Winks moment had Rowett laughing but summed up Leicester City manager's success

Gary Rowett celebrated a long-awaited Leicester City win in the knowledge his messages are cutting through to the squad – as summed up by one late Harry Winks moment.

Rowett oversaw City’s first win in 11 matches, and their first clean sheet in 31, with the 2-0 success against Bristol City on Tuesday night.

City put themselves into a strong position with Ben Nelson and Abdul Fatawu’s first-half goals, and then saw the game through in the second period, helped by Jakub Stolarczyk’s penalty save.

After Stolarczyk denied Emil Riis from 12 yards, there were very few scares, City seeing the game out professionally, a rarity for a side that had won fewer than half of the matches they’d led at the interval this season.

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Rowett was left laughing at one moment he felt summed up City’s second-half showing, when Winks dribbled the ball to the corner to wind down the clock, defying his preferences to show off his technical qualities.

Rowett said: “We ticked a few boxes tonight, didn’t we? A clean sheet, won the game and a really nice feeling in the stadium towards the end.

“It was super important to get that one to help build everybody’s confidence in what we’re doing. It wasn’t a game that was without its moments, it potentially could have turned into an anxious end.

“Before the game, myself and Callum (Davidson, assistant manager) chatted at length about how it feels, at the moment, we’ve almost got to have two teams, a 60-minute team and then a 30-minute team.

“It feels like there’s different periods in the game, maybe towards the end of games, where that anxiety of not keeping a clean sheet or not winning games often enough manifests itself in what looks like a negative way.

“We purposely almost left real strength on the bench to then change and being able to bring Patson (Daka), Winks, Divine (Mukasa) and Ricardo (Pereira) on, it actually changed the game completely.

“Of course, we needed the penalty save that we know is a hugely important part of the game. Maybe if they score, the last period is different.

“But I thought we managed it really well. I laughed in the dressing room. Winsky broke and then he ran it into the corner, so if you’re getting technical players like Winks to manage the game in that way, at least some of the messages are getting through.”

The result lifts City out of the Championship’s bottom three, at least for 24 hours. West Brom can leapfrog them on Wednesday night if they beat Southampton.

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