By George Aluo
Wilfred Ndidi, was a sad man yesterday on a day he was supposed to be catching fun on his 21st birthday.
Reason: He bagged his first career red card yesterday in a match in which his club, Leicester was thoroughly beaten at home by Crystal Palace.
Ndidi dived himself into trouble in the 60th minute when he collected his second yellow and a red from the referee who had earlier booked him in the 52nd minute.
The match was one which Crystal’s Christian Benteke used to shine as he scored his first goal of the season, even as his club climbed out of the Premier League’s bottom three.
Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako were also on target as Palace ended an eight-month wait for an away league victory.
A week after being castigated for ignoring team orders to take, and miss, a stoppage-time penalty in a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, Benteke made amends to put Palace in front with a glancing header from Andros Townsend’s whipped in cross.
It was Palace’s first away goal of the season.
Leicester failed to muster much of a response and were punished for their lacklustre approach five minutes before halftime when Benteke played in Zaha who out-foxed Ben Chilwell before drilling a low shot past Kasper Schmeichel.
The hosts did improve after the break and Riyad Mahrez was denied a goal when Palace keeper Julian Speroni made a superb save to keep out the Algerian’s powerful low shot.
Bakary Sako rounded off a great afternoon for Palace with a classy finish from Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s assist.
Palace moved to 14th position with 17 points from 18 games while Leicester, who had won their previous four games to move into eighth spot, have 26 points.