Leicester 1 Manchester United 1 reaction: All-time record beckons for brilliant Jamie Vardy

Vardy on the brink of equalling Jimmy Dunne's 83-year-old top-flight record

(PA)

The V9 Academy will open for business next year. The man behind it is hoping that it will unearth some overlooked talent from the non-league game. That man is Jamie Vardy and he knows a thing or two about Cinderella stories.

Vardy, a man who once scored against FC United for Halifax Town, had not actually scored a Premier League goal until this same fixture last season. That September afternoon he ran United’s defence ragged before hitting the fifth goal in a famous 5-3 win. It seems remarkable to recall that he did not then score another Premier League goal for six months.

What is truly remarkable, though, is the story the 28-year-old Yorkshireman has written this season, a story that has lit up the Premier League. Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright had seven-game scoring runs in the post-92 era. Ruud van Nistelrooy had ten. Vardy has outshone the great strikers of recent times. Whisper it to the Premier League’s marketing men, but he now just needs one more goal to equal the all-time record of Jimmy Dunne, who scored in 12 consecutive games for Sheffield United in 1931/32.

This felt like a special evening even before kick-off as the home supporters turned the Kop end into a shimmering wall of blue and white , accompanied by a banner reading “Blue and White Pure Delight”.

It was a fair summing-up of the explosion of joy that would follow 24 minutes later with Vardy’s record-breaking strike. It was a goal that underlined what Leicester are all about: pace on the counterattack. After collecting the ball from a United corner, Kasper Schmeichel found Christian Fuchs who in turn picked out Vardy’s run into the space between the full-back and centre-back positions. The rest felt inevitable. “All mine, all mine,” screamed the 28-year-old as he sped away in celebration.

Even before then Vardy’s menace was clear to see. Early on he was first to a stray pass by Michael Carrick down by the corner flag and drove for goal. Thankfully for United, Chris Smalling – once of Maidstone United and arguably the second most-improved player in English football after Vardy – shepherded him away from shooting territory. That was Vardy ever alert to an opportunity. He does not give defenders a moment’s peace as underlined by his next act when he flew in on Matteo Darmian and blocked an attempted clearance by the Italian. It is that kind of energy that players and fans alike feed off in English football.

Another United corner later in the first half almost ended up with Vardy reaching another through-ball and catching David de Gea’s glove instead. The Spaniard did not like it and he and Vardy exchanged words. Old colleagues watching from his days at Stocksbridge Park Steels , where he began his career in Sheffield’s County Senior League, and Fleetwood Town, where he once ran naked around the pitch, will have recognised that bit of devilment.

Vardy is not the only success story at Leicester this season and some of Riyad Mahrez’s touches were wonderful, though unfortunately for Vardy he chose to pick out Leo Ulloa as the home side broke away in the second half. Vardy had to settle for just the one goal, but who’s complaining?