SILVER AND GOALS
Rodgers: Jamie’s the Fox that never stops hunting
THERE’S hardly a more fitting image than a silver fox to mark Jamie Vardy joining the Premier League’s 100 club.
Not because he’s getting on a bit, but because it symbolises the cunning, predatory nature of an absolute goal animal.
Crystal Palace opened the door to the chicken coop, invited Vardy in, and then looked surprised when the feathers started to fly.
On 99 since March, Vardy’s ’avin a party once again – but it might as well be a tea party with the whole of Leicester in lockdown!
Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers summed up his man best. “He hunts everything down – there’s never a lost cause with him,” he said. It took another silver fox – Palace boss Roy Hodgson – to pick over the bones of a defeat he couldn’t help feeling looked more emphatic than it was.
It was Hodgson who took Vardy to the Euros and it was the former England boss who was locked in conversation with the striker for quite some time after the game.
Hodgson said: “We kept him quiet, but that doesn’t matter because the scoreline reads 3-0, and Jamie’s got two goals. He’s always there and always running – even in the last minute. “I was talking to him out
there. To score100 goals in the Premier League is a fantastic achievement. It’s been a wonderful marriage between him and Leicester City.
“He came fairly late. They signed him from Fleetwood and must be delighted they did. There’s just no sign of him letting up.”
Vardy grabbed his ton (celebrating with team-mates, below) then wrapped up the game with goal 101, but the Eagles made it easy for him.
They went a goal down just minutes into the second half when the impressive Youri Tielemans curled a sweet ball just out of reach of keeper Vicente Guaita allowing Kelechi Iheanacho to pounce.
Palace were doing OK until Mamadou Sakho’s costliest of slips allowed Vardy to hit his
long-awaited milestone. Sakho slipped attempting a dangerous change of direction in his own box and Harvey Barnes squared it across to Vardy. Game over.
Deep into stoppage time, he added a second, racing onto another superb Barnes ball from right on the halfway line.
Off he ran with that typical Vardy swagger, forcing Guaita to advance before clipping the ball past him.
Hodgson (watching Vardy, below) revealed Sakho immediately apologised in the dressing room for handing Leicester their crucial second.
“The first thing he did was say sorry,” added the Palace boss. “Once that went in, it was too much of an uphill battle.”