Match report: Leicester City supersubs fire opening salvo

The footballer's WAG has become a bit of a joke – but the Leicester City version showed some serious intent against Swansea on Saturday.

Martyn Waghorn introduced himself to the Blue Army with the goal which triggered City's recovery from a potentially damaging situation at the Walkers Stadium.

And 19-year-old Waghorn's impact off the bench was matched by Dany N'Guessan who scored just three minutes after the Sunderland rookie to ensure City got off to a flyer in their Championship opener.

And, with stalemates in eight of the other 12 second-tier encounters, it gave City an early advantage over other sides with promotion aspirations.

The rush of anticipation before kick-off was prolonged with some lengthy preliminaries as chairman Milan Mandaric and manager Nigel Pearson received the League One winners' flag from former World Cup referee Jack Taylor.

Star striker Matty Fryatt's 27 league goals were a massive contribution to the title cause and, despite his pre-season game-time being limited to less than half-an-hour, the City front-man started the contest as N'Guessan, who had filled in for Fryatt during the warm-up games, had to settle for a spot on the bench.

Richie Wellens did make his home debut in central midfield as skipper Matt Oakley moved to the right with Michael Morrison replacing the suspended Robbie Neilson at right-back. There was no place in the 18-man squad for Bulgarian international Aleksandar Tunchev.

Wellens was cat-called by the Swansea fans from the start. Back in April, he was cleared by an FA hearing of spitting at Swans midfielder Leon Britton after a fiery clash during his days at Doncaster. He was also sent off in the match after picking up two yellow cards for unrelated incidents.

But it was clear from the start that Wellens had the potential to generate the right sort of headlines.

He combined with Oakley after 10 minutes with the skipper's deep cross met first time on the volley by Lloyd Dyer, but Swans centre-back Garry Monk made a timely block.

Three minutes later, City's Steve Howard blazed a shot over the crossbar after Fryatt won an aerial challenge with Swansea's Angel Rangel to set up the big target-man. After 17 minutes, though, Swansea took the lead from their first set-play. Pearson, a former centre-back, looked an infuriated figure in the technical area as an unmarked Ashley Williams powered home a header from Mark Gower's high-quality flag-kick.

The Swans' much-heralded passing game was the trademark of their former boss Roberto Martinez before his departure to Wigan. His replacement, Paulo Sousa, has taken on the same philosophies and the visitors frustrated City by retaining possession without hurting the home side further.

Lloyd Dyer's darting runs into space offered hope of a response but, when Dyer wasted a free-kick, a visibly-frustrated Pearson threw his water-bottle to the ground.

Fryatt is short of match sharpness after missing most of the pre-season, but his understanding with Wellens is developing and he had an attempt blocked by Alan Tate after running on to the ex-Manchester United starlet's excellent through ball.

That was Fryatt's last action as Pearson rang the changes with Waghorn going on as his replacement and N'Guessan also brought into the action in place of Andy King.

N'Guessan's strength and pace troubled Swansea straight away and Tate had to make a another timely intervention to prevent the former Lincoln man hitting the target.

The two substitutes then combined smartly to set up Howard but again the attempt was charged down.

Swansea, knocked off balance by the early loss of Welsh prodigy Joe Allen, buckled more dramatically after 51 minutes as Bruno Berner and Wellens combined with the Swiss international haring into the penalty area and being tripped in the by the visitors' goal-scorer Williams.

But Swans keeper Dorus de Vries guessed right and dived to his left to block out Howard's spot-kick.

The big man tried to make amends six minutes later but fired over from an N'Guessan cross.

Swansea's first-half poise on the ball was now a distant memory as City powered forward and Oakley's 66th-minute corner caused consternation in the visitors' penalty area and Morrison's snap-shot was expertly blocked by keeper de Vries, making a far bigger impression than his Dutch striker namesake did with City.

But de Vries showed his fallibility at set-pieces two minutes later when he failed to deal with Berner's excellent cross from the left and Waghorn capped a high-impact arrival with a first-time shot which took a handy deflection off Rangel.

After 71 minutes it was 2-1 as Oakley, much more effective in central midfield, delivered a corner which again sent shockwaves through the Swans defence and Morrison helped the ball on for N'Guessan to strike.

City were by now threatening to run away with the win as Swansea faded and N'Guessan cracked a header against the crossbar from a good centre by substitute Nicky Adams.

Waghorn almost set the seal on an excellent debut as his 87th-minute attempt flashed across the goal after he had brilliantly controlled a long through-ball from Hobbs.

Swansea were now at the last-chance saloon in terms of getting something out of the game and substitute Jordi Lopez volleyed over in stoppage-time.

The victory ended a dismal run of City defeats in the opening fixture of their last three Championship seasons.

Last season, of course, they marked the League One start with a win.

And we all know where that led.