- Leicester City's Harry Maguire was thrilled to play a significant role in Saturday's draw
- The England international defender struck at the very end to deny Manchester United victory
- Maguire told LCFC TV that the Foxes were determined not to lose their last home fixture of 2017
In City’s final King Power Stadium fixture of 2017, the England international struck in the final of four minutes stoppage time to rescue a point despite having Daniel Amartey sent off.
Jamie Vardy opened the scoring in the first half with his 50th Premier League goal before Juan Mata put United into a commanding position with a brace either side of the half-time break.
But the 10-man Foxes refused to be beaten, a source of great joy for Maguire in his LCFC TV briefing: “Obviously it feels like a victory in there, but it’s a good point against a good team.
“Obviously the circumstances make it a bit more enjoyable. We felt like it was a good performance, we were disappointed to go 2-1 behind.
“I had a good chance in the first half, but I learnt from it and thankfully with the last kick I took it first-time rather than trying to bring it down and it went in the back of the net.
“The character and the spirit of the squad has always been there. Sometimes we know what we need to work on and bring more quality in the game.
“We’ve got a great bunch here and everybody is going to fight to the death. We had to keep it at 2-1 for as long as we could, the manager kept saying we’d get one more chance.
“Thankfully it fell to me and thankfully I put it in the corner. That’s the first last-minute goal in my career, so it’s a special moment for myself, especially against such a prestigious club.
“They’re a massive club with a great team and we need to try and take the character of tonight into the next game [against Watford on Boxing Day].”
Following a deeply frustrating defeat by Crystal Palace seven days previously, Maguire says City were determined not to be beaten by anyone, not even Jose Mourinho’s Red Devils.
“We knew after the last home game against Palace, it was very disappointing, so we wanted to put on a performance and give the fans something to cheer about,” he added.