Leicestershire

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Leicester City manager Gary Rowett says he was pleased with how his side played in their 2-2 draw with Preston North End.

The Foxes needed a late Patson Daka equaliser to get a share of the spoils, although they created more than three times as many chances as their opponents.

"You have to look at the performance overall, and I would say for 99% of it the performance was outstanding. I really do think that," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"We were excellent, we didn't give too many chances away, we score a very good goal and press nice and early and look really comfortable in the first half.

"But of course I've said it many times before, and it's been a bit of an Achilles heel where we can be playing fantastically well and we just give two goals out of nothing.

"The first one's a throw-in that breaks down and we let them break on us.

"Then the second one's a set-piece where we give the ball away in the run-up to it and then it's a soft goal to concede.

"I know Preston will say they made two mistakes for our goals, but when you've had 28 shots and the keeper's made countless saves, you would always feel as though you should have won the game."

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Championship clubs spent just over £69.5m on agents fees over the past 12 months according to figures released by the Football Association,, external an increase of £6m on the previous year.

The figures cover the period from February 2025 with Ipswich Town the top spenders, paying £11.7m having spent the first three months of the accounting period in the Premier League.

Southampton (£8.3m) and Leicester (£5.8m), who were relegated alongside Ipswich are the second and third-highest payers on the list.

Troubled Sheffield Wednesday were the most frugal when dealing with agents, spending £534,559.

Wrexham come in sixth on the list with an outlay of £3.6m while current Championship leaders Coventry spent just short of £1.5m.

Championship agents' fee spending, external

• Ipswich - £11,738,920

• Southampton - £8,381,358

• Leicester City - £5,866,587

• Sheffield United - £5,005,498

• Norwich - £4,020,206

• Wrexham - £3,660,584

• Swansea - £3,088,645

• Middlesbrough - £2,900,314

• Bristol City - £2,774,990

• Hull City - £2,450,431

• Stoke City - £2,088,886

• Birmingham City - £1,996,502

• Millwall - £1,982,348

• Preston North End - £1,831,233

• QPR - £1,829,036

• Watford - £1,612,833

• Coventry - £1,497,990

• Derby - £1,409,507

• West Brom - £1,346,030

• Oxford - £1,235,536

• Charlton - £904,698

• Portsmouth - £831,818

• Blackburn - £676,980

• Sheffield Wednesday - £534,559

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Leicester City have not definitely ruled out midfielder Jordan James for Friday's Championship match at home to Preston North End (15:00 BST).

The 21-year-old was forced off in the second-half of Wales' World Cup play-off defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina last Thursday with an Achilles injury and subsequently missed Tuesday's friendly against Northern Ireland.

"He's come back for treatment after landing a bit awkwardly," said Leicester boss Rowett.

"It wasn't anywhere near what one or two people thought at the time in terms of it being a bit more sinister. He's recovering well and getting treatment.

"He hasn't trained today [Wednesday] but some of the international lads either haven't trained or aren't back yet."

Leicester are one point adrift of safety in the Championship relegation zone with seven games remaining and Rowett is keen to have James available for the run-in especially with two matches to come over the Easter period.

"Tomorrow morning [Thursday] we'll have a discussion to see if he's available," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"If you speak to JJ he's adamant he'll be fit, like most players do which is a great sign but we'll try to find the balance between the two games making sure if he's fine for the first one he'll be fine for the second one.

"At least it's a positive conversation and I'm not sitting here saying he's definitely going to be unavailable for the two games."

Fresh from scoring for Ghana during the international break, Leicester will hope Abdul Fatawu and Jordan Ayew can transfer that form into goals for their club as they continue to battle to avoid a second successive relegation.

Four defeats from their past five games means Preston's play-off challenge has dissolved and they start Good Friday's match (15:00 BST) 11 points short of the top six.

• Leicester have won their past two home league games against Preston, having lost four in a row against them beforehand. They last won three consecutively between 1937 and 1950.

• Following their 2-1 win in August, Preston are looking to complete the league double over Leicester for the first time since 1957-58.

• Leicester have won just one of their past 13 league games (D5 L7), beating Bristol City 2-0 at home last month.

• Following a 3-1 win against Stoke last time out, Preston are looking to win consecutive league games for the first time since January (vs Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City).

• Only Sheffield Wednesday (3) have kept fewer clean sheets than Leicester (5) in the Championship this season. However, two of the Foxes' five have come in their past three games.