What’s your favourite memory of Leicester City’s greatest escape?
We don’t need an escape as great as 2015 to survive this season, but the task somehow feels just as monumental.
We cast our minds back eight years (eight!) to a time when Nigel Pearson (or was it Esteban Cambiasso?) found the winning formula, Robert Huth bolstered the backline and Jamie Vardy discovered his scoring boots - what do you remember most fondly?
There’s only one answer for me: Jamie Vardy rustling a 91st-minute winner at The Hawthorns. Even though we’d won our previous game, looking back it really was the start of something very special – for player and club.
For that team, it was the second match running where we’d snatched a late win – the kind of unwavering spirit that would propel us to safety before the absolute insanity of 2015-16.
For Vardy, it was the moment that started everything. His trajectory changed from the moment he barged Gareth McAuley off the ball on halfway, then hurtled downfield to slot home a trademark winner. Only it wasn’t trademark back then – it was only his third league goal of the entire season.
But then he didn’t stop for seven years: that goal was a perfect showcase of the enduring qualities that would make him one of the Premier League’s most relentless forces season upon season. Some moment indeed.
Joe Brewin
There were a few turnaround moments during the great escape - some things that made it possible, like keeping Nigel Pearson or signing Robert Huth; some things that eventually kickstarted it, like Andy King’s winner against West Ham and the Vardy goal at the Hawthorns.
For me, there was a 60-second period when it really felt like we were going to achieve something amazing - and I missed it completely.
An hour into a tense afternoon at Turf Moor, nature called and I, reluctantly but very necessarily, shuffled past the wooden seats to make my way down the away end stairs.
There were a few of us doing what needed to be done while some kid ran back and forth between the stands and the doorway with updates.
Burnley penalty.
Burnley have missed it.
We’re on the counter.
That was the last update. We knew what had happened when the roar greeting Jamie Vardy’s goal flooded the concourse. Thankfully it was the only flood that day, and I didn’t mind missing the celebrations.
David Bevan
Three moments stand out for me which are equally brilliant for different reasons so will all get a mention.
One of my favourite Leicester City goals of all time: Jamie Vardy ruining 'Astle day' to win the game with that iconic goal and celebration in front of the away end. I'm always fond of West Brom away but that goal tops the good memories there and probably pips the other moments in that run-in as my overall favourite.
Then there was the series of events away at Burnley meaning we won 1-0, a couple of minutes that epitomises how football can bring up every emotion so quickly.
I couldn't watch as Matt Taylor stepped up for a penalty, fearing the worst that the few good results could be coming to an end. He hits the post and we go down the other end to score almost immediately, sending us into complete pandemonium and out of the bottom three. That was the moment that made me believe we were staying up.
However, I simply couldn't answer this question without mentioning Jeffrey Schlupp. A 0-0 draw at Sunderland meant we'd officially stayed up and in the footage of the players celebrating, Schlupp enters the frame with a bemused look on his face.
He had no idea we'd done it, then goes from confusion to pure joy and it makes me laugh every time.
Becky Taylor
