Leicester City 2 Southampton 0
Referee David Webb appears injured after a collision with Leicester City’s Jordan Ayew (right) as Jamie Vardy blows the referee whistle to stop play during the Premier League match at the King Power Stadium, Leicester
Leicester City captain Jamie Vardy took matters into his own hands on Saturday by blowing the referee’s whistle to stop play after the official had gone down injured.
Midway through the first-half of Leicester’s Premier League game with fellow relegated side Southampton, referee David Webb suffered an accidental collision with Leicester’s Jordan Ayew and collapsed to the floor holding his head while play continued around him.
Vardy – who will leave Leicester at the end of the season after 13 years at the club – jumped into action, lifting up Webb’s arm to blow his whistle, which was wrapped around the referee’s right hand, in order to stop the game.
Webb was treated by medics before being removed from the pitch and replaced in the middle by fourth official Sam Barrott.
Earlier, Vardy had scored his 144th Premier League goal, taking him level in the charts with Robin van Persie. Ayew then added a second after scoring a rebound from his own free-kick which had hit the wall.
The delay in treating Webb and readying Barrott to replace him led to 12 minutes being added on to the end of the first half at the King Power Stadium.
Leicester were quickest to find their feet again after the 12-minute delay and doubled their lead after 44 minutes when Ayew hit a powerful drive into the bottom corner from outside the box after the Ghanaian had struck a free-kick into the wall.
The lively El Khannouss almost scored a third for the hosts in first-half stoppage time when his attempted cross looped onto the top of the bar.
Southampton’s performance could only improve after the break and they came close to pulling a goal back when Stolarczyk did well to keep out Paul Onuachu’s header from Kamaldeen Sulemana’s cross.
It was only a brief flurry from the visitors, with Leicester almost adding to their lead further when Wilfred Ndidi’s shot from El Khannouss’ corner was deflected wide.
Vardy almost reached his 200-goal milestone when his free-kick was beaten away by Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
El Khannouss ignored the chance to play in Vardy as he rolled a shot wide after breaking into the Saints half with seven minutes left as the hosts coasted to a rare victory.
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