Leicester City vs Newcastle United: Signs of life for Rafael Benitez's Magpies despite King Power defeat

Leicester City 1 Newcastle United 0

Rafa Benitez watches on the side-lines at Leicester (Getty)

For 25 minutes, it was all going rather well for Rafa Benitez. Having walked down the tunnel arm in arm with the affable Claudio Ranieri, an adversary he knows well, he was being serenaded by the 1,300 Newcastle fans, who clearly approve of his appointment. What's more, Leicester had barely threatened Robert Elliot's goal.

Shoring up Newcastle's leaky defence - 116 goals conceded in two seasons before this match, 53 in the current season - is the Spaniard's major area of concern and it was evident that much of his work on the training field in the short time he has been able to work with the squad he inherited from Steve McClaren has been aimed at reinstilling some discipline at the back.

For the opening minutes, having taken up his position on the edge of the technical area, his eyes seemed to be focussed only on his back four, even though Newcastle had actually started brightly enough at the other end, with Ayoze Perez and Jack Colback registering early attempts at goal.

These were good signs for the travelling fans, who have been desperate lately for evidence of some desire to win from their players, and saw it when Moussa Sissoko jumped bravely to beat Danny Simpson to a cross from Perez to gave Kasper Schmeichel a header to deal with that he probably did not expect. But for Benitez it was much less important than keeping the side's shape intact when Leicester had the ball.

There were promising signs there, too. Daryl Janmaat stayed with Jamie Vardy long enough to ensure that Leicester's marksman-in-chief could not get a shot in, an appeal for a penalty made more in hope that serious expectation. Then Steven Taylor repelled a Riyad Mahrez cross with a solid header.

Yet it all went wrong spectacularly for the opening goal. A Mahrez free kick was headed away but ineffectively, allowing Marc Albrighton to cross back in from the left. This time Taylor jumped but could only help the ball on to the far post, where Colback could not prevent Vardy putting it back across goal and Shinji Okazaki did the rest, brilliantly.

Rafa retreated to his seat momentarily, where the camera caught him wincing moments later as Albrighton, the underrated one of Leicester's two speed merchants on the wings, burst through the middle on the end of a through ball that bypassed Jonjo Shelvey. Now Taylor backed off, allowing Albrighton to cut inside and shoot. Fortunately for Newcastle, he missed the target.

Shinji Okazaki is congratulated after giving Leicester the lead (Getty)

What was encouraging in what followed was that heads did not drop among the Newcastle players. They were beaten 3-0 when Leicester went to St James' Park in November and by the same scoreline in this fixture last season. They know how Leicester can punish an opponent when the circumstances are in their favour and this could have been one of those nights, a goal to the good and with the opportunity to sit back and play the counter-attacking game at which they have excelled.

Indeed, as the game unfolded, the more it felt like Newcastle could be good enough to find a way back into the contest and do Tottenham and the chasing pack a real favour. They did not look like a side running low on confidence or lacking the will for a fight.

Still solid in defence, they built some positive moves going forward, although there were moments, of course, when you realised why they have scored so few goals. Aleksander Mitrovic, who had seen one chance go begging when Sissoko effectively fouled him in the first half, struggled to get any room with Wes Morgan and Robert Huth as forbidding as ever at the heart of the Leicester defence. Sissoko had one clear opportunity when he broke away from Simpson on the left but could not find a pass with three teammates to chose from.

In the end, even though Benitez posed different threats by introducing Andros Townsend and then Seydou Doumbia and his players responded by giving the home crowd a decidedly nervous watch, there was no way back and Leicester, without playing well, moved a step closer to the title.

Yet Newcastle fans will look forward to the derby against Sunderland - Rafa's next challenge - with a little more optimism than they would have anticipated this time last week. Benitez has never been in a relegation battle but there were signs here that perhaps he can fight fires as well as win trophies. Nine games remain for him to prove it.