Abdul Fatawu scored deep into stoppage time to earn Leicester a much-needed 2-1 victory over West Brom in front of thousands of empty seats at the King Power Stadium.
Leicester fans had urged a boycott of the club’s first home game of the year due to their anger over the running of the club and there were plenty of empty areas in the home end.
The hosts still opened the scoring through Jordan Ayew’s fifth goal of the season but were unable to see the lead through to half-time as Karlan Grant equalised with his third of the campaign.
The hosts survived a Baggies barrage in the second period and were indebted to a string of second-half saves by Jakub Stolarczyk as well as the upright which denied Isaac Price.
West Brom have history of conceding late and they were punished once again with minutes remaining when Fatawu fired home a volley home to snatch all three points.
The last-gasp loss saw the Baggies extend their run of defeats on the road to 10 matches as Leicester earned back-to-back wins at home to move into the top half of the Championship table.
The lack of fans inside the stadium did not seem to hamper the hosts as they cashed in on a good start by hitting the front in the 19th minute.
Some neat build-up play ended with Bobby De Cordova-Reid unlocking the back line with a through-ball to Jordan James, who played it across for Ayew who knocked into an empty net.
Albion’s best moment arrived on the half-hour mark when Stolarczyk misjudged a cross and punched the ball straight to Mikey Johnston, who saw a goalbound header cleared off the line by Ricardo Pereira.
But they were not to be denied moments later.
Alex Mowatt played a ball into the path of Grant and the Albion forward was able to take his time and expertly dispatch a finish past the onrushing Stolarczyk and into the bottom right corner.
The goal completely shifted the momentum of the contest and West Brom were unlucky not to go in front.
Mowatt, pulling the strings in the middle of the pitch, sent a cross to the back post where George Campbell fired his effort across goal and narrowly wide from a tight angle.
Price shot against a post eight minutes into the second half before Stolarczyk got down low to stop Aune Heggebo’s effort from close range.
Leicester could do nothing to stop wave after wave of Albion attacks. Johnston was next to spring the offside trap but saw his tame shot stopped by Stolarczyk again.
Stolarczyk was in inspired form as he frustrated the away side further to palm away Campbell’s header with 10 minutes to go.
And Leicester punished West Brom for those missed chances when Fatawu met Stephy Mavididi’s cross and fired a volley into the top corner.
