Vardy scored twice as Foxes eased to victory over Fulham
Saturday 9 March 2019 19:49, UK
Brendan Rodgers saluted Jamie Vardy after he passed his century of goals for Leicester to help them ease to a 3-1 win over Fulham on Saturday.
The forward’s late double took his tally to 101 - although the club have not acknowledged his strike in the 2016 Community Shield - as the Foxes won 3-1 to condemn the Cottagers to a sixth straight defeat.
It has taken Vardy 262 games since netting his first against Torquay in the League Cup in 2012 to pass his century.
The 32-year-old also set up Monaco loanee Youri Tielemans to score his first Foxes goal after 21 minutes at the King Power Stadium.
They earned Rodgers his first victory as Leicester boss but the Northern Irishman reserved special praise for Vardy.
He said: "He is a wonderful striker and scored two very good goals. He is one of the best in this division if you get up the pitch and slide him in. He doesn’t need many chances to score.
"He’s a top-class striker. He’s is through on goal for his 100th goal and he squares it (for Tielemans). It tells you what a team player he is.
"I’m very happy he is here. He’s tactically very good and starts off the press well."
Floyd Ayite’s deflected effort levelled six minutes into the second half after coming on at the break to give Fulham brief hope.
Kasper Schmeichel saved well from Aleksandar Mitrovic’s header before Vardy scored with 12 minutes left after James Maddison’s through ball.
He wrapped up victory by tapping in Harvey Barnes’ cross four minutes from time – his 12th of the season – as Leicester rose to 10th after just their fifth home league win this term.
Rodgers added: "What was pleasing were the ideas we’re trying to implement in term of our pressing and intensity.
"If we had a better last pass we could have had two more before half-time. It was a real collective effort today. We got pegged back to 1-1 so we had to show that mentality and resilience, and you saw that team spirit come through at the end.
"It comes with time [building momentum at home], and I think the supporters will have enjoyed that. They were really behind the team, and they gave me real support from the start.
"I believe there's lots of areas we can get better in, but the players are really taking in the ideas that we want and showed really good concentration to finish off the game."
