Foxes drag Rodgers deeper into the mire

The match sponsors were Claims Justice but Brendan Rodgers would have been totally justified in claiming there is no justice in football anymore. Five times the Reading manager saw his players create authentic goal-scoring chances – including hitting the post and extracting one great save – but this defeat, the Royals' fourth in a row, means they are still in the relegation zone, as is Rodgers' job security.

There was a smattering of boos at the end, despite the hosts' best home performance in a long time. It is now nine months and 16 games since they won at the Madejski Stadium, and the winning goal that day in January didn't come from a Reading player. It has been that way ever since and the chants directed at Rodgers, of "You're getting sacked in the morning", came not only from the Leicester fans. The array of managers in the stadium who had popped in to watch will not have helped Rodgers sleep any easier.

Still, Rodgers is determined to stick at what looks like an impossible job. He said: "I've got no doubts about my ability to turn this around. I'm going to keep working hard."

The last time these teams met was in March 2006 but Reading were a team on the way up to the Premier League back then and Leicester were heading south. They are going in different directions again. The Foxes are now fifth in the Championship.

When Grzegorz Rasiak steered an early shot just wide, it set a tone for a night of near-misses and hard-luck stories. Simon Church saw three opportunities come his way, one of which on 50 minutes he hit perfectly, but a foot wide. That came five minutes after the only goal. Nigel Pearson, the Leicester manager, had Matt Fryatt in attack, with seven goals this term, but it was Martyn Waghorn who gave the Foxes an utterly undeserved lead, heading in Matt Oakley's corner.

Leicester were fortunate in the extreme to be in front. After 25 minutes McAnuff had two bites at the cherry, when he was put in by Church's pass. His first shot rebounded off the post back to the winger and his next effort was heading inside the far post, but deflected behind off the unwitting Ryan McGivern.

Rodgers may be Irish but you don't want his luck right now.

Reading (4-4-2): Federici; Tabb, Mills, Pearce, Bertrand; McAnuff, Matejovsky, B Howard, Sigurdsson (Kebe, 65); Rasiak, Church (Long, 65). Substitutes not used: Cissé, Gunnarsson, Karacan, Hamer (gk), Cummings.

Leicester City (4-4-2): Weale; Neilson, Hobbs, Brown, McGivern; Oakley, King, Wellens, Gallagher (Berner, 85); Fryatt (S Howard, 59), Waghorn (Campbell, 59). Substitutes not used: Morrison, Logan (gk), N'Guessan, Kermorgant.

Referee: K Hill (Hertfordshire).