Ruud van Nistelrooy savoured “a day to get pleasure from” after Leicester Metropolis ended their nine-game dropping streak on residence soil with victory over Southampton.
The Foxes got here out on high within the battle of the relegated sides on the King Energy Stadium, with first-half objectives from Jamie Vardy and Jordan Ayew sealing a 2-0 win.
Vardy opened the scoring within the seventeenth minute along with his 199th purpose for Leicester, who he’ll depart on the finish of the season, and their first on residence soil in 826 minutes.
Certainly, the Foxes had gone an English top-flight document of 9 successive residence league matches with out scoring, whereas Ayew secured all three factors simply earlier than the break.
And Van Nistelrooy was happy to expertise a day of “plenty of positives”, on which youngsters Michael Golding, Jake Evans and Jeremy Monga have been launched from the bench in a while.
“It’s good to really feel this once more,” Van Nistelrooy stated. “We knew the quantity of residence video games during which we didn’t rating or win. We needed to interrupt that cycle, and it was clear it needed to be at present.
“The one to interrupt that cycle clearly needed to be Jamie with a terrific left-foot end.
“Plenty of positives with the outcome, the clear sheet, the younger lads approaching. It’s a day to get pleasure from and that’s what we’re doing.”
“Soccer is all about confidence,” Bilal El Khannouss continued. “From the second you rating, we’ve good gamers on this group, the arrogance can go greater and we confirmed ourselves.
“[We want] to finish [the season] in a constructive manner, to take as many factors as doable, and to organize for subsequent season.”
On Vardy, he added: “At present, he scored one, and I’ll assist him to the top [of the season] to attain one other one. He’s a legend for the membership.”
Three factors on Filbert Means#LEISOU pic.twitter.com/MG2taashO4
— Leicester Metropolis (@LCFC) Might 3, 2025
In the meantime, one other defeat for Southampton ensured they may end backside of the Premier League for a joint-record third time of their historical past (degree with Sunderland), additionally doing so in 2004-05 and 2022-23.
The Saints’ purpose will now be to register some extent of their final three video games to keep away from matching Derby County’s record-low tally of 11 factors in 2007-08.
“We began properly within the recreation, and we have been dissatisfied with the style of the [first] purpose,” interim boss Simon Rusk stated. “It gave them life and, in the long run, they have been worthy of the win.
“We’re backside of the league, and it’s been a very tough season. We’re missing confidence and there’s solely a lot you are able to do for confidence actually.
“We’ve got to maintain going. We didn’t hand over. We’re hoping for that one purpose that will get us again in it, however it by no means got here.
“I’ve inherited seven video games in tough circumstances, and I can solely take it one recreation at a time. Hopefully, we choose one thing up in these final three video games.”
