JAMIE IS THE VAR YOU CAN RELY ON!
That man Vardy scores twice as Foxes clinch Championship title
Preston 0 Leicester 3
BY NEIL GOULDING JAMIE VARDY and Leicester will be having another party as the Foxes secured a record-breaking eighth Championship title.
It was all round to boss Enzo Maresca’s house for a knees-up as Leeds’ 4-0 defeat at QPR last Friday confirmed Leicester’s return to the Premier League after a year away.
Vardy and then team-mates also held a legendary shindig to celebrate winning the top-flight crown in 2016.
So the champagne will be flowing once again as Captain Marvel’s double after 36 and 52 minutes ensured Leicester’s latest piece of silverware.
Ten years earlier Lloyd Dyer’s goal at Bolton brought the Foxes level with Manchester City on seven second-tier titles.
Thanks to their 37-year-old talisman the East Midlands’ outfit are now out on their own, no doubt hoping it is a long time before they are hunting number nine. Leicester’s
Championship coronation comes with a game to spare.
Saturday’s final game of the season against Blackburn will see presentation of the trophy.
Nearly 6,000 Leicester fans certainly had a ball on their first visit to Deepdale for a competitive game since 2011.
Three times in the first half referee Sam Allison stopped play to remove beach balls and balloons released from the away end. Another rogue pitch ‘invader’ was still on the pitch when Leicester fashioned a superb opportunity to hit the front.
Outstanding Abdul Fatawu skipped past the North End defence, firing an inviting cross to the back post. Kasey Mcateer steamed in but headed wide.
But Mcateer’s blunder did not prove costly and Vardy showed him how to finish.
Wilfred Ndidi, Fatawu and Yunus Akgun linked superbly and the former England striker (below) turned and bobbled a left-foot shot into the bottom corner for his 19th goal of the season and fourth in three games.
If the Foxes had one hand on the trophy, they had both mitts on the prize seven minutes into the second half.
Preston’s defence parted as Wout Faes marauded forward.
When the Belgian defender’s low drive rebounded back into play off an upright, Vardy joyfully slammed the ball into the net.
The Kingpower talisman could have finished with a hat-trick but Freddie Woodman turned away his 64th-minute left-foot effort.
Instead, the home fans’ exodus began three minutes later as Mcateer got his seventh goal of the season, heading in Fatawu’s teasing cross.
Fatawu smashed another effort against a Preston post before Vardy left the stage to a rapturous ovation from the Foxes faithful.
If Ryan Lowe’s side hoped to spoil the party, they failed miserably.
Leicester inflicted a fourth successive loss on sorry North End to clinch the title.