Leicester 2 Wolves 1 - match report

Wolves produced a much-improved performance to give hope to their long-suffering fans only to crash to another defeat at high-flying Leicester.

Awful defending led to quick breakaway goals from Anthony Knockaert (24) and David Nugent (73) either side of Bakary Sako's stunning equaliser six minutes after the break.

Chief executive Jez Moxey was absent from the King Power Stadium to pursue deals, but the transfer window closed without any new signings at Molineux.

A spirited defeat nonetheless extended Wolves' run to eight games without a win and left new boss Dean Saunders searching for his first victory four matches into his reign.

But he will have been encouraged by what was the best display since he took over from Stale Solbakken.

Saunders made four changes to the side beaten 2-1 by Blackpool on Saturday.

Stephan Ward was recalled, Danny Batth made his first Championship start and Tongo Doumbia and Bjorn Sigurdarson made their first starts under Saunders.

Roger Johnson began his three-match ban, Ronald Zubar has moved on since the Blackpool game and Slawomir Peszko and Kevin Doyle dropped to the bench.

Leicester made the better start and largely controlled the game until they took the lead just after the midpoint of the first half.

It seemed Anthony Knockaert had a shoot-on-sight policy in the opening minutes as he looked to test Wolves at every opportunity.

First the winger took advantage of poor defending by Christophe Berra to poke wide after waltzing through.

Then David Nugent and Knowckhaert both blazed over from 30 yards before the latter sent a skidding drive just wide.

Wolves' only reply was a wayward cross shot from Bakary Sako that flew wide before Leicester returned to the attack and Chris Wood was inches away with a dipping volley that flew just over.

Then came the opener, and it was difficult to feel sympathy for Wolves after the sloppy way they conceded it.

Quick thinking from Kasper Schmeichel saw the keeper throw the ball out to Knockhaert into the space where Stephen Ward should have been but the Ireland international was still upfield from a Wolves attack and he signalled for Doumbia to cover him but his team-mate seemed to ignore him and the Leicester midfielder made crucial strides before Ward finally tracked back to delay him.

But Knockhaert was still able to cut inside before checking back inside Ward and firing an angled shot into far corner via both hands of Carl Ikeme.

Wolves however picked themselves up after the goal and enjoyed a much improved spell.

They could have equalised within four minutes when Batth was presented with a free header at the far post from Sako's corner only for his effort to flew just wide.

A sustained spell of possession from the visitors saw Sako have a shot blocked after Sylvan Ebanks-Blake had an effort blocked from Ward's cross following a lovely pass inside by the French winger.

But Leicester twice missed the chance to have made it 2-0 before the break when Nugent mis-hit a volley from 16 yards from Knockhaert's cross then Ben Marshall sliced well over after a backheel by Nugent from Paul Konchesky's diagonal pass left him in the clear.

Leicester were soon made to pay for the wastefulness in front of goal when Sako equalised in spectacular style.

Doumbia headed on a bouncing ball on the left wing and Sako smashed an unstoppable shot with the outside of his unfavoured right foot that swerved away from Schmeichel and into the far bottom corner of the net from the edge of the area.

Within a minute, Leicester missed another chance when Wood screwed the ball wide from six yards out after he got ahead of Batth to Ritchie De Laet's centre.

Wolves continued to battle gamely with some renewed urgency to their performance as they played a full part in an end-to-end game.

But they were undone by more poor defending for the winner.

Nugent picked up the ball inside his own half on the left and was allowed to run unchallenged before cutting inside onto his right foot, curling a shot beyond Ikeme and just inside the far post.

Nugent missed the chance to make it 3-1 when he connected poorly from close range from substitute Jamie Cardy's cross.

But Wolves fought to the last and Ebanks-Blake beat Wes Morgan to sub David Davis' cross only for his header to drop just wide.

Then the 11-goal top scorer went even closer when his shot on the turn seemed goalbound only for the ball to take a slight deflection off Morgan before scraping the outside of the post from Ward's cross.

It was another game without a win but it was a spirited, improved performance and one which deserved the warm ovation from the 772 travelling fans at the end.