Leicester 2 - West Ham 1: King's late winner keeps Foxes in hunt for safety

The Champions League, the European Super Cup, the World Club Cup and championships in Spain and Italy have all come the way of the battle-scarred midfielder.

But even he admits helping Leicester avoid relegation would rank as high as any of his other glorious achievements.

And he set about trying to make it happen before another old-timer Andy King came off the bench to give the Foxes a glimmer of hope.

Cambiasso’s rocket left footer that fizzed past Hammers’ Brazilian keeper Adriano gave the Foxes the perfect platform to build on as they needed to end a run that has brought them only two points from 27.

And when Carl Jenkinson sliced down Leonardo Ulloa to give David Nugent the chance of putting away another spot-kick things were looking up for both City and their veteran Argentinean.

But Adriano, after whispering in Nugent’s ear, pulled off a diving save and it nearly turned into the old, old story for City.

Until King, who had been on for less than ten minutes, was in the right spot to deflect Jamie Vardy’s mishit shot past Adrian for a dramatic winner.

The club’s Thai owners have raided their coffers to hand over £100,000 to the King Richard III appeal to pay for his re-burial at the city’s Cathedral.

And they must be praying that, unlike the Middle Ages’ monarch, the Foxes won’t be dead and buried!

City let Sam Allardyce’s side back into it, gifting them a ludicrous leveller as Jeffrey Schlupp badly misjudged Alex Song’s lobbed pass.

Chiekhou Kouyate had enough time to bring the ball down on his chest and rifle a right foot shot beyond Kasper Schmeichel.

Kouyate is averaging a goal a month this year – after managing only three in four years and celebrated his new-found scoring touch with his bench.

The Foxes threw everything into an all-out second half assault on the Hammers’ goal and Jamie Vardy twice came close to a winner.

He shaved the bar with a header and thumped a shot a foot wide and when sub Andrej Kramaric saw his goalbound shot somehow kept out by the combined efforts of Winston Reid and Aaron Cresswell, City could have been forgiven if their heads had dropped.

But they kept pouring forward and after a lucky escape when Kouyate hit the post, their adventure, and King’s predatory instinct, had its reward.

They could even have boosted their goal average even further but, through on goal, Vardy could only hit Adrian’s legs.

That didn’t matter and for the first time since early January, Nigel Pearson had a broad smile at the final whistle.