RICHARD Cresswell left Deepdale looking more like a boxer than a star striker after taking a 90-minute battering at the hands of old warhorse Martin Keown.
Somehow, the former Arsenal defender managed to escape censure for his pulling, pushing, strangling and tough-tackling of Cresswell until late in the second half.
And while his actions enraged the Deepdale crowd, it ensured Preston's top scorer had a quiet afternoon in what was his first game since returning from a one-match ban.
The tone was set within 10 minutes when Keown drew blood from Cresswell's head, and from the resulting free kick Paul McKenna prompted a goalmouth scramble but the ball, somehow, didn't cross the line.
Leicester had more luck in the 24th mintue when David Connolly volleyed a right-footed shot into the right-hand side of Andrew Lonergan's goal from 25 yards.
Leicester's tough-tackling became clumsy in the second half as North End probed for the equaliser. First Maybury upended debutant defender Matt Hill on the edge of the City box but McKenna's free kick was pushed wide by keeper Stewart Taylor.
But four minutes, from another free kick, McKenna beat Taylor as he curled a point-perfect shot over a
bickering Foxes wall to ensure a point for Preston.
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