Jamie Vardy by Jamie Vardy

Author:Jamie Vardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473550469
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

United were 2–0 and then 3–1 up, and as the game started to turn, one of the abiding images for many people was the sight of Ryan Giggs, Van Gaal’s assistant, hunched over in the dugout in a state of despair, with one hand covering his eyes. It was the first time in 853 Premier League matches that United had surrendered a two-goal lead and lost.

But what made me smile most was something that happened before the game rather than during it. In Van Gaal’s pre-match press conference, someone asked him whether he knew much about Leicester and our attacking threats. With a pile of stuff stacked up next to him, he said, ‘Of course. All these books are on Leicester and I’ve read every single one.’ Obviously you didn’t, Louis.

In fairness, everyone in a Leicester shirt was on top of their game against United, not just me. We were 2–0 down early on, but we never allowed our heads to drop and got a goal back straight from the restart, when Leonardo Ulloa headed home my cross. We fell 3–1 behind in the second half, but Nuge scored a penalty after Rafael brought me down and then we had a touch of good fortune when Dean Hammond’s shot, which was going miles wide, hit me. Luckily, I stopped it dead, and Esteban Cambiasso made it 3–3.

At that point we were absolutely pumped and sensed that United were there for the taking. Ritchie nicked the ball off Juan Mata and picked me out with a cross that I let hit me on the stomach, leaving me one-on-one with David de Gea. In our opposition analysis I’d watched clips of De Gea in one-on-one situations, and the United keeper doesn’t really dive – he stands. It’s like he tries to make the lower part of his body big by half-turning. So I just looked to slide the ball to his left … and I saw it roll into the net. What a feeling. Pumping my legs and arms like crazy, I ran towards the corner for the mother of all knee slides. I’d scored in the Premier League, against Manchester United, and we were 4–3 up. The ground was bouncing, literally – when you watch the footage back there’s a Sky camera in the stand that’s going up and down. Leo got the fifth, after Tyler Blackett was sent off for bringing me down, and it felt like a dream.

I was a pest all afternoon and that’s what I’ve been wherever I’ve played, right back to those days at Colley Park with the Anvil. My finishing, the sort of composure I showed to beat De Gea that day, is something that I’ve worked on more and more the higher up I’ve gone. But the aggressive running, being a thorn in the opposition’s side for 90 minutes, not giving them a moment’s peace – that’s always been there.

People were trotting out all sorts of statistics afterwards, going over my non-league days and

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