Phil Hay feels Leicester City would have already secured promotion had they not lost to Leeds United at Elland Road on 23 February. The Whites claimed a 3-1 victory on home soil against their promotion rivals, coming back from behind with three late goals from Connor Roberts, a Wout Faes own goal and Patrick Bamford. The Foxes’ form has been patchy since then, and Hay feels the result in Yorkshire affected Leicester. he said“ Leicester I just can’t get a handle on at all – I think I said to you in the last podcast, and I do think this – that defeat at Elland Road has just lingered with them. And I do think if they’d put away one of those two chances at 1-0 or if that goal that was disallowed had been given at 1-0, I think they’d be up by now and I think they’d have avoided this kind of streak of nerves that they’ve not been able to cope with. But [the promotion race is] absolutely wide open, so, yeah, I do think Leeds absolutely need to beat Boro and QPR. I think they’ll need six points minimum, probably seven, but, in saying that, who knows what the top two are going to do from this point. Leicester City have not recovered from losing to Leeds UnitedHay’s theory that Leicester’s defeat against Leeds at Elland Road has “lingered” certainly has evidence to back it up. The Foxes had been in flying form and were favourites to claim the Championship title before back-to-back losses knocked them off-course – the second being that defeat in Yorkshire. Leicester had lost just one of their previous 16 league outings, winning 12 times and drawing three before a 2-1 home defeat against Middlesbrough on 17 February. They then travelled to Leeds in need of a response to get them on the right track, but let the game slip from their grasp despite being 1-0 up heading into the 80th minute and contriving to lose 3-1. Since then, the Foxes have played eight more Championship games but have lost half of them, winning only three and drawing the other to cast doubts over their title tilt – they sit second, one point behind leaders Ipswich Town with a game in hand.
