HEAD ’N BURIED
<M<IP B@:B# <M<IP >F8C# <M<IP >8D<# Foster: Lay off Pards, players are to blame
BEN FOSTER says West Brom’s players can’t hide behind Alan Pardew.
Goalkeeper Foster says if the players’ heads drop like they did in this mauling, then there’s not a lot their under-pressure boss can do.
Foster can see the bigger picture spanning out in front of him on the pitch and could sense the confidence draining away.
Strange as it seems, West Brom could easily have got something from this match before they caved in and started to believe they really are as bad as people keep telling them.
Pardew is at the sharp end and left The Hawthorns still shaking his head over how this all unfolded.
Foster said: “Everybody in our dressing room thought we would get something out of that.
Doomed
“But when heads drop like that, it’s out of the manager’s hands.”
Pardew will carry the can but some would do well to remember that one win in the last 27 league games stretches back way before he was parachuted in at the end of November.
The Baggies are doomed – eight points adrift of the 17th place safety mark and needing at least six wins from their remaining eight games to have any chance. It’s not going to happen. Salomon Rondon nudged them in front after eight minutes.
It could have been 2-0 when a Grzegorz Krychowiak shot span towards the top corner after taking a deflection only for the Pole to see Kasper Schmeichel go full tilt and fingertip it onto the bar.
Pardew felt that might have been the turning point.
Jamie Vardy came up with a Goal of the Season contender to level things, a breathtaking left-foot volley taken over his shoulder after Riyad Mahrez had looped a precision ball over the top.
Mahrez added a second before Kelechi Iheanacho sealed West Brom’s fate with his first Premier League goal for the Foxes. Vicente Iborra nodded home the fourth in added time.
It is no longer a coincidence that, at the end of the game, it was old school trio Foster, Craig Dawson and Chris Brunt who went over to applaud the fans who had stuck it out until the end.
You can’t help thinking that there’s an emotional split in the camp between those with genuine years of service and some of the more recent additions.
By the time a fire alarm caused an evacuation of the stadium it was virtually empty, but the moment wasn’t lost on Pardew in his delayed press conference.
“I tried to start a fire,” he said with a grin, “but you’re still here!”
Then he revealed he will be speaking to the powers-that-be to see if they still want him to carry on in charge. The Championship looms and there’s not a lifeboat in sight.
There looks to be no chance of any great escape this time around.
Iheanacho was delighted to bag his first league goal for Leicester but was more in awe of Vardy’s show-stopper.
Iheanacho said: “I’ve waited a long time for my first league goal and looked forward to it even more, but Jamie’s goal was fantastic – one of the best goals I’ve ever seen.” WEST BROM (4-5-1): Foster 7; Nyom 6, Hegazi 5, Dawson 5, Gibbs 5; Livermore 5, Krychowiak 5 (Field 59, 5), BRUNT 7, Phillips 5 (Rodriguez 70, 5), Burke 6 (Robson-Kanu 83); Rondon 7. Subs: Myhill, Yacob, McClean, McAuley. UP NEXT: Bournemouth (a), Premier League, Saturday. LEICESTER (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel 7; Simpson 7, Maguire 7, Morgan 7, Chilwell 7; Ndidi 7, Iborra 8; Gray 7 (Albrighton 67, 6), Mahrez 8 (Diabate 88), Okazaki 6 (Iheanacho 60, 7); VARDY 8. Subs: Jakupovic, Dragovic, James, Fuchs. UP NEXT: Chelsea (h), FA Cup, Sunday. Referee: Robert Madley 7. YOUR TURN: Who scored when Leicester won 1-0 at Albion last season?