City left-back Bruno Berner proved the match winner against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park Tuesday night with his fourth goal of the campaign, making him the top scoring defender this season.

It was a left-foot strike that did the damage - certainly not the right-foot effort that preceded it moments earlier which flew over the bar - and the Swiss international said of the attempt with his weaker foot: "I tried earlier with my right foot and I don't think the players were too happy with that! But I had scored before with my right and I will try again."

Berner took little notice of being top scorer in the rearguard and said: "Don't forget it was another clean sheet and a fantastic night for Leicester City. It was what we wanted, to come down to London and get the three points."

There was controversy just before the break when Palace defender Claude Davis was dismissed for violent conduct in the area. Mystifyingly no penalty was given, Berner said: "Sometimes when a player gets sent off you don't know if it is a help or not, but after we scored the first one it helped us then after that we had to fight hard to the end.

"We knew that following the red card it was up to us and we needed to stay even more focused in the second half and go out and get the three points. We had to be paient and we were."