Foxes thrash Imps in rearranged closed-door friendly

Despite the late cancellation by Lincoln City of Leicester City's pre-season visit to Sincil Bank, both clubs were able to arrange a behind-closed-doors friendly at the King Power Stadium last night.

City's assistant manager Craig Shakespeare took charge of a strong Foxes XI who made easy work in defeating the Imps, with the strike partnership of David Nugent and Jamie Vardy developing nicely as those players bagged a goal apiece.

Also on target was midfielder Andy King, who will hope to net more frequently next term, and Lloyd Dyer who scored twice as Leicester went on to record a 5-0 victory. It was all good news for Shakespeare, who was glad that the game was able to ahead.

"All the work we'd done during the week had been building up to the game on Saturday. We'd been planning towards who would need a full 90 minutes, who would need 75 and integrating players like Ben Marshall back into the fold as he's been missing with illness.

"As much as we'd liked to have played in front of the fans, it was important we didn't disrupt the players' preparations, so we were extremely grateful to Dave Holdsworth and his staff for bringing a team to King Power Stadium at such short notice," Shakespeare told LCFC.com, "Had the game not gone ahead, it would have impacted on training in the early part of next week and possibly the Westerby Cup and Nuneaton games."

A young City side will travel to Loughborough Dynamo for that cup match, with some experienced faces likely to be-on show at Liberty Way on Tuesday night. The Foxes' pre-season reaches a crescendo with the visit of Martin O'Neill's Sunderland next weekend. City kick-off the 2012/13 season away to Torquay United in the League Cup on Tuesday, 14th August.