Kelly Remains Cautious.

[Bert]

Rob Kelly says his side will be keeping their feet firmly on the ground after he watched his Foxes make it eight games unbeaten in the league with a 2-1 victory over Stoke City on Tuesday night.

Leicester have now climbed to 12th in the Championship table following the win - and can look back on October as a very productive month having secured 11 points from a possible 15.

But despite their upturn in form the City boss confirmed that he will be keeping his side fully focussed on the task in hand as they now turn their attentions to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

He said: "We are heading in the right direction, but we are not getting carried away with it all because life has a nasty habit of kicking you where it hurts when you are least expecting it.

"We didn't hit rock bottom when we had a sticky start to the season and we are not popping Champagne corks today."

City were dealt a blow ahead of the game with the news that Patrick Kisnorbo had failed a late fitness test on a knee injury.

But despite being down to the bare bones once again Kelly's men dug deep to secure the victory.

He added: "I was pleased with the manner of the result more than anything else.

"There were nearly 30,000 supporters inside the Walkers Stadium for our last home game and I thought that there was a danger that we could have suffered a hangover. But that didn't happen at Queen's Park Rangers in difficult circumstances, and it didn't happen tonight.

"I have said all along that the players who step in are capable of doing a job for us and we saw that again tonight. It was testament to our spirit and togetherness. We ground that one out.

"We will end up playing seven games in 21 days come five o'clock on Saturday evening at Hillsborough. But people who know us know that we plan things and we work hard. It might not always come to fruition, but we try and plan as best we can.

"I am lucky in the fact that I have got really good staff here who obviously help with the players enormously.

"We knew that we were going to need everyone and it will be interesting at the end of this run to have a look at exactly how many players we have used.

"But the fact that they are ready when they are called upon is testament to them."

OS

[Ultra]

An honest, level-headed assessment.

But RK was a little fortunate with his tactics tonight. Bringing back both Hughes AND Johnson didn't really work, and the victory happened despite our midfield rather than because of it.

He could also have brought on subs for tiring players in the closing stages to close out the win.

However, he managed to keep the unbeaten run going, thus making it harder for any would-be incoming supremo to sack him!

[3pts4awin]

An honest, level-headed assessment.

But RK was a little fortunate with his tactics tonight. Bringing back both Hughes AND Johnson didn't really work, and the victory happened despite our midfield rather than because of it.

He could also have brought on subs for tiring players in the closing stages to close out the win.

However, he managed to keep the unbeaten run going, thus making it harder for any would-be incoming supremo to sack him!

hughes scored the winner.

i would;ve prefered welsh to hughes, tiatto central. certainly from about 65/70 mins welsh should've come on.

yes very hard to sack him now, thats a good thing right

[Daggers]

An honest, level-headed assessment.

But RK was a little fortunate with his tactics tonight. Bringing back both Hughes AND Johnson didn't really work, and the victory happened despite our midfield rather than because of it.

He could also have brought on subs for tiring players in the closing stages to close out the win.

However, he managed to keep the unbeaten run going, thus making it harder for any would-be incoming supremo to sack him!

Cock!

He was spot on with his tactics. Hughes scored the winner (he plays in midfield in case you'd missed it), Tiatto had five magnificent strikes on goal (a midfield player) and JOhnson was fundamental in winning back lost balls.

He could have brought on players...but that would have disrupted a team that was controlling and containing a strong attacking force. So, when it comes to tactics: Kelly 3-0 Ultra

[Thracian]

Yes. I'd give Kelly 8.5 out of 10 tonight.

He's right of course to put things into proportion and keep everyone focused but fans can be as enthusiastic or otherwise as they like and today I'm the former.

Stoke were as good a team as we've had down here this season and Kelly's first job was to stop a side who've been scoring for fun from playing.

Even without the awesome presence of Kisnorbo we did that and restricted a talented attack to little more than crumbs.

Their goal was a bit bizarre really - something from nothing - but extremely well taken. However, it was not really the result of tearing our defence apart and, indeed, City restricted Stoke's chances far more dramatically than I expected. In fact it was one of the best displays of xonal marking I've seen with City huinting down very quickly, with great determination and without commiting the potentially fatal sin of conceding very many unnecessary free kicks.

Gavin, a friend I watched the game with, summed City up perfectly when he said our inability to retain possession means we are always likely to concede one goal and so it was again but I said beforehand we'd need to score two and what goals they were.

Little more than decent half-chances really but the players showed the confidence and belief to despatch them and then to contest the game professionally to the death.

Johnson and Sylla still disappointed and my one criticism was that I'd hve withdrawn Sylla and put Fryatt on with Hume and Hammond but that's nitpicking and seeing we got the result, who's to say Kelly's decision wasn't the better one.

Again we occasionaly produced some good moves but this was a win mainly based on the hard-to-beat philosophy I anticipated with organisation, commitment, determination and sense of purpose to the fore. I suspected it was always going to be like that and I think victory was a considerable achievement.

In fact all eight teams in our unbeaten run represented worthy opposition which only emphasises that our destiny is down to our attitudes more than anything else because we are demonstrably a match for anyone in this League.

It was a performance to be proud of.