- Leicester emerged victorious in their clash against Southampton on Saturday
- Jamie Vardy and Jordan Ayew were on target for the Foxes in their league match
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Ian Ladyman reveals his pick for best goalkeeper this season – and it’s NOT Alisson Becker
Jamie Vardy was never going to go quietly, was he?
It was always going to be the 38-year-old, in his first home game since announcing he would leave Leicester City in the summer after 13 years, to score his side’s first league goal at the King Power Stadium since December.
Vardy might not have that zip of old but he showed once again that, should a Premier League club require a striker this summer, he still has the quality to deliver the goods as his fine snapshot half-volley from Bilal El Khannouss’s cross inspired a rare victory for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s relegated Foxes.
Vardy needs just one more in his final three games to reach 200 goals for the club.
This was an afternoon of vintage Vardy. When referee David Webb went down 22 minutes into his Premier League debut after a collision with Jordan Ayew, sparking a near 12-minute delay before he was replaced by the fourth official, Vardy trotted over to the fallen Webb, picked up his whistle, put it to his lips and gave it a toot.
How much Leicester will miss him, not just his goals but for the joy and sense of childish mischief he still brings to the game even in his twilight years.
Joy has been gravely lacking this season, for both these teams, who will spend next season in the Championship.
Jamie Vardy scored the opening goal as Leicester beat Southampton 2-0 on Saturday
The Foxes came out on top in a clash between the Premier League’s 19th and 20th placed sides
The Saints have picked up just 11 points from their matches in the top-flight this season
Vardy’s goal interrupted resounding chants of ‘sack the board’ from the home faithful in protest of their second relegation in three seasons.
Supporters held up a banner asking their owner and director of football ‘What’s so funny?’ in response to the Sky Sports cameras cutting to them laughing in the directors’ box five minutes before they were officially relegated in their last game here against Liverpool.
It was then briefly shown on the big screens before hastily being taken down.
They had to pause their chants again on the stroke of half-time to cheer once more when Ayew doubled Leicester’s lead, first firing a free-kick into the wall before drilling the rebound low past Aaron Ramsdale.
The travelling fans joined in to air their own frustrations, telling their players they were ‘not fit to wear the shirt’ and directed chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing at interim boss Simon Rusk when he took off Mateus Fernandes, who had just had a goal ruled out for offside, before the hour.
Saints remain on 11 points, still level with Derby County as the lowest tally in Premier League history. With games against Manchester City and Arsenal in their final three matches, you sense they just missed their best chance to surpass it.
But this was, as it so often has been here for more than a decade, the Vardy show. When he forced a save from Ramsdale with a 25-yard free-kick, the rendition of ‘Jamie Vardy’s having a party,’ echoed around the ground.
When his number went up five minutes before the end, everyone inside the stadium rose to their feet to applaud him off the field for they know this party only has a couple of songs left to play.
