Jamie Vardy rises to occasion against West Brom to send Leicester top

Leicester earned a valuable home win over fellow promotion hopefuls West Brom to return to the top of the Championship. The relief inside the King Power stadium was palpable. You pick your hero: Hamza Choudhury, with his timely defensive interventions, or the goalscorers – Wilfred Ndidi, whose lung-busting runs helped see out the game for the home side, and Jamie Vardy, who looked to have made the contest safe until Jed Wallace set up a nervy finish.

Enzo Maresca, whose side were coming off defeats by Millwall and Plymouth, said Leicester had “got today, what we had lost in the last two games in terms of luck”. He added: “Football is a matter of balance. But they gave everything. Hamza was one, but Stephy, Abdul, Jamie, Kiernan … At this moment, it’s more about the desire. We see ourselves close, but it’s not finished. We have to finish our job and to try to get promoted.”

West Brom troubled Leicester throughout and began the game pressing high, looking to catch Mads Hermansen in the home goal dawdling on the ball. Wallace, playing as a false 9, caused havoc with runs into the channel. He cut back to Mikey Johnston, whose drive was blocked on the line by Choudhury.

He had been brought in as a hybrid right-sided midfielder and was involved in making sure the home goal lived a charmed life as West Brom piled on pressure. Hermansen was forced into another save by Johnston, a menacing presence on the right of Leicester’s defence.

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Midway through the half, though, Ndidi gave the home fans something to cheer. Stephy Mavididi checked inside and the ball went to Wout Faes, who launched a cross in from the left. Vardy’s header was saved by Alex Palmer but Ndidi was on hand to fire into the roof of the net.

Leicester should have gone in with a two-goal cushion. A minute before half-time Vardy ran on to a long ball from Hermansen and was pushed over by Okay Yokuslu in the area. The referee, Thomas Bramall, pointed to the spot. Vardy had scored four penalties from four this season, but this time he hit a post.

Both sides were wasteful. In the 54th minute, Mavididi flashed a ball across the face of goal which Vardy failed to make contact with. The former England striker’s touch then let him down from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s through ball.

Choudhury cleared off his line twice in a few seconds, blocking a shot from Yann M’Vila and then denying Grady Diangana. Kyle Bartley headed the resulting corner against the bar and Diangana was unable to turn the ball in from close range.

West Brom finally scored when Cédric Kipré played in Wallace, who ran in behind Conor Coady to stab the ball beyond Hermansen and set up a nervy finish. But Leicester held on amid intense pressure as the visitors sought an equaliser.

Carlos Corberán thought their performance merited at least a point, saying: “We didn’t lose any of the previous seven or eight games we’d played away before this and today we lost a game where we probably deserved to win the most.”

They remain in a strong playoff position but were left to regret those missed opportunities.