Winks fires Foxes to dramatic win at West Brom
Harry Winks scored a last-gasp winner as EFL Championship leader Leicester City beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 in a dramatic finish to give manager Enzo Maresca a winning first return to The Hawthorns.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 72nd-minute header netted him a sixth goal of the season and gave Leicester the lead and the midfielder then set up Winks in the fourth minute of stoppage-time after substitute Josh Maja looked like he had rescued a point for the hosts.
Maresca, who started his professional career at West Brom and played 47 games there between 1998 and 2000, will have been relieved as there was little between the teams, who both hit the frame of the goal in the first half.
The chances fell largely to the home side in the firts period, but Albion failed to react quickly enough when goalkeeper Mads Hermansen played a poor pass out and it was intercepted, Brandon Thomas-Asante eventually having a shot blocked.
The Baggies went even closer in the 25th minute when Cedric Kipre stabbed the ball against the post with the goalkeeper beaten after Matt Phillips’s corner had flicked off a couple of heads.
But Leicester returned fire to hit the goal frame itself when Stephy Mavididi's low angled drive was deflected on to the near post by Darnell Furlong’s lunge.
It looked like things might open up after the break when Grady Diangana’s curling shot was deflected over the bar off Wout Faes.
But instead it became very scrappy, with both teams guilty of giving the ball away in midfield and defences remained on top.
That almost changed when Wilfred Ndidi got on the end of a cross from substitute Abdul Fatawu, but his flicked header under pressure lacked the power to beat Alex Palmer, who fumbled before the ball was cleared.
The Ndidi-Fatawu link-up combined again to devastating effect in the 72nd minute.
Fatawu spotted Ndidi’s run beyond the Albion midfield in the inside right position and the latter crossed for Dewsbury-Hall to arrive and nod the ball home ahead of Furlong from six yards out.
Albion equalised in very scrappy fashion, though. Furlong’s long throw-in was headed away by Faes and, when the ball came back in, Kipre helped it on, and a grounded Leicester defender could only tee up Maja to prod home his first goal since February 2022.
But the Foxes hit Albion on the counter when they broke after another long throw-in and Iheanacho passed from inside his own half to Dewsbury-Hall, who ran 40 yards with the ball before drawing Palmer and slipping in Winks for an open goal.
