Van Nistelrooy relieved as Leicester end goal drought against sorry Saints

A match between two already-relegated teams turned Leicester's way when Foxes great Jamie Vardy scored his 199th goal for the Midlands club to end their run of 826 minutes without a league goal at the King Power Stadium.

Vardy's goal sent Leicester on their way to a first win since January. But the result ensured Southampton will end the season bottom of the table, with only three games left for the Saints to move off 11 points and avoid equalling the competition's lowest total in a season.

"The performance provided the three points," said Van Nistelrooy. "The first goal was finished in style, and it gave us that lead that we needed, and the first goal, of course, at home in a long, long time. We were ready to break that cycle today."

The former Manchester United and Netherlands striker added: "It was a relief to go ahead in the game - I can't remember the last time that we did. Obviously, going two up was great and was a boost for the team and also everyone in the stadium.

"For me, it was important that I saw a team today that was fighting to do well and wanted to break a cycle of home games (without scoring), that wanted to get a clean sheet and wanted to improve and be in the best place possible for next season."

Leicester opened the scoring after 16 minutes when Bilal El Khannouss's low cross was powered high into the net by Vardy before Jordan Ayew doubled the Foxes' lead in the 44th minute with a low drive.

"The first goal just seemed to knock the confidence out of the team," said Southampton interim boss Simon Rusk. "Maybe that's a result of the season as a whole in that it seemed to be a step too far psychologically perhaps."

He added: "We can try and affect confidence levels as much as we can, but the reality is we're working together as a group that's won two games all season. We are away from home in the Premier League against a team with seven more points than us, and I expected a difficult game."