It has not always been the way in the past few months but it was hard to wipe the smile off the face of Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, the Leicester chairman, as Abdul Fatawu completed his hat-trick, capping the scoring in a rout of Southampton that leaves Leicester so close an instant return to the Premier League.
Maresca shot off down the touchline, arms outstretched after Jamie Vardy got the fourth and then came the inevitable chants from the home support. “We are going up,” they sang. The olés were out in full force and Southampton, who played like a team resigned to the playoffs, well beaten.
Fatawu’s second was the best of the lot, the winger dancing in off the right and curling a peach into the top corner to make it 3-0, but more joy followed. Wilfred Ndidi got the second, heading in on 62 minutes, and then Leicester cut loose, Saints imploded.
Leicester, on course to reach the 100-point mark, could be promoted without kicking another ball, though that would require QPR to beat second-placed Leeds at home on Friday. Leicester are now five points clear of third-placed Ipswich, four of Leeds. Their supporters could be forgiven for planning a promotion party at Preston on Saturday.
It was not hard for Leicester to put on a more convincing display than last time out, though victory over West Bromwich here on Saturday was frankly all that mattered. That afternoon, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall inadvertently presented West Brom’s Okay Yokuslu with a golden chance to open the scoring inside 90 seconds, Hamza Choudhury cleared off the line in the first half and then made an extraordinary double goalline clearance early in the second, and the bar was rattled a few minutes later.
West Brom peppered the goal and while Leicester eked out a 2-1 victory the visit of the division’s joint-top scorers had the makings of another nerve-shredding match, at a nerve-shredding time of the season.
Ultimately, Leicester got the job done and only Leeds’s victory over Middlesbrough on Monday prevented the scope for potential promotion celebrations. The sight of Vardy laughing and joking before leading Leicester out of the tunnel spoke to how the mood has lifted in these parts after an alarming wobble, the prize now in plain sight; Leicester began the calendar year 17 points clear of Leeds, who began the night a single point behind them.
It was certainly Southampton who arrived into this game the flatter, a sapping defeat at Cardiff on Saturday eroding their chances of a late push for the automatic promotion places unless they got a result here.
When the teams met in September, Vardy scored inside 21 seconds, paving the way to a 4-1 victory at St Mary’s when Leicester announced themselves as pacesetters. The fare was not quite so riveting this time, Fatawu’s strike on 25 minutes the only real moment of quality in a dull first half, though Russell Martin appeared adamant Che Adams, the Southampton striker, was fouled in the buildup.
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Wout Faes gave Adams a bump on halfway and Harry Winks punched a pass into Dewsbury-Hall, who slipped Fatawu in behind the Southampton left-back, Kyle Walker-Peters. Taylor Harwood-Bellis raised his left hand, believing Fatawu to be offside, and Walker-Peters and Jan Bednarek also looked towards the assistant referee but the flag did not bail them out.
Southampton struggled to trouble Mads Hermansen in the Leicester goal and the hosts had the best chances before Fatawu slotted in.
Fatawu earlier shot straight at Alex McCarthy and Ndidi curled wide from distance a couple of minutes later. Southampton, without Stuart Armstrong owing to a season-ending hamstring injury, found it hard to get their forward players involved.
Leicester, even with only a one-goal buffer, were in cruise control. Hermansen dropped a simple, hanging David Brooks cross but Ricardo Pereira quickly seized the ball and Leicester resumed duty, unfazed. Martin freshened things up with a double substitution on the hour, seconds before Adams summed up Southampton’s evening. A yard or two inside his own half, the striker resorted to an ambitious effort to lob Hermansen but it was underpowered and barely made the 18-yard area.
Two minutes later, the hosts doubled their advantage and the game felt as good as done, despite Leicester’s inability to kill games on a number of occasions.
Mavididi crossed from the left and Ndidi beat Ryan Manning to the ball, heading through the legs of a powerless McCarthy to cue lift-off in the stadium. The second goal settled any lingering jitters and then Leicester showed their class.