Two goals within two minutes of each other in first-half stoppage time gave Leicester City a 2-0 win over Plymouth Argyle at King Power Stadium on Tuesday, Will Alves striking in the 47th minute before Harry Howell added a second in the 49th. It was Russell Martin's side's first league win of the season since Leicester dropped into League One from the Championship.
Plymouth had just 34% of the ball but created 13 attempts of their own, four on target, against Leicester's 18 attempts and five on target. "Our gameplan was to have a well-structured press, to turn the ball over high up on the pitch and then to transition," Plymouth head coach Tom Cleverley said. "The transition part needs work, which requires time that we've not got on the training pitch."
"That was a really sore one because I think it's a huge opportunity missed," Cleverley said after the game. Asked whether the game had essentially been decided in that spell of first-half stoppage time, he pushed back: "No, that would be giving us the easy way out. I thought for a big chunk of the middle of the game we lost a bit of confidence, a bit of personality and courage, and that was when you saw a much poorer version of ourselves."
Xavier Amaechi picked up Plymouth's only booking of the night in the 37th minute; Leicester saw Jayden Joseph, Harry Souttar and Sammy Braybrooke all cautioned as the game wore on, though neither side had a man sent off. Cleverley pointed to a tough run of away fixtures, at Wycombe before Leicester, as a factor: "We have lost our way a little bit in both games and so we need to get back to what we are and having no fear about what we are."