The end of Leicester City’s perfect record is “no drama” for Enzo Maresca, who put the defeat to Hull down to a lack of clinical finishing.
City had 21 shots but just one on target at the King Power Stadium, with Liam Delap’s deflected first-half strike enough to secure the three points for the visitors. It ends a run of six straight wins under the Italian for City.
He had long predicted a defeat would arrive because “this is football, not PlayStation” and he was not downbeat at seeing the unbeaten run end. All he wants is his team to be better in front of goal.
“Probably we need to be a little bit more clinical,” Maresca said in his post-match press conference. “When you shoot more than 20 times, you need to be more clinical.
“The first half we started in the right way until they scored, then for 15 to 20 minutes we lost a bit of control because we were pressing in the wrong way. Then we adjusted something and the last 10 minutes of the first half and the second half completely we were in control.
“When you shoot more than 20 times, probably you need to be more clinical, but sometimes this happens. They didn’t want to shoot outside of the goal! They want to shoot on target. But sometimes they cannot do it.
“It happened with all of them, Kiernan, Cesare, Wilfred, Fatawu, Stephy, Macca. The most important thing is that we arrived there and shot 20 times. Sometimes we score and sometimes we don’t.
“We cannot think we are not going to lose games. We played seven games and if at the beginning of the season you said we would win six and lose one, I would accept it.
“And as I said on day one, we need to judge results, this is a business, we are here for this, but at the same time I have to analyse different things. Today probably is a day where we deserved something more.
“It doesn’t happen, but we keep going. It’s not a drama because we lost a game. Probably people don’t expect we are going to lose a game, but this is football not PlayStation.”
City’s defeat means they no longer sit at the top of the Championship table. Victories for Preston and Ipswich means they are now the top two in the division, with City slipping to third.