Ten-man Leicester City fought out a battling 0-0 draw with league leaders Newcastle United on Saturday evening after a pulsating encounter at the Walkers Stadium.

Midfielder, Richie Wellens was sent off for two bookable offences after half an hour, but City stayed on top for large periods and created the better chances.

Matty Fryatt came closest to breaking the deadlock after a mazy run from the halfway line left the Newcastle defence floundering in his wake and his shot was dramatically blocked on the line.

The game was a great advert for the Championship, but probably not an ideal platform for the FA’s first designated professional Respect fixture. Before the match, supporters in the family stand held up banners to spell out the word RESPECT as the Foxes promoted the FA National Respect programme alongside the Football League’s Enjoy the Match campaign.

But, after Wellens’ extremely early bath and a high challenge on Martyn Waghorn went unpunished, City fans made their feelings known to referee Andre Marriner.

Manager Nigel Pearson handed recent signing, Nolberto Solano a place on the bench and the Peruvian winger featured towards the end as City began to tire against a robust Newcastle outfit.

Solano, capped 95 times by his country was impressed by his team’s performance.

“I think it’s a great result after being down to ten men so I’m very, very pleased. We’re working hard and looking forward to the next game and bringing this fantastic club back into the play-offs and hopefully into the Premier League. We could’ve nicked the three points today and had chances to score, but we have to be fairly happy as with ten men it’s tough.”

The former Newcastle man received an excellent reception from both sets of fans, in stark contrast to referee Marriner, whose decision making lead to widespread derision from the home fans. But, the experienced Solano had some sympathy.

“The first yellow card was quite a difficult decision and a yellow card straight away for me wasn’t the right decision. But the referee has to make decisions and the second one was probably deserved as he was pulling the guy a little bit.”

City manager Nigel Pearson, didn’t want to comment on the sending off, particularly with the Respect campaign in mind, but clearly feels the big decisions are not going his team’s way.

“I’ve not seen the footage so I’m not going to make any statement on that at this moment in time. All I would say is that I think consistency of decision making is the key and I’m not sure we get that.”

Pearson was delighted with the response of the players and believes the performance will boost their play-off ambitions.

“I thought we were the better side to be honest, with ten men and eleven. We played with a lot of energy and created probably the better chances. I don’t really remember them having too many situations that I felt uncomfortable with and for a large part of the game I think we were the better side.”

“The players take a lot of credit for taking the game to the opposition. We showed that we’ve got the desire to keep our season going. Although we’ve dropped out of the play-off places we’ve still got enough time and enough belief that we can be involved in the play-off shake up.”

The returning Bruno Berner was outstanding at left-back, keeping pacey Wayne Routledge firmly in his pocket, and was delighted with his first game back following five weeks out with a calf injury.

“It’s very good to be back. I was proud of a great point today. I think it was a tremendous team ethic and the work rate was just fantastic. Once we show we are a unit, we are so hard to beat.”

Berner conceded that the referee may have got the sending off right and that his mistimed challenge on Routledge could’ve led to a second booking.

“Probably they were two yellow cards so I think he (Wellens) left the referee without much choice. I was very close to red as well after the second challenge against Routledge. Maybe because of the red card in the first half that meant that I didn’t get sent off.”

Berner revealed the team’s desire to maintain their impressive season and also paid tribute to the Foxes faithful.

“We’re really desperate and determined to have a good February and get our season back on track. We need more three pointers, that’s for sure and the crowd today were terrific. They were all behind us and it was just so enjoyable to play.”

Although Newcastle boss, Chris Hughton was disappointed his side couldn’t take advantage of the extra man, he was full of praise for Leicester.

“What they did have was a very spirited team. Sometimes that happens when you’re down to ten, you seem to get that little bit more from each player and it lifts the crowd. They’ve got that bit of pace up front and they were able, certainly on the counter attack, to cause us problems.”

In the first designated professional Respect game it was sad to see the referee’s performance criticised by many inside the Walkers Stadium, but also refreshing that players and management weren’t overly critical of the officials.

The club and the Leicestershire and Rutland County FA should be applauded for their approach and the principles of the Respect campaign are crucial to the game’s future both at professional and grassroots levels.

Leicester City’s Head of Consumer Sales, Chris Tinbergen, is adamant that the Respect initiative was crucial for the future of the game.

“From a personal perspective, as an employee of a professional club and as a parent, I believe that Respect is crucial. I have seen over-aggressive parents on Sunday mornings in youth football and it is time to address this, raise the profile of Respect and tackle everything head on.”

In the build up to the game, Leicester City captain Matt Oakley also gave his thoughts on the Respect campaign.

“We’re all here to win, but respect comes first. The game now seems to have more control about it with Respect in place. There are a lot of fans that get frustrated at games. The important thing is to consider that there are women and children at the stadium. I think the players and the fans are taking this on board.”