victory over leicester city led to unclear decisions by enzo maresca

The Leicester City boss was particularly frustrated by the lack of a second yellow card for Kasey Palmer before Coventry scored three late goals at the CBS Arena

The Leicester City boss was particularly frustrated by the lack of a second yellow card

Leicester City’s relentless winning run has “annoyed” people, manager Enzo Maresca has said, leading to decisions in the defeat to Coventry that he struggled to understand.

City lost for the first time in two months on Saturday as the Sky Blues scored three late goals to get past Maresca’s 10-man side. While the City boss did not have complaints over Abdul Fatawu’s red card at the end of the first half, he was particularly frustrated that Kasey Palmer wasn’t sent off as well.

With 15 minutes to play, and with City still 1-0 up, the Coventry attacking midfielder tripped Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to stop a counter. Already on a yellow card, Palmer escaped a second booking from referee Darren England, to Maresca’s disbelief. The City manager’s complaints earned him a yellow, which means he’s racked up three for the season, enough to get a touchline ban for the meeting with Ipswich next time out.

Also pointing to the penalty appeal that was waved away in the 1-1 draw with Ipswich the last time his team were live on Sky Sports, Maresca feels that City’s run of victories have “annoyed people”, hence the decisions. Asked to specify who the annoyed people were, Maresca wouldn’t answer.

He said at his post-match press conference: “I prefer not to talk about the referee today because the last time we were on Sky, Ipswich away, it was a penalty. Today it was quite clear, especially second half.

“Like Palmer with the yellow card, he made some dangerous fouls, but there was no second yellow card. When you win, win, win, win, you start to annoy people. I struggle to understand the things that happened inside the pitch.

“The second yellow card was so clear. It was a counter-attack for us with Kiernan on the ball and Palmer from behind, foul. This is a clear yellow card, but there was no yellow card.

“So I guess that when you win, win, win, and win, you start to annoy. I’m not saying we annoyed someone, but I guess that we can start to annoy someone because otherwise I don’t understand some of the decisions today to be honest.”

Maresca’s frustration is perhaps because his side defended well with 10 men for a large portion of the second period, and did not concede many chances despite their man disadvantage. But as the final 10 minutes approached, Callum O’Hare got the equaliser and City heads dropped. They couldn’t deal with the Coventry pressure.

“We played two different games,” Maresca said. “The first half was one game, the second half was completely different. We organised quite well, the way we were defending in the second half. We didn’t concede, until the goal, nothing important.

“Then the goal changed things a little bit. It’s normal when you are with 10 players and you are 1-0 up and you concede 1-1 that you go a little bit down mentally, and the opponents are boosted a little bit. But it’s part of the game. The red card changed the game completely.”