Andy King conceded Leicester could get dragged into the Championship relegation dogfight as his spell in interim charge started with a 2-0 home loss to Charlton.
Sonny Carey and Lyndon Dykes struck for the Addicks before half-time with the Foxes’ cause hugely hampered by a 15th-minute red card for centre-back Caleb Okoli.
The former Italy under-21 international pulled back Addicks striker Miles Leaburn as he raced onto Carey’s defence-splitting pass.
Jordan Ayew’s 55th-minute penalty hit the post as the Foxes, who saw Hamza Choudhury forced off with a knee injury, were unable to make their stronger start to the second half count.
Asked if the drop was a concern, King, who stepped in after Marti Cifuentes’ sacking on Sunday, said: “Yeah, potentially. I don’t think we can get away from the fact we’re not where we want to be in the table. But let’s try looking up and reversing the momentum, rather than looking down.
“My remit was to do the Charlton game. I’ve not looked too far past that.
“You work hard all week and the game plan is ripped up after 15 minutes. Then you lose another senior player when you are short of bodies.
“We said at half-time to the lads that this could go one of two ways. You either go under and feel sorry for yourselves. Or can we try and make it work, even though we’re down to 10 men. I was pleased with the response.
“It’s a red card. I’ve played and it is difficult in those moments – it is a split-second decision. Caleb will learn from it. He is missing one game and then we will have to move on. He can’t feel sorry for himself. We need to park that, learn from it and come back more hungry to help the team.
“The penalty was a key moment and it was always going to be difficult after that.
“The reality of football is you need to win games but it was unfortunate with the red and losing Hamza early on. We were really, really light. Harry Winks was excellent when he came on.”
Charlton opened up daylight on the bottom three as they recorded a first away victory since October 21.
Addicks boss Nathan Jones felt Harry Clarke’s disallowed goal should have stood before Carey put them ahead.
Instead the Ipswich loanee’s header home appeared to be ruled out for a perceived foul on City goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.
“We scored three goals of the highest quality because I have absolutely no idea why the corner is disallowed,” said the Welshman. “His own player blocked him and he (referee Andrew Kitchen) absolutely guessed. There is no foul there. There is no-one around the goalkeeper.
“It is a massive win. The result was everything today. We wanted to be front-footed and we went two up top. We wanted to be ultra-aggressive against them and ultimately that changed the game.
“It is a definite red card. If he didn’t do it then Miles is one on one against the goalkeeper. He is clean in.
“It is a wonderful finish by Sonny. There is a lot of development to come from him because defensively he has got to be better. He gets in those situations and has been excellent for us.
“Last week (the 4-0 loss at Millwall) was really hurtful for the football club. I wanted to have a reaction. We’re going to have tough days this season because it is a monster of a league.”
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