Premier League: Leicester manager Nigel Pearson fumes over penalty claims despite crucial win over Aston Villa

Nigel Pearson blasted referee Michael Oliver after failing to award Leicester two penalties in their 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Foxes extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to four games and are now just three points adrift of safety thanks to Paul Konchesky’s strike in first half stoppage-time.

However despite the three points Pearson felt the referee’s failure to point to the spot on two occasions could have ultimately cost his side as they continue to push for Premier League survival.

“It could have been more than 1-0 today,” he told Sky Sports.

“You could argue they had more possession in the first half and we weren’t as effective as we have been in other games.

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“But with a lot riding on this game in many ways, even when we weren’t at our best I still think we created the best chances. We did that throughout the game, and we could argue we could have had three penalties.

“Since we won a penalty against Manchester United we haven’t remotely looked like getting one. It was unfortunate today that we weren’t awarded at least one, (Leonardo) Ulloa’s in the second half and Dean Hammond in the first are both decisions that haven’t gone our way.

Pleased

“Ultimately what I’m pleased about today is that we’ve got three points. I think the performance was very good in some ways. We didn’t always show the quality that we had done in other games but we’ve kept a clean sheet and we’ve worked exceptionally hard and I think we deserved it.

“We’ve applied pressure on teams around us, but from here on in it’s about us getting enough results for ourselves. That’s the biggest factor and it’s always going to be

“The result makes it four games with a positive result and the only goals we have conceded have been penalties, so that in itself is something to build on.”

The final moments at the King Power were marred by an altercation between Leicester’s Matty James and Villa’s Ciaran Clark, following the former’s challenge on Jores Okore.

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Both players saw red following the incident, and Pearson refused to be drawn until he had seen the referee’s report on the game.

“I’m glad players are passionate about what goes on the pitch,” he added.

“I’m not making any comment on anything regarding that situation in the game at this moment in time.

“I’ve seen it, I’ve got my own opinion on what happened and I’d like to see what is in the report from the officials and I’ll wait to see how things are reported from people like yourselves.”