David Connolly scored a hat-trick as Leicester beat Stoke 4-2.
Leicester bounced back from their opening day defeat at Sheffield United to beat 10-man Stoke 4-2, thanks to a second-half hat-trick from David Connolly.The striker completed his haul deep into stoppage time after the Potters' John Halls had set up a dramatic finale with a goal after 89 minutes.
The visitors came closest to breaking the deadlock early on when Mamady Sidibe and Darel Russell had shots blocked before Mark De Vries, who had earlier headed over, opened the scoring after 14 minutes when he hammered a Jason Wilcox cross past Steve Simonsen.
There was no more scoring before the interval but the Foxes thought they had earned a penalty when Connolly collided with defender Carl Hoefkens but their appeals were waved away by referee Paul Taylor.
Momo Sylla had a chance to double the lead five minutes after the restart before Stoke finally threatened but Luke Chadwick pulled his shot wide.
On the hour mark their task was made harder when Junior, on loan from Anderlecht, was sent off following an off-the-ball incident which left Joey Gudjonsson prostrate.
But parity was restored after 64 minutes when Hoefkens headed a Dave Brammer cross back across goal for Marlon Broomes to hook the ball home.
But within two minutes Leicester were ahead again when Connolly inadvertently blocked a Gudjonsson shot before turning and shooting past Simonsen.
The City keeper denied substitute Elvis Hammond with a superb save after Chadwick and Michael Duberry had gone close for the visitors but Connolly made it 3-1 with just eight minutes to play with a shot under the keeper's body.
Halls pulled one back to set the home alarm bells ringing but Connolly settled any nerves when he pounced on a weak back pass by Brammer and lobbed home.
