Leicester welcomes manager with win
LEICESTER: Barely an hour after he was appointed Leicester City manager, Brendan Rodgers took a seat in the stands at King Power Stadium to have a first good look at his new team.
He must have been fairly satisfied with what he saw as The Foxes ended their winless run in 2019 with a 21 Premier League victory over Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan’s Brighton & Hove Albion.
Jamie Vardy showed Rodgers he still had an eye for goal by scoring what proved to be the winner when he took a pass from James Maddison in his stride and shot low into the net in the 63rd minute.
That made it 20 after Demarai Gray’s 10thminute strike.
Brighton’s reply was through Davy Propper in the 66th, even though the visitors had plenty of chances in an open game.
The result lifted The Foxes to 11th on 35 points while Brighton (27 points) is 16th and just three points above the drop zone.
With Leicester moving 11 points clear of the bottom three, it is unlikely that Rodgers, who quit Scottish champion Celtic to replace Claude Puel, will be fighting a relegation battle in the final three months of the season.
Winger Harvey Barnes, one of Leicester’s brightest young players, said Rodgers was ‘‘pleased with the result and performance’’.
‘‘He’ll spend the next couple of days introducing us to his style of play and how he wants us to perform,’’ Barnes said.
Australia midfielder Aaron Mooy came off the bench late in the second half to provide the cross that resulted in Steve Mounie’s stoppagetime winner for rockbottom Huddersfield Town against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Terriers collected just their third victory of the season with the upset 10 home win over eighthplaced Wolves, although it could be too late for Huddersfield, as it is still 11 points from safety.
‘‘You can’t believe how much the players suffered when they are not winning,’’ manager Jan Siewert said after a first win in charge since he replaced David Wagner in January.
‘‘They deserved everything from the game. They left their hearts on the pitch.’’
Gylfi Sigurdsson scored twice before Dominic CalvertLewin put the icing on the cake in Everton’s 30 win at Cardiff City, which is only one point
above the relegation spots.
Newcastle United pushed further away from the drop zone with a 20 home win over Burnley courtesy of a stunning
longrange strike from Fabian Schar and youngster Sean Longstaff’s first goal for the club.
The Magpies’ fourthstraight home win moved Rafa Benitez’s team up to 13th and above Burnley, whose eightgame unbeaten run came to an end.