Nigel Pearson admitted that his players were “very down” after suffering a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa that leaves them rooted to the bottom of the Premier League, but the Leicester City manager insisted he cannot afford to waste any time or energy worrying about his own position as manager.
Alan Hutton’s second-half goal, after Ciaran Clark cancelled out Leonardo Ulloa’s early strike, condemned Leicester to a third successive defeat and extended their run without a win to 10 matches. Pressure is growing on Pearson after a difficult week that saw him clash with a Leicester supporter during Tuesday’s home loss to Liverpool, but he has vowed to fight on.
“We know that fortunes in football can change quickly, but you can’t hope they happen, it’s about working through difficult times,” the Leicester manager said. “I have been asked a number of times about my own position through this run and my view remains the same – I can’t afford to worry about that, because that would be a negative influence on how I work and probably our ability to get our preparation right for the next game.
“There is no getting away from how difficult it is at the moment because the run is so poor. And the players are very down today. I have to say that. They are really hurting in there. But they’re a good group of people. We’ve got some talent in the ranks, we’ve got to make our breaks. It remains for us all to continue to work hard and stretch each other.”
To compound matters for Leicester, Paul Konchesky was controversially sent off 10 minutes from time after a confrontation with Hutton that saw the Villa defender escape with a yellow card. “Initially we were under the impression [the red card] was for the challenge. If that is the case I think that would be very harsh,” Pearson said. “Then of course you have the coming together of players heads, certainly [Paul’s] not the instigator for that. The prudent thing for us to do is wait and see what’s in the [referee’s] report. But I think it would be difficult to have a decision like that rescinded in all honesty.”
For Paul Lambert, the emotions were very different. The Villa manager hailed a “massive three points” after a second successive win and paid tribute to Hutton, who was out of favour this time last season. “I’m delighted for him, I think he’s playing as well as any right-back in the country at the moment,” Lambert said.
