Leicester City needs to push on for Brendan Rodgers to survive

The East Midlands demolition derby swept away some of the negativity around Leicester City but Brendan Rodgers needs it to be more than a one-off. 

Leicester City hosted Nottingham Forest last night at the King Power Stadium in a match that was more than an East Midlands derby - it felt like a fight for survival between managers Brendan Rodgers and Steve Cooper.

The match had the finality of a play-off and so the joy and desperation for both teams was understandable.

Leicester are still level on points with Forest, despite the 4-0 result and if that continues the pressure will return before Halloween.

Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest were outclassed at the King Power but had Taiwo Awoniyi taken his chances, we could be having a very different conversation today.

Leicester were electric pushing forward and it seems James Maddison is on a one-man mission to book his seat on the plane to the Qatar World Cup, but at the back they were vulnerable.

There was even a nervy period for Leicester at 3-0 up when I felt Forest could get back in the game.

Better teams will punish them but here’s the good news - they aren’t playing particularly good teams in the coming weeks.

Their next four matches are against bottom-eight sides.

I asked Rodgers after the match what the atmosphere was like in the dressing room and if there was a sense of relief - his answer was telling.

The Leicester manager said: “For me, it’s not about relief, it’s the happiness it gives the players and the supporters and now is a chance for us to reset and move onto the next game now.”

If form doesn’t come from this, Rodgers knows he will be following Bruno Lage out the door, as few managers survive being in the bottom three for any length of time.

In their programme notes last night both the manager and chairman Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha wrote about this being a chance to refresh.

He will no doubt be delighted they can carry on singing off the same hymn sheet for now.