Leicester City claimed their first win in 14 Premier League matches to give their survival hopes a boost with a 1-0 success at Hull City on Sunday.
The Foxes were crafty enough to win a game in which they were thoroughly dominated, bagging the winner just after the half-hour through Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez.
It was a timely boost for the 23-year-old, who went out to Brazil with Algeria last summer, playing once, and will have one eye on the Africa Cup of Nations finals starting in the middle of next month.
With his hair slicked back and sporting black gloves, his left-footed stinger from outside the penalty area was a worthy winner as it flashed into the bottom-left corner.
The strike sent the small away support wild, as they smelled the possibility of only a third Premier League win all season for the cash-strapped newly promoted side.
The win leaves Leicester City on a meager 13 points, but lifts them to within just three of safety.
It was a happy return to Hull for former player Nigel Pearson, now the Leicester manager, but his opposite number Steve Bruce is coming under increasing pressure in his own hot-seat as the Tigers slide down the table.
Both sides actually ended a bad-tempered game with 10 men, Leicester’s Paul Konchesky getting sent off for a violent tackle on 87 minutes while already on a yellow card, while Hull’s Stephen Quinn was sent off in stoppage-time for a deliberate hand-ball.
If Leicester have something to smile about, Bruce and his men will be left to reflect on their poor finishing, having managed 18 attempts on goal compared with Leicester’s two.
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