MARESCA; Important Notice To Leicester City

Maresca’s men were forced to come from behind following Gabriel Sara’s 20th-minute opener. Remaining calm proved to be vital in those early stages according to the Manager and Leicester responded before the break via a Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall header.

Stephy Mavididi’s strike on the hour mark saw the hosts ahead for the first time in the game and a late third from substitute Jamie Vardy secured the three points, returning Leicester to the top of the Sky Bet Championship on Easter Monday – for a few hours at least.

“We completely deserved it,” the Italian assessed following full-time. “It was important today in this moment to win the game. It was not easy because we were 1-0 down. The answer from the players was very good and we have been mentally strong at the end.

“This is the most important thing, especially for us as staff, to see that they (the players) were convinced that we would win the game that way. In this stage, it’s important to win games, but it’s also important to continue to play in the way we want to play.”

The wingers played a big part once more, with Mavididi assisting the equaliser prior to Dewsbury-Hall returning the favour for Leicester’s No.10. Abdul Fatawu also enjoyed plenty of the ball on the opposite flank.

“Stephy probably managed better through the 90 minutes,” the 44-year-old explained. “Abdul had some decisions, but also it’s normal [because] he is very young. Again we created many chances today.

“The performance was also there at Bristol and against Leeds and all the defeats. Sometimes it’s football. You can miss chances or you can score, but today we took our chances and thankfully we won the game.

“For the moment that [goal] arrived, the game was almost finished and we scored the third one so it was 3-1 and I was very happy.”

A raucous atmosphere greeted the players at full-time, as they celebrated with the Blue Army, who will be backing City once more against Birmingham City on Filbert Way on Saturday.

Maresca added: “Hopefully we can have the same environment with the fans that we had today. We really appreciate it. It was very good and we go again on Saturday.”