CHAMPION SHOW ADMITS POWELL
Pearson hails his players
LEICESTER City boss Nigel Pearson watched his side dismantle Charlton before insisting it was the type of performance that justified their position as front-runners for promotion.
The Foxes dominated the firsthalf and took the lead through Jamie Vardy, before pressing home their advantage after the interval with further goals from Danny Drinkwater and David Nugent.
It was all too much for Charlton who had no answer, boss Chris Powell admitting that the home side had looked like champions elect.
“It’s nice of Chris Powell to think of us like that,” said Pearson.
“On this performance, we played very well. We showed as league leaders that we deserve to be there.
“But we’ve got 13 more games to go.The key to the season is that we do it ourselves and not what other people do around us.We’ll try and keep that going.
“We may still get setbacks but I’d rather be in the position we are in now than being in third and trying to sneak into automatic promotion.
“Ultimately, we have a better squad than we did last season. We’ve got a good balance.
“It’s not the biggest squad, but we have strength-in-depth and the most important thing is that the focus of the players is on being successful.
“Whether we can or can not-continue like this remains to be seen, but we’ve put ourselves in a great position and we’re doing extremely well.”
Already unbeaten in 13 league games Leicester took the lead when Nugent fed Vardy, who turned inside the box and fired past Ben Hamer for his 12th goal of the season.
Nugent almost made it two, but his header from Riyad Mahrez’s cross went just over.
Charlton were forced into an early change with Dorian Dervite replacing the injured Michael Morrison at centre-back.
The Frenchman was quick into the action, blocking Nugent’s close-range shot on 24 minutes.
The home side doubled their lead just three minutes into the second half.
Nugent’s shot from Jeff Schlupp’s cross was parried by Hamer straight to Drinkwater who took his chance with great aplomb.
Richard Wood had a chance to reduce the deficit for the Addicks, but could only guide his header over the bar from Astrit Ajdarevic’s free-kick.
Nugent did eventually get the goal that his performance deserved, firing a shot in off the post from 20 yards to put the game beyond Charlton’s reach.
Leicester continued to press with Schlupp, Drinkwater and Chris Wood all trying their luck but a fourth goal proved elusive.
Powell admitted it had been a tough week for his Charlton side, who have now failed to win in their last nine Championship away trips, despite their FA Cup win at Sheffield Wednesday on Monday.
“I suppose coming to the league leaders after the week we’ve had was maybe not the fixture we would want, but they are a very good side we played against,” he said.
“They are possibly the Champions elect if they carry on the way they are playing. But I’m disappointed, because the first goal was quite clearly offside.
“Maybe we could have gone in at 0-0 which would have helped, but it got their tails up. They scored early in the second half and then really it was a case of making sure that we didn’t come away from here with a heavier defeat.
“I suppose I should be happy with 3-0 because they are a very good side, the best side we’ve played against so far this season.
“I think it was just a mental thing for the players, these are bonus games if you get anything from them.” To comment on this match go to http://boards.footymad.net/