- The striker scores the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Barclays Premier League victory over Crystal Palace
- City boss Ranieri was on the touchline stirring the crowd up into a frenzy in the closing stages
- Vardy scores for the seventh consecutive Premier League game to take his total to ten for the season
With Leicester City fighting to see out a victory against Crystal Palace, Jamie Vardy says it was the sight of manager Claudio Ranieri trying to work up the crowd gave the Foxes an extra boost.
It was Vardy’s second half strike that eventually sealed a 1-0 Barclays Premier League win at King Power Stadium, and it was some goal. The striker lifted the ball beautifully over the goalkeeper for his tenth of the campaign and extended his run of consecutive matches scored in to seven.
He became the first Leicester City player ever to achieve that feat in the top-flight on Saturday, but typically it was the three points that mattered most to the England man.
Ranieri and his players have often spoke of the link between the players, staff and the fans, and rarely has that been more evident than when the boss was whipping them up into a frenzy in the closing stages.
<div ><br /><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“I had to have a little chuckle to be fair at the end,” Vardy told <strong><a href="http://www.player.lcfc.com" target="_blank">Foxes Player HD</a></strong>. “I didn’t know why the crowd were getting so hectic and then I looked at the boss and he looked like a caged animal! </div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“He was going absolutely crackers. But he’s got the fans absolutely booming after that and you could hear from their roar that they wanted us to see it through and they’ve helped us get the three points.” </div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The 28-year-old is receiving plenty of plaudits for his performances but he is a man that works hard for his team, and he was keen to highlight just what a good job they did in keeping their first clean sheet of the campaign. </div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">He added: “You’ve seen how we’ve defended at the end. We’ve conceded a few lately but we were defending like absolute lions and the three points were fully deserved for the second half performance I think. </div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“They have put their bodies on the line with every ball getting clipped into the box at the end – it was non-stop. They defended brilliantly and it just shows the character in the squad because every man was defending.”</div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The reward promised by the manager for that first clean sheet of the campaign was pizza for the team, and Vardy is keen to hold him to that promise. </div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">He joked: “We’ll see if the boss buys the pizzas! I’ve just mentioned it when I got into the dressing room and someone said he’s not got them in yet, so we’ll see what happens.”</span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.player.lcfc.com" target="_blank"><img xlink:href="tcm:0-2692753" title="PlayerHD2015_Banner" alt="PlayerHD2015_Banner" style="width: 480px; height: 100px;" /></a><br /></div></div>