A Deserved Win, Says Maresca
- Harry Winks scored a stoppage-time winner for Leicester City at The Hawthorns
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also netted in the 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion
- Enzo Maresca was delighted to see the table-topping Foxes emerge victorious
- It’s a 15th win of the season in the Sky Bet Championship
After Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall broke the deadlock at The Hawthorns, the Baggies looked to have earned a share of the points courtesy of Josh Maja’s leveller in the final minute of normal time.
But Leicester weren’t done there and a quick-fire counter attack saw Dewsbury-Hall lay the ball on a plate for Harry Winks to net in front of the jubilant 2,009 away supporters and claim victory, much to Maresca’s delight, especially given the circumstances of City's midweek draw.
“It’s a big win,” the Italian stated following full-time. “I think we completely deserved to win the game with the way we played on the ball and off the ball, but unfortunately, we conceded again more or less the same way we conceded on Wednesday.
“It happened the same against Sheffield Wednesday - we had the chance with Jannik [Vestergaard]. Today it happened again. We need to improve on that.
“But I just said we are trying to build something, not only inside the pitch but off the pitch in terms of the way we want to behave and the way we want to compete. Today we showed it. Sometimes you can win, sometimes you can lose, but the important thing is the way we behave.”
You could see exactly what it meant to Maresca to secure a 15th Sky Bet Championship success and remain top of the table, with his side showing both the mentality and quality to bounce back from the disappointment of the equaliser, having carved out an excellent opener on 72 minutes.
“My celebration was probably too much but it was just the immediate reaction. I was just so happy. We had some good chances also in the first half, but overall, we deserved it.
“We’ve worked on that (the move for the first goal) many times since we started. We’ve already scored some goals [from that] and we did again today. The important thing is that they are in the right position because Wilf (Wilfred Ndidi) was in the right position and we were in the right position for Kiernan.
“It’s not only the energy for the goal, but the energy for the whole game after playing on Wednesday night. When you play Wednesday and the opposition play Tuesday, then you play Saturday at 12, it’s a huge difference. They showed character.”