LEICESTER, England :Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy and Jordan Ayew scored their team’s first goals at the King Power Stadium in five months to secure a 2-0 Premier League victory over fellow relegated side Southampton on Saturday.
Vardy, who will leave Leicester at the end of the season after 13 years with the club, put the Foxes ahead in the 17th minute when he latched onto Bilal El Khannouss’s cross and fired high into the net for his 199th goal in a Leicester shirt.
Ayew doubled the lead in the 44th when he struck a free-kick into the wall only for the ball to land back at his feet for him to hammer home past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
“Football is all about confidence,” El Khannouss said. “From the moment you score, we have good players in this team, the confidence can go higher and we showed ourselves.”
Leicester are 19th on 21 points after their fifth win. Bottom side Southampton have 11 points and only three games left to avoid being the joint-worst team in Premier League history.
The Foxes had not scored in the league at the King Power since a 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion on December 8, becoming the first team in the top four tiers of English soccer to go nine straight home matches without finding the net.
The fans cheekily chanted “We scored a goal!” Adding to the emotions, the 38-year-old Vardy ended his team’s drought in what was his penultimate match at Leicester’s home stadium.
“Yeah, like I told him ‘Two more goals to arrive to 200,'” El Khannouss said. “Today he scored one and I will help him to the end to score another one. He’s a legend for the club.”
Beleaguered Southampton briefly celebrated after believing they had pulled one back in the second half when Mateus Fernandes bundled in the rebound off Paul Onuachu’s header, but it was chalked out for offside.
The game was delayed for 12 minutes in the first half after referee David Webb suffered a head injury and was replaced.
Webb, making his Premier League debut aged 49, was struck in the face by the shoulder of Ayew and fell to the pitch. Vardy ran over to Webb and blew his whistle to signal for help.
