West Ham 2 Leicester 0: Foxes 5 points off escaping relegation zone as birthday-boy Soucek helps down hopeless visitors

LEICESTER gifted Tomas Soucek a birthday to remember as the Foxes fell to a fifth straight loss. The Czech turned 30 yesterday and scored in his big day for the second time in his West Ham career. Soucek will have enjoyed few birthdays as simple as this, given just how poor Leicester were.

Some diabolical defending allowed the Hammers midfielder to open the scoring before the hapless Jannick Vestergaard turned the second into his own net. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side sit five points from safety – but the gap feels a whole lot bigger than that when watching them.

It was a much needed home win for Graham Potter. The new West Ham manager will have won plenty of credit with their superb victory at Arsenal. But winning over the fickle London Stadium will be vital if he is to succeed here. Keeping the ownership and fans happy is important at all clubs.

But when the bosses at West Ham create more noise than most and the stadium can go deathly quiet at times, it is a significant task. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS. More nights like this will be a big help. West Ham hardly rolled out the free-flowing football in the first half – but they did not need to.

A soft attempt from Wilfried Ndidi aside, the Foxes offered nothing up top but everything at the back. The Hammers twice benefited from some ropey defending to take a rare first half lead at the London Stadium. First Soucek bagged from close range, pouncing after Mohammed Kudus’ effort from Aaron Cresswell’s cross had been palmed into the path of the midfielder.

The Foxes had already had a number of chances to clear before Cresswell’s ball, which accident addict Vestergaard let slip by him. Potter’s men should have gone for the jugular there and then, but were a touch too passive to quickly run away with it.

Though facing Leicester can feel like pushing against an open door at times, and it proved the case before the break. Another display of dodgy defensive work set up West Ham’s second. Jamie Vardy managed to just win the ball at the near post from a corner, but allowed Bowen to pinch it away unchallenged.

The Hammers captain was given time to turn and shoot, with his effort striking Vestergaard and finding the back of the net. It may be somewhat of a relief for the Foxes that there is a team as woeful as Southampton in the league this season – taking some of the focus away from just how much of a shambles this bunch are.

Their travelling fans indulged in plenty of gallows humour – many of them must already be looking forwards to August and the warm embrace of the Championship. Potter’s night looked to be ending in perfect fashion when Bowen played through January signing Evan Ferguson – on as a sub.

The Irishman is still waiting for his first goal since moving from Brighton, but dithered on the ball and allowed his soft shot to be blocked by Wout Faes. West Ham should have made this win more convincing, something to really boost the confidence. Instead they sat tight and allowed Leicester to swing in some harmless crosses.