Leicester 2-0 Grimsby

By: Richard Lord
Date: 05/04/2003

TWO second half goals from Trevor Benjamin and Callum Davidson earned Leicester City three more points in their quest for automatic promotion but left Grimsby with more work to do in their last six games of the season.

As expected Michael Keane started the game but on the left of a five-man midfield including youngster Chris Bolder. Despite training during the week Michael Boulding took up a place on the bench with Mansaram continuing as the lone striker.

The Mariners started the game brightly and they found a certain amount of joy attacking down the right with Campbell and McDermott finding space to cause the home side some problems.

Mansaram had Town's first chance but saw his shot deflected over by Gerry Taggart for a corner. Santos and Scowcroft were involved in a clash of heads and both players managed to continue, although it was Santos who appeared to come off worst.

Elliott and Taggart were creating problems for the Town defence at set pieces although Coyne was never called into any serious action. Benjamin should have given the Foxes the lead just after the half hour but somehow managed to miss the target from two yards out.

Coyne brilliantly saved Scowcroft's 25-yard effort just before half time. Town had half an opportunity to take the lead right at the end of the half but the move petered out ending with Santos playing the ball all the way back to Coyne in goal.

Leicester were dominant in the second half as they searched for the all-important breakthrough. Richard Hughes picked up the first booking of the afternoon for a fairly innocuous challenge 30 yards out.

From the resulting free kick the opener arrived when a driven cross hit Benjamin and bounced into the net when Ford and Santos failed to clear their lines.

Rogers then followed Hughes into the book when he kicked the ball away after the Mariners had won a free kick immediately from the kick off.

Rogers, McDermott, Bolder and substitute Frank Sinclair were then involved in a fracas after Rogers made his second bad challenge on McDermott. Sinclair then followed through on a challenge with Bolder and the youngster reacted.

The referee let the incident go unpunished and soon after Leicester doubled their lead through Scottish international Callum Davidson. Jordan Stewart beat the offside trap and Coyne could only parry his shot into the path of Davidson.

Boulding was then introduced in place of Groves. Quick Mick paired up with Mansaram as Town shifted to their more orthodox 4-4-2 formation in an attempt to salvage something from the game.

As Grimsby pressed they left gaps at the back and Coyne had to be in top form to keep the score at 2-0. Livingstone and Cooke were introduced late on and both had a hand in a goal that was disallowed by the linesman.

One minute later and Leicester had one of their own goals disallowed. From there the game drifted to a swift conclusion with the home side looking more than good enough for the three points.

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