Source: Team_Talk
Southgate gutted by last-gasp loss
Boro battered Leicester in a second-half blitz but could not break the visitors down and were made to pay when the visitors broke and grabbed a winner through Lloyd Dyer seven minutes from time.
"It was a smash-and-grab raid," said Southgate.
"At the end there it felt worse than West Brom. That time we never looked like scoring, we played poorly and we got what we deserved.
"But tonight we created chance after chance, dominated the game and their keeper has made some brilliant saves.
"I can't fault the team because they did everything you could ask and it looked like there was only one team going to score. We are bitterly disappointed."
Southgate was booed by a section of the Riverside fans after a second successive home defeat but insisted he could take the stick and that Boro were still on track.
"If fans want to react like that so be it," he said. "I will take whatever stick that is coming my way.
"I understand the frustrations. Expectations are high here - people expect us to go straight back up - but we have had some under-par results and performances.
"But we need some perspective. Results have gone our way and we are still only three points off a promotion place. We are still very much in it."
Leicester boss Nigel Pearson, who skippered Boro against City in the 1997 League Cup final, was beaming after what he admitted was a fortunate win.
"Obviously we are delighted to get our first win on the road," he said.
"It was a battling performance. Maybe we rode our luck a little a times and our goalkeeper made some good saves. It is a fact that we have played better than that and come away with nothing but we got the spirit and commitment I was looking for.
"It was a scrappy game and we didn't play as much football as we wanted to but that's the way it goes sometimes."
Leicester threatened first on 20 minutes when David Wheater failed to cut out a routine ball forward and it bounced through for Dyer to chase into the box but as he shaped to shoot Sean St Ledger came sliding in with a block.
Boro responded as Adam Johnson weaved forward before being brought down just outside the box but Julio Arca fired the free-kick over.
Leicester almost got a freak opener on 38 minutes as Wheater overhit a back pass from 20 yards out that forced keeper Brad Jones to react quickly and stick out a boot to block.
But Boro dominated after the break and carved out a string of good chances.
On 53 minutes teenage left-back Joe Bennett cut in from the flank to find Emnes who turned well to lose his man but sent his shot sizzling just over.
Then Wheater headed a Mark Yeates free-kick straight at the keeper, Johnson blazed the free-kick just over and on 74 minutes Yeates floated another ball in from the left to the near post for Leroy Lita to head just wide.
On 78 minutes, from another Yeates pass, defender Ledger put in a close-range diving header that was superbly saved then in the scramble that followed a Rhys Williams shot was charged down.
But Leicester had a sting in their tail.
They went close to 82 minutes when a Matt Oakley free-kick came back off the chest of Jones and Jack Hobbs slammed the rebound against the foot of the post.
And on 83 minutes Leicester grabbed the winner as the ball came in from the right from Martyn Waghorn for Oakley in the box and he neatly slipped it to his left for unmarked Dyer to slam home from 12 yards.
