Cherries lifted themselves back out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win at King Power Stadium, thanks to Philip Billing’s first-half strike. The visitors had plenty more opportunities to kill off the contest against their struggling hosts, before having to survive some nervy moments in the closing stages.
Discussing his team’s display,
Gary O’Neil said: “I was pleased with a lot of it. I think it should’ve been more comfortable probably, score-line wise. But the by-product of it staying at 1-0 meant that in the end, Leicester are going to throw caution to the wind and you’re going to have to show a resilience and a gritty determination to make sure you leave here with three points that you definitely deserve. The lads managed to do that. I was pleased with the football, up until maybe the hour mark and the chances we created. We just needed to be more clinical and then it could’ve been a lot more comfortable.”
Reflecting on the chances squandered to double the lead,
Gary O’Neil added: “I can’t remember them exactly now, but it felt like there were some moments where you were feeling that’s got to go in that one. And then the rebound was there for us as well. We played well. We played through our structure very well. The lads understood it well today. And then when we had to, because we didn’t take our chances, we managed to show, as we know the lads will already, they gave absolutely everything to a man to ensure that we came away with three points. There is still work to be done, because we need to make sure that we take our chances. On another day there could be a slip, there could be a set-play goal, a deflection, something that could happen that meant we only leave with one point, which would’ve been a travesty really from how comfortable we were.”
