Leicester hit back twice against Southampton - and miss late chance to secure all three points

Brendan Rodgers is not a manager usually associated with the old fashioned half-time hairdryer. But, during what was an extended 30-minute interval after a fan required emergency medical attention, Leicester City’s usually cerebral manager evidently did not hold back. His team were trailing 2-1 after some particularly woeful set-piece defending and, according to the diplomatic description of James Maddison, what followed were “harsh words”.

Maddison himself duly led the reaction, equalising quite brilliantly with a powerful near-post finish, before Harvey Barnes and then especially Jamie Vardy had appeared certain to complete the comeback.

As it was, Leicester departed St Mary’s with the strange feeling of having twice recovered from a deficit but feeling rather less satisfied with a share of the points.

“We should win the game in the second half,” said Rodgers, who described the first half as lacking in aggression, physicality and concentration. He made no attempt to hide his frustration. “Every now and then you have to be angry,” he said. “The modern players will switch off. You have to be direct. We were nowhere near the level. You have to earn the right to play football. We didn't do that. Too soft. Everything too easy.”

Rodgers did not name names but he did replace Boubakary Soumare with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall after 45 minutes, whose performance he later described as a “catalyst” in transforming his team’s standards.

Leicester had arrived in Southampton having not registered a clean sheet since the opening day of the season and it took only three minutes here for the sequence to be extended. Southampton have struggled badly for goals this season but they have clearly been working imaginatively at the training ground to improve their options from set-pieces. A powerful run forward by James Ward-Prowse had forced a corner and, with the Southampton captain then delivering a smart, short pass to tee up Nathan Tella, the ball was crossed for Mohamed Salisu. His shot was initially well saved by Kasper Schmeichel but Jan Bednarek punished defensive hesitation by Timothy Castagne to prod Southampton into the lead from the rebound.

Leicester were being pinned back but did retain a counter-attacking threat whenever they broke past Southampton’s midfield press, particularly through Maddison and Ademola Lookman, who surged behind left-back Kyle Walker-Peters to force a corner.

The resulting cross was only partially cleared, with Maddison and Lookman then combining to tee up Wilfred Ndidi whose shot was saved by Alex McCarthy but directed back into the path of Jonny Evans to side-foot Leicester level.

Parity would last only 12 minutes, with Leicester only half-clearing another well worked Southampton corner to allow space for Nathan Redmond’s precise lofted cross between Castagne and Caglar Soyuncu, for Che Adams to deftly head past Schmeichel.

Worrying half-time scenes followed, with medics urgently entering a side stand to treat a fan who, it later emerged, had suffered a fit rather than a cardiac arrest. An announcement followed that the second half would be delayed by five minutes, and then another five minutes, before the fan was moved from the stand to applause from all sides of the stadium.

The players were then permitted an additional five minutes to warm-up, with Leicester clearly now refocused. Maddison was especially, drifting more dangerously into space in support of Vardy and, having been fed by Luke Thomas, produced a wonderful piece of individual skill. Running directly up against Tino Livramento, arguably Southampton’s player of the season, Maddison first cut back inside and then drilled a powerful shot beyond McCarthy.

The game seemed finally to be at Leicester’s mercy but they missed two excellent chances to clinch victory. First Ayoze Perez passed for Harvey Barnes, whose shot was brilliantly tipped wide by McCarthy’s outstretched hand.

A defensive mix-up between Walker-Peters and Salisu was then seized upon by Vardy but, having opened up his body for what looked like the winning goal, he lofted his side-footed shot over the cross-bar.