Leicester head coach Martin Cifuentes was delighted with the resolve of his side as they clawed back with 10 men to secure a 2-2 stalemate at Oxford – but he was unimpressed by their opening-half display.
Replacement Ricardo Pereira struck in the 55th minute to rescue the Foxes after Oxford had gone in 2-1 ahead at the interval through Will Lankshear and a Boubakary Soumare own goal – with Jordan Ayew netting for City.
Aaron Ramsey received a straight red card in the 24th minute for scything down Matt Phillips.
Cifuentes said: “I will never be satisfied with only one point – that’s not in my nature, I want my team to win football games – but obviously it was a difficult scenario after 24 minutes and I’m very pleased after a poor first half with the reaction we showed, and the personality we showed in the second half.
“It was definitely a late tackle from Aaron but I won’t judge here if it was a red card or yellow card, that doesn’t matter.
“What was clear was that it was unfortunately a very difficult game situation for us.
“Aaron was very, very disappointed – we need to now give him a bit of space. He’s a young guy who has come in with a lot of energy and desire. It was unfortunate what happened with him, but I have full belief that he will be an important player for us.
“We were not good at the start of the game anyway, we conceded the first goal, then we had the capacity to score our goal to get into the game again, but I never felt we were getting the flow.
“Then I felt it was important to get into half-time at 1-1 to make the adjustments we needed, and unfortunately we conceded another – we know Oxford are very good at set plays.
“But then it’s important to highlight the personality and the braveness the players had, to ask for the ball and not just sit deep and wait for things to happen.
“And our second goal was a reflection of that.