Premiership: Taylor hails his 'grinders'
Leicester City manager Peter Taylor nicknamed his team "the grinders" and insisted they have recaptured their famous fighting spirit after the goalless draw with Arsenal.
Taylor admitted that critics had been justified in questioning whether the commitment and passion was still there after three successive woeful performances - including a 6-1 mauling by the Gunners at Highbury.
But a look at the antics of midfielder Robbie Savage and central defender Gerry Taggart confirmed to Taylor that the never-say-die attitude still exists in the club.
They twice confronted each other in the most public of disagreements and in one incident Taggart appeared to clip the Welsh international around the head.
Taylor insisted that the two made their peace and apologised to each other at half-time.
But it was their two performances which epitomised more than anyone else that the Foxes will never roll over even when the odds are stacked against them.
Taylor, who was relieved to find that Muzzy Izzet's neck injury was not as serious as first feared, said: "You can't have 100 per cent control all the time if you care about your football and care about results.
"At times when you care that much you want to go to war on your own which was what Robbie was planning and 'Taggs' was just saying that you sometimes need to be a bit more controlled than that.
"As soon as they were in the changing room they were fine. They apologised to each other and said 'come on, let's go and get a result' but all the lads today were desperate to get something out of the game.
"We've got a little bit of our pride back but we have got to make sure we keep the hard work coming.
"The players have been questioned recently on how committed they are and have they still got the same spirit.
"That has been questioned for the last three games - and quite rightly so - because at times we'd not been as committed at times or played the way we could.
"But they showed that they deserve the tag 'the grinders' because they do grind out results and no-one could question the spirit and commitment. That was a typical Leicester performance."
Short term signing Roberto Mancini and Dean Sturridge - a £350,000 capture from Derby - were brought straight into the team by Taylor "because we needed something fresh".
Mancini showed enough touches of class and vision to suggest he can make an impact once he obtains some level of match fitness after eight months out of action.
In truth he had little chance once Matthew Jones had been sent off to make an impact as Leicester went to a 4-4-1 system and adopted a 'what we've got, we will hold' mentality to scrap for a point.
Taylor said: "He's given a lift to the players and I saw enough good signs to say that we've made a good decision with him."
