Marcus Gayle stepped out of the shadows to lift Wimbledon into the top half of the table with a second half winner in a low-key English Premiership encounter at Filbert Street. Gayle has been forced to take a back seat in Joe Kinnear's plans with the fast emerging Carl Cort recently preferred as Efan Ekoku's strike partner

But an injury to Ekoku gave Gayle the chance to start only his sixth Premiership game of the campaign - and he responded with the decisive goal three minutes into the second period.

It was the former Brentford player's first league goal since the opening day of the season when he netted in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

The Dons victory - their third in the last five games - carried them into ninth spot and they have clearly put their poor start to the season behind them.

Gayle's goal was one of the few highlights of a game which seldom moved out of second gear but the Dons deserved their success.

Leicester struggled to create anything until they finally injected some urgency into their play in the final quarter.