Leicester City comment by Nev Foulger: Squad must bounce back against Cardiff

Leicester City fans were warned to buckle themselves in for a roller-coaster ride this season.

But, at the moment, the highs and lows are so dramatic and sudden it is more like a bungee jump.

After the giddy success of the win against Nottingham Forest a week earlier, City's impressive eight-match unbeaten run was brought to an inglorious end by relegation-threatened Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

If ever there was a case of coming down to earth with a bump, this was surely it.

But it was yet another game that summed up the unpredictable nature of the Championship, a league in which anyone can beat anyone on any given day.

Only leaders Newcastle seem pretty well immune to the malaise.

They are barnstorming their way back to the Premier League, and a 6-1 victory over Barnsley on Saturday gave them an eight-point cushion at the top of the table.

Forest and West Brom continue to play musical chairs in second and third place, while another half-a-dozen clubs or so scrap it out for a top-six finish.

The good news for City is that the 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough caused only limited damage to their play-off ambitions.

They are still four points clear of seventh-placed Blackpool, and have a game in hand.

For all that, this was a match from which the Foxes would have expected to take at least a point in their current form.

However, against a highly-motivated Wednesday side, City's performance slipped well below the standard they had set for themselves during fabulous February.

You only had to read through Sheffield's programme to guess the sort of examination City would face. Having lost three games in a row, the last of them a 5-0 thrashing at Reading, the Owls were suffering and smarting.

"Totally unacceptable," was how manager Alan Irvine described it in his programme notes. He revealed that harsh words had been said and that the players had responded in the right manner during training.

They carried that over into the game. Wednesday played like a side fighting for their Championship lives, and City were unable to cope with their get-stuck-in, high-tempo approach. An early goal from Leon Clarke put City on the back foot, and they never really recovered. Clarke' second goal in the 61st minute was no more than the Owls deserved. They were worthy winners.

Now City have to respond again, something they have usually done whenever they have suffered a setback this season. It is that resilience and ability to bounce back that has kept City in the hunt for the play-offs.

The next challenge facing them is a home game against Cardiff on Saturday.

It was always going to be an important fixture on the calendar, but it has taken on even greater significance after City's defeat and Cardiff's victory against Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Cardiff are now sixth in the table, two points behind City but with a game in hand.

A win for the Foxes would create a useful gap on their play-off rivals, as well as strike an early psychological blow ahead of the return fixture in Cardiff.