Leicester 3-1 Scunthorpe

Leicester climbed off the bottom of the Championship table after a hard-fought victory over Scunthorpe at the Walkers Stadium.

Goals from Martyn Waghorn and Lloyd Dyer put the Foxes in a commanding position, before Michael O’Connor pulled one back for the visitors with half an hour to go.

But midfielder Franck Moussa sealed all three points in the final minute of the match with an impressive strike from the edge of the area to hand Leicester only their second league win of the campaign in front of new manager Sven Goran-Eriksson.

Chris Powell and goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell took control of City following Paulo Sousa’s sacking yesterday, making three changes from Tuesday’s defeat at Norwich.

In came Miguel Vitor, Bruno Berner and Paul Gallagher in place of Michael Lamey, Tom Kennedy and Michael Oakley as City aimed to put an end to three defeats on the bounce.

And Eriksson would have been delighted with what he saw in the early stages of the match as the Foxes went ahead through Martyn Waghorn.

Paul Gallagher found the young forward, who bustled past the Scunthorpe defence before curling a delightful effort past Joe Murphy in the Iron goal.

The home side took control of the remainder of the first period, but couldn’t extend their slender advantage before the break.

But things got off to a flier in the second period as City doubled their advantage through Lloyd Dyer. Despite having his initial effort blocked the pacey winger made no mistake at the second attempt as he slid the ball past Murphy.

Leicester looked set to maintain their strong record against Scunthorpe, having not lost to the Iron in their previous six meetings. Last season it was Paul Gallagher’s free-kick which handed City a thumping 5-1 victory.

But the visitors set up a tense final half an hour when they pulled one back on 60 minutes. Chris Dagnall first rattled the woodwork, allowing Michael O’Connor to finish off past a helpless Carl Ikeme.

Scunthorpe fought desperately for a way back into the game, but couldn’t find a way past a stronger Foxes backline.

Any hopes of a comeback were completely dashed in the third minute of added time when substitute Franck Moussa lashed home an impressive strike to seal a sweet victory for Leicester.

The win moves City off the bottom of the table to 22nd place going into next weekend’s international break, which the squad will spend in Thailand playing a friendly match.

Leicester’s next opponents come in the form of Nigel Pearson’s Hull City at the Walkers Stadium, a match which looks set to be Sven Goran-Eriksson’s first match in charge of the club.