MADDISON RIDES TO RODGERS’ RESCUE
Foxes turn up heat on Forest
JAMES MADDISON breathed life into Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester reign with a display that may hasten the end of Steve Cooper’s stint at Nottingham Forest.
Maddison scored twice, had a hand in another and teased all night with his guile and vision.
Somehow, Gareth Southgate continues to ignore him, despite England’s problems with creativity. He helped Leicester off the bottom of the table and sent Forest there instead.
Back in February, Leicester were thrashed 4-1 by Forest in the FA Cup, but here they took revenge by claiming their first win of the season. Had this one gone the other way, who knows what Rodgers’ fate might have been?
Instead, Maddison’s double, either side of Harvey Barnes’ stunner, put the Foxes 3-0 up at the break before substitute Patson Daka added an impish fourth.
After spending £150million in summer, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is unlikely to accept a run of five straight defeats. Yet, Cooper’s reputation as one of the brightest coaches in the game remains intact and the Forest fans made their feelings clear, chanting his name regularly, even as Leicester’s supporters taunted him about his job prospects.
A relieved Rodgers said: ‘It’s been too long (since we won), but I thought we were excellent with our intensity and pressing in the game.
‘I said if we could get a result tonight that we could push on. We’ve got a lot of technically gifted players, but you can’t win football matches without the desire.’
Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was watching from the directors’ box and had urged disillusioned home fans to roar their team on in this vital game. They heard his call and should have been rewarded with an early goal when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall headed Maddison’s cross wide from an unmarked position inside the six-yard box. Jamie Vardy then put a free header wide and shot straight at Dean Henderson after Barnes had released him with a glorious pass.
Before this, Leicester had conceded 22 goals in seven games. Taiwo Awoniyi was desperately close to making it 23, hitting a post instead. How Forest were made to pay.
Jesse Lingard messed up a clearance on the edge of the box and Maddison gathered it before shooting. Henderson moved towards it but, once the ball had clipped Scott McKenna’s arm, he could only watch it drift past him.
If Leicester got lucky there, their second was a moment of pure class. Maddison found Barnes on the left and the winger cut inside before producing a perfect strike that curled beyond Henderson. Two goals in just 110 seconds.
Cooper had switched to a back four to try to change his side’s fortunes — to little avail. Ten minutes before the break, Cheikhou Kouyate shoved Dewsbury-Hall over and Maddison did the rest, sending his free-kick over the wall and in off the post.
Cooper stood, hands on knees and head bowed, in the technical area as the home fans crowed: ‘Sacked in the morning!’
Despite his side’s lead, Leicester keeper Danny Ward looked nervous, but made an important save early in the second half when the home defence were caught square as Awoniyi raced clear.
At the other end, Barnes’ volley struck Steve Cook on the arm but nothing was given.
Forest made three changes at half-time, with Kouyate, Lewis O’Brien and Neco Williams hauled off. And their fans continued to back their team even as Leicester added a fourth.
Daka had replaced Vardy on the hour and, when Maddison sent in a low cross from the right, the Zambian showed fabulous invention to wrongfoot Henderson with a Johan Cruyff-style flick that crept in via the keeper’s hand.