Abdul Fatawu’s hat-trick inspired Leicester City’s 5-0 demolition of Southampton on a vintage night at King Power Stadium which pushed the Foxes closer towards promotion from the EFL Championship.

The sights and sounds of a bouncing Filbert Way were back again on Tuesday as City went four points clear at the summit with just two games to play.

Fatawu’s brilliant trio of goals took the headlines in City’s antepenultimate game of the season, with Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy also finding the net in an occasion to savour for the Blue Army.

Now on 94 points, Leicester have responded impressively to successive defeats on the road with two wins on the spin back home to take control at this stage of a four-way battle for automatic promotion.

The victory all but ended Southampton’s hopes of finishing in the top two, but the Foxes must first ensure they’re out of the reach of their other rivals before contemplating the prospect of achieving the season’s main objective. They head to Preston North End on Monday before hosting Blackburn Rovers on the final day the following Saturday.

The significance of the game was not lost on anyone inside King Power Stadium before kick-off. Following Saturday’s euphoric 2-1 success over West Bromwich Albion, the Manager made the decision to shuffle his pack for the second outing in four days.

In came James Justin and Ricardo Pereira to refresh his defence to take on one of the division’s most potent attacking forces.