The Watford OS site well you never expected the City OS site to be that quick :roll: said:
WINTRY conditions had cast doubt on whether this fixture would even begin, such was the speed at which the sleet and snow blew across Vicarage Road in the hours before kick-off.
However, the swirling snow failed to settle on the playing surface and both teams took to the field with only a sprinkling of snow beneath their boots.
Terry Bullivant's side boasted all the first-team experience on show, with players such as Paul Mayo, Jack Smith, Lloyd Doyley and Ashley Young all having racked up significant match minutes in the Hornets first team.
Brynjar Gunnarsson also started in the centre of midfield as he continues to build match fitness, and Alec Chamberlain returned in goal.
However, it was the Foxes who broke through after only five minutes and scored through Louis Dodds, firing low to Chamberlain's left from the edge of the penalty area. The ball had rebounded back into the path of the striker after a clearance from the Watford defence deflected off a Leicester body.
The Hornets seemed dead and buried by the youthful resilience of the visiting Foxes until Ben Herd popped up in the right place at the right time to smash a right-footed volley past Peter Akman from all of 25 yards.
Once play resumed after Dodds' opener, left-winger Adam Wykes got the next chance on goal, making himself available for Dodds to find inside the area. His sliced shot was just wide of Chamberlain's top corner.
On the quarter-hour Anthony McNamee's floated cross over the six-yard box was begging to be struck on the volley by Omari Coleman, but on his unfavoured right foot the striker opted to take the ball down and found Toumani Diagouraga, whose cross-shot cleared the Leicester goal and behind for a goal kick.
The game wasn't much of a spectacle over the next 15 minutes, with neither side making consistent inroads into their opposition penalty area. The best chance to level for the Hornets came from a McNamee free-kick on 28 minutes, which bounced in the area after several players missed the header. It needed the slightest touch to divert past Foxes stopper Conrad Logan but one was not forthcoming, the ball spinning behind into the Vicarage Road end.
Watford survived a penalty appeal four minutes later when Chris O'Grady burst past Jack Smith, forcing Chamberlain to go to ground at the feet of the City striker. O'Grady appeared to have pushed the ball past Chamberlain inside the area before he was brought down by the veteran - referee Miller looked to his linesman who did not flag and Watford resumed play with a goal kick.
Another good chance to level fell to Diafutua from Young's right-sided corner on 35 minutes. The French striker was forced to head the ball back whilst going away from goal and turned it over the bar from close range.
Leicester centre-back Alan Sheehan tried an audacious 35-yard volley as the half wound down. The ball sat up perfectly for the defender to strike, executing a superb volley only to see his shot whistle just wide of Chamberlain's left post.
The Hornets made a half-time substitution, with Ryan Gilligan coming on to replace Young on the right flank.
Ten minutes in Dodds again showed his ability when right-back Liam Norvall found him at the top of the penalty area - a neat turn later and the forward's shot through the legs of Doyley had Chamberlain scrambling across his goal, the ball going just wide.
Dodds was behind a fierce strike from another smart turn a few minutes later, this time freeing himself from the attentions of Smith before firing into the chest of Chamberlain from 15 yards.
Jason Norville, on as a 62nd minute sub, almost had an instant impact when he found the ball at his feet and a clear run at goal - Foxes custodian Logan did well to smother the ball at the feet of the advancing Trinidadian forward.
The Hornets then spurned two cast-iron chances to equalise. First Paul Mayo found himself in acres of space to the left of the six-yard box from Smith's lofted ball but the defender's attempted piledriver into the bottom corner was hit squarely across the box. Norville picked up on the ball, and on his right foot, placed a low shot inside the near post to which Logan got down quickly to turn behind.
Chamberlain's positioning had to be spot on at the edge of his area with six minutes remaining, snatching the ball away from sub Ashley Chambers as the diminutive forward bore down on goal.
With only two minutes left an equaliser came from an unlikely source - right-back Ben Herd. The young defender found himself in the right place to latch onto a half-cleared ball from the City defence and unleashed a thunderbolt of a volley from fully 25 yards. The sheer forced of the effort took it through a ruck of bodies and left sub keeper Akman with absolutely no chance as the ball rocketed past him into the net.
McNamee tried to seal the win with another long-range effort, this time a curling strike on the run which had Akman worried until it cleared the crossbar by inches.
Watford: Chamberlain, Herd, Mayo, Gunnarsson (Ferrell 62), Doyley, Smith, Young (Gilligan HT), Coleman, Diafutua (Norville 62), Diagouraga, McNamee. Subs: Osborne, Grant.
Leicester: Logan (Akman 78), Norvall, Franklin, Dawson, Lycett, Sheehan, Porter, Wesolowski, O'Grady, Dodds, Wykes (Chambers 83). Subs: Goodwin, McKay, Payne.
:roll: :? 
Ashley Chambers is a poster on another forum and he was 15 :?: just the other day.
