Steve Cooper hails Leicester’s attitude in comfortable cup win over Tranmere

Leicester boss Steve Cooper hailed his side’s attitude following their comfortable 4-0 victory over League Two Tranmere in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

The Foxes were made to graft for the opening half but Jordan Ayew’s screamer in the 38th minute sent the Foxes up at the break.

Leicester’s Premier League quality shone through in the second period as Stephy Mavididi dispatched from the penalty spot after Ricardo Pereira was brought down in the box by Connor Jennings.

Despite being two the good, Leicester continued to attack in search of more goals – Wilfred Ndidi scored a third before Harry Winks struck superbly with a second goal from range to send the Foxes safely through to round three.

Cooper insisted their attitude had to be right to secure a result and one they did in style.

He said: “It was a good night’s work for sure. I think first and foremost it’s a cup competition, the objective is to win the game and get through to the next round so you want to do that and do it playing with a game plan and game intentions – and it was definitely the case.

“It’s a game with expectations for us to dominate the game and win but that isn’t always the case if the attitude and focus isn’t right but it was.

“So we dominated the game from start to finish which is to be expected but we have to go and do that.”

Leicester had chances to open the scoring in the first period through Oliver Skipp and Ndidi but were twice denied by 43-year-old goalkeeper Joe Murphy.

The Foxes had to wait till the 38th minute to break the deadlock and Cooper thought his side could have been more of a threat in that period.

He added: “I just think for all of the territory around Tranmere’s final third and penalty box that we had, we could’ve been more of a threat in the first half with some of the variety of attack.

“Obviously Jordan made the difference by getting us in front and took responsibility in making something happen and I felt we needed more of that whether it was dribbles, runs in behind, shots.

“But to be fair to the guys half-time, they took that challenge on and were good value for the win.”