Rivers does damage to Leicester's joy
Leicester City 1 Norwich City 1
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Your support makes all the difference.Easter Saturday might prove to be as good as it gets for Leicester City. Midway between their joyous winning of promotion and next week's obligatory open-top bus tour, the final game of the season at the Walkers Stadium was all rather subdued.
As party-pooping goes, Norwich City can reflect on a job well done. They deserved the point given them by Mark Rivers 16 minutes from time and it was they who pushed hardest for a winner at the end.
The fact that they are falling well short of the play-offs brings home the magnitude of the task awaiting Leicester against altogether more demanding opposition come August.
The step-up is not lost on manager Micky Adams, who went with his players on an anti-climactic lap of honour at full-time. "It was a real eye-opener for the board,'' he said. "We lost one player with a dislocated shoulder [Jordan Stewart] and had a centre-forward [Jamie Scowcroft] playing in the centre of midfield. We are down to the bare bones.
Leicester missed the injured Muzzy Izzet but you suspect they will need much more to raise expectancy levels even as high as those at last summer's successful Midlands graduates, Birmingham City.
Adams is already labouring the point that debts will eat into the Sky TV millions, and there's no indication that major new funds will be put his way. The outgoing chairman Jon Holmes felt compelled in his programme notes yesterday to defend the club against accusations that this season's administration was an easy option. Sheffield United's manager has been an outspoken critic but Holmes said: "I have never regarded Neil Warnock as a reliable arbiter of the morals of football. In no way did any of the consortium members bend the rules as he incorrectly and libellously has alleged.''
Leicester's prodigious strike rate from set-pieces briefly raised their title hopes when the early substitute Nicky Summerbee's curled 20th minute free-kick was headed on by Gerry Taggart for a clearly offside Trevor Benjamin to slide in.
Norwich, blooding several youngsters for next season, grew stronger after Brian Deane had fallen victim to an offside flag when the visitors were squeezing up just after half-time.
Rivers scored off the foot of post from 25 yards before only Scowcroft's intervention denied Paul McVeigh a probable last-minute winner.
Goals: Benjamin (20) 1-0; Rivers (74) 1-1.
Leicester City (4-4-2): Walker; Impey, Elliott, Taggart, Rogers; Scowcroft, McKinlay, Stewart (Summerbee, 16; Wright, 81), Benjamin (Ashton, 81); Deane, Dickov. Substitutes not used: Flowers (gk), Heath.
Norwich City (3-4-3): Green; Mackay, Fleming, Shackell; Russell, Holt, Mulryne, Drury; Henderson (McVeigh, 84), Roberts, Jarvis (Rivers, 65). Substitutes not used: Abbey, Briggs, Crichton (gk).
Referee: R Olivier (Sutton Coldfield).
Man of the match: Dickov.
Attendance: 31,639.
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