Liam Manning on 'outstanding' Bristol City win, penalty claims and Jamie Vardy blunders against Leicester City

Liam Manning says Bristol City ‘thoroughly deserved’ their 1-0 victory over Leicester City at Ashton Gate and was surprised that Jamie Vardy failed to convert a brilliant chance.

Anis Mehmeti’s second-half thunderbolt proved vital as the Robins recorded back-to-back home victories.

The result is City’s third win in eight matches following a poor run of form over recent weeks, and the manager insisted his side were well worth the victory.

“I thought the lads were outstanding, thoroughly deserved for me,” he said.

“We thought we could hurt them on the counterattack, it was a bit of everything, it was building through, going long, pressing, blocking, that’s the beauty of football.”

The Robins recorded 16 shots to Leicester’s 11 and had twice as many efforts on target than the visitors.

“We changed to a five (in defence) because of how they could hurt us but also how we could hurt them.

“We showed good intensity to block and man for man, we knew they’d keep five on their top line so if we five back it would be quite straightforward… The lads did a good job of executing the game plan.”

Before Mehmeti’s strike, the hosts were unfortunate to not receive at least one penalty in the first half.

“We arguably could’ve had a penalty, or two, the one on Rob definitely and also the one with Tommy,” Manning added.

“We started the game, well there was a good buzz around the place which was important.”

“There were going to be periods where we were going to have to soak up the pressure so we needed organisation, compactness, togetherness and desire to throw yourself in front of things.”

While the Robins could have had more goals, Enzo Maresca’s side should have notched at least one themselves.

Vardy missed three chances for the Foxes, two flashed wide in the first half, before an error from Zak Vyner allowed the 37-year-old a free shot on goal from 10 yards out.

Somehow, Max O’Leary reacted to tip the guilt-edged chance behind brilliantly.

When asked whether he was surprised to see Vardy’s effort not ripple the net, Manning replied: “I was praying for it not to.

“It’s one of those, we’ve been in positions before where things haven’t quite gone our way but that’s football. You can have the hard work, but you need luck as well, that’s all part of the game, we were on the right end of it today and hopefully, that carries on.”