Late Penalty Crushes Reserves
Lars HirschfeldA resilient performance by City's second string ended in disappointment when a spot kick handed Crystal Palace a 1-0 victory at Marston's Stadium in their first match at the new home of Hinckley United.
Manager Craig Levein will be glad to see Jason Wilcox, Jordan Stewart and Darren Kenton have proven their match fitness, all completing the full 90 minutes to give the City boss more first team options for Saturday.
The game was played at a high tempo and with both sides pressing the ball, goal scoring chances were difficult to come by. Indeed it took City until the 25th minute to really test Julian Speroni when Chris O'Grady was unfortunate to see the goalkeeper get a touch to his shot after Peter Canero and Tommy Wright had combined down the right to put the Eagles' defence on the back foot.
Despite a shaky start, fumbling the ball after Palace's first attack from the kickoff, Lars Hirshfeld (pictured above right) put in a great display on the night in the Leicester goal. The Foxes would not have made it to the break on level terms but for a fantastic double save from the Canadian 'keeper after 40 minutes. Joonas Kolkka burst through the City offside trap to give him a rare sight at goal but after blocking the first strike with his chest, the City stopper recovered quickly to deny the Palace man a second time as he tried to slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
It was clear that there would be no repeat of Palace's eight goal rout against Portsmouth last week with Hirschfeld in this form and his defence closing down their opponents at every opportunity.
It was more of the same in the second half with neither side posing much threat of breaking the deadlock. The pace inevitably eased off as the game progressed creating more space and Wilcox would step up to take advantage. His cross from the left on 68 minutes found the head of Wright, though the young City striker's effort was saved one-handed at the far post.
However it was the visitors who would strike the killer blow with less than three minutes left on the clock. When it looked like Hirschfeld had pulled off another fine save scrambling across his box, the referee awarded a penalty for an earlier foul. Wayne Andrews picked himself up and put it away to wrap up the points for Palace.
CITY: Hirschfeld, Canero, Stewart, Dawson (Sheehan 74), Kenton, Heath, Wright, Gemmill, O'Grady, Moore, Wilcox
Subs (not used): Logan, Porter, Wykes, Dodds
Booked:Heath 55, Moore 85
PALACE: Speroni, Butterfield (Watanbe 45), Whiggins, Fray, Hudson , Wilson, Hall, Danze, Ventola, Andrews, Kolkka (Berry 64)
Subs (not used): Grabban, Wilkinson, Starkey
Booked: Andrews 45
;-) :mrgreen: 
