Makin stalls Leicester's revival drive

Dave Bassett, Leicester's dir-ector of football turned caretaker manager, has already put names forward to take over at the Walkers Stadium, but he also threw his own hat into the ring to be the permanent successor to Micky Adams after watching his side pick up a deserved point at Coventry.

Dave Bassett, Leicester's dir-ector of football turned caretaker manager, has already put names forward to take over at the Walkers Stadium, but he also threw his own hat into the ring to be the permanent successor to Micky Adams after watching his side pick up a deserved point at Coventry.

Bassett has a say in who replaces Adams, who resigned earlier this week after a sustained period of misery in charge of Leicester. Putting a potential conflict of interests aside, Bassett said: "If we are winning I would like to be the manager. If we are losing I would like to be director of football. I would like to be considered, and the board know that, but I have given them other names who I think would be suitable for the job."

Bassett, along with Howard Wilkinson, the man brought in to assist him, watched from the Highfield Road dug-out as Leicester dominated for large periods, with Dion Dublin, the one-time Coventry darling who was booed every time he touched the ball, grabbing a 70th-minute opening goal.

The Leicester forward looked set to break Sky Blue hearts when he guided the ball home into an empty net after David Connolly's inch-perfect cross from the right. But Coventry's persistence paid off when Chris Makin put through his own net 10 minutes from time.

"We'd have settled for a point before the game to start with, but when you go ahead it is disappointing," Bassett said. "But these things happen. You can't change a team in three days, we need two weeks to get some of the things across to them."

The first half had certainly been traumatic for Bassett. Jason Wilcox was left stricken on the floor after an innoc-uous tangle of legs with Coventry's on-loan midfielder Rohan Ricketts. He was taken away on a stretcher, and before the half-hour mark Scot Gemmill joined him as he hobbled off.

Connolly had the best two chances in the opening period only for goalkeeper Luke Steele to produce excellent saves. After the break, Trevor Benjamin's delicious volley from 40 yards sailed inches wide with Steele beaten, while Eddie Johnson and Stern John both went close with headers for Coventry. The inevitable happened when Dublin broke the deadlock, and immediately the Leicester midfielder Lilian Nalis had to be alert to keep the visitors in front with a headed clearance off his goal-line from a curling Michael Doyle free-kick.

The impressive Leicester defence, marshalled superbly by Martin Keown on his return after being exiled and transfer-listed following disagreements with Adams, were set for a deserved clean sheet, but the unsighted Makin put through his own net from Andrew Whing's cross.

It could have been a largely undeserved three points to Coventry, but the on-loan Manchester United forward Johnson's 25-yard effort struck the upright. "I'm happy with a point," said Coventry's manager, Peter Reid. "But it is sod's law Dion would score today."