We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

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We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

Gary Rowett was ‘really pleased’ with the application shown by his players in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

2026-02-25T09:05+00:00

by Sam Jones

Published

25 Feb, 2026

We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

Gary Rowett was ‘really pleased’ with the application shown by his players in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Sam Jones

2026-02-25T09:05+00:00

We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

Gary Rowett was ‘really pleased’ with the application shown by his players in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Sam Jones

2026-02-25T09:05+00:00

We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

Gary Rowett was ‘really pleased’ with the application shown by his players in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Sam Jones

2026-02-25T09:05+00:00

We Did A Lot Well, Says Rowett

Gary Rowett was ‘really pleased’ with the application shown by his players in the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

Sam Jones

2026-02-25T09:05+00:00

Leicester City drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship
Caleb Okoli scored before Riley McGree equalised at the end of the first half
Gary Rowett gave his assessment of the point gained at Riverside Stadium

The Foxes took a point for the second successive away game, as Rowett remained unbeaten as City Manager following Saturday’s draw at Stoke City. Tuesday’s result, meanwhile, came from a Caleb Okoli opener, cancelled out by Riley McGree before the break.

“[I’m] really pleased,” the 51-year-old said following full-time at Riverside Stadium. “Not long to work with the team and we’ve got huge amounts of injuries at the moment, so most of the players have had to go again. You can probably see that in different stages late on, which is a challenge for us.

“We did a lot of things really well. After the energy second half against Stoke, to then put that into play against a very good Middlesbrough side, Kim [Hellberg] has done a fantastic job coming in here and I can see why they are so high up in the league.

“Some tough moments [in the first half] out of possession but I thought we dealt with it, kept winning the ball back and getting into good areas.

“Maybe lost the ball a couple of times in key transitions, which we need to better on, we need to look after the ball a little bit more. We scored a very good goal, a good move from the set piece. Hughesy (Andrew Hughes) does a lot of work on those so all of that work has come to fruition in that one moment when Caleb scores.

“Then I thought we actually looked reasonably comfortably without conceding big chances. Of course, to concede a minute before half-time in the way we did was really sloppy.

“Caleb knows he has to go long with that pass rather than try and find it, but he reacted brilliantly and that was the main thing. To come in at half-time without the lead, it once again tests the players’ mental reserve.”

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A second away trip in three days, there were some tough spells to contend with late on in the game, coming up against a side sitting second in the Sky Bet Championship, but Rowett felt the hard work paid off to send the travelling Foxes home with something to show for the efforts on the pitch, which he believes will continue to improve as more players return to fitness.

He continued: “We said it to the players; that’s the only way we can create that connection with the players and the fans and get that back. Sometimes it can start to feel like games are gone with the position we’re in in the league.

“The fans have turned up in numbers again, travelled well, in great voice and the team showed they really want to work and do the hard yards. We know we’ve got good players and needed to see that a little bit more as the game went on.

“But sometimes when you’re defending for periods, a little bit of fatigue sets in, you’re having to keep tracking those runners into the spaces, which Skippy (Oliver Skipp) and Winksy (Harry Winks) did really well, it’s difficult then to show the energy on the ball.

“You could see that late on. Bobby [De Cordova-Reid] struggled to get through the game. Divine [Mukasa] lost a little bit of that intensity, Stephy [Mavididi] as well. That’ll get better and we’ll get better in possession.

“It’s a nice base to start from and work on. I think we’ll get some more players back. You saw that tonight with Abdul [Fatawu] and Jordan [Ayew] – it gives us different options to change things off the bench. If we can add two or three more to that, that’s a real gamechanger for us.

“When you look at our group, there’s a lot of talented footballers who have played at the highest level. Occasionally, sometimes it’s getting those players to value defensive diligence side of it, the structure, show that hard work.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, you have to do the work to stop them creating lots of easy chances. That’s been the biggest thing for me these two games. When you think about the game against Southampton that everyone was so deflated by, I’ve not seen that.

“I’ve seen a different mentality to the team and a real focus about them. The players want to get out of this position as much as all of us. I thought you’ve seen them putting the effort in. We’ll improve on the ball, I thought that was the only thing missing tonight.”

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