collect it not too far outside the Leicester box. He did really well with his back to goal to take the ball under control and play it out to Michael Kightly.
Kightly nudged it wide to Trippier whose cross into the box evaded the home defenders and dropped kindly for Ings just outside the six yard box. He needed no second opportunity and finished expertly to bring the scores level.
It was a different game, very much so, and things could have been a lot worse for Leicester within six minutes. They could have been behind and down to ten men.
The chance to go in front fell to Vokes. He was closing down Schmeichel as he kicked long up the pitch. Duff won it and headed it forward and over the half way line but only straight to De Laet.
He looked to knock it back but it fell kindly for Vokes who bore down on goal only to see Schmeichel make a very good save to deny him. Yes he should have score; yes he got it just too high and made it that little bit easier for the goalkeeper when a shot on the ground would have surely seen us go 2-1 up.
If Vokes didn't do as well as he might have there then that has to be said alongside the rest of his performance which was yet another outstanding one from the in form striker. He'd done well enough in the first half but in the second half, with Ings just about back to his best too, he caused the home defence constant problems with his excellent work.
Almost immediately after that incident came another when Nugent caught Trippier. I thought the foul was worth a card but the jump onto Trippier's ankle should surely have seen the former Burnley striker sent off.
D'Urso saw nothing wrong; Nugent smiled and we continued at 1-1 with eleven players on each side.
But Leicester, for long periods, were now second best. Marney and David Jones were beginning to run the game and for much of the second half we were the better side and very much the more likely. This was back to the Burnley we'd seen play so well during that fantastic run in September and October.
Leicester were forced into changes. They withdrew both strikers, first Nugent and then Vardy. Nugent himself admitted after the game that they'd run out of steam. That's what happens when you try to out work Burnley.
De Laet was also withdrawn and Burnley replaced Kightly with Keith Treacy for the last twenty minutes or so.
You sensed Leicester might throw things at us towards the end and they did. They put one chance just wide but the nearest they came was when Dyer and Knockaert linked with the latter seeing Heaton do really well to keep out a cross that was going in after a deflection off Marney.
But a goal would have been an injustice. We might have been second best in the early part of the game but by the end were fully deserving of the point. We'd delivered another performance and crept up to 40 points.
There were some big smiles on the faces in the away end. We all knew we'd come through a potentially difficult game away from home and got a fully merited point.
And as we departed for home our smiles were even wider as we heard the moaning and whinging from former Leicester forward Alan Young on local radio. I know local radio have to base everything on the local club but his damning remarks about Burnley were appalling.
He declared that we'd be nowhere near the promotion places at the end of the season and had based that on the first half when he, in his words, suggested Leicester should have been at least four goals in front.
Mr Young. I know you were a 26 goal legend for Leicester, and that's more than twice as many goals as you need to be a Bolton legend, but your side didn't have four shots on target in the first half so it would have been difficult to have scored four goals.
You might also want to see how well we played against your side in the second half before you go off on one with your inane rant. Your side got what it deserved yesterday at the end of the day, a point, against a very good Burnley side.
The draw kept us on top for just under three hours after that when QPR won at Blackpool to knock us down into second place. But there were signs, some real positive signs, yesterday that our team is ready to start winning a few games again.
The teams were;
Leicester: Kasper Schmeichel, Ritchie De Laet (Marcin Wasilewski 70), Wes Morgan, Liam Moore, Paul Konchesky, Anthony Knockaert, Danny Drinkwater, Matty James, Lloyd Dyer, David Nugent (Gary Taylor-Fletcher 69), Jamie Vardy (Jeff Schlupp 83). Subs not used: Conrad Logan, Ignasi Miquel, Dean Hammond, Andy King.
Yellow Card: Ritchie De Laet.
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly (Keith Treacy 72), Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas.
Yellow Card: Dean Marney.
Referee: Andy D'Urso (Billericay).
Attendance: 23,143 (including 840 Clarets).