Leicester 2-1 Birmingham: Foxes leave it late to climb to Championship summit

Leicester City climbed to the top of the Championship after securing a late win against Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall had opened the scoring for Leicester before Jay Stansfield restored parity on the stroke of half-time.

Enzo Maresca’s side leapfrog promotion rivals Ipswich and Leeds, who both lost, while defeat means Birmingham drop into the relegation places.

Dewsbury-Hall was heavily involved early on with his cross almost leading to an early Emanuel Aiwu own goal, but Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy made the block.

The midfielder slotted home his 12th goal of the season after being fed by Patson Daka.

The visitors almost hit back when Krystian Bielik fired wide from close range, before Ruddy denied Daka at the other end.

Stansfield levelled just before the break with his second goal in a week. He pounced on a clearance from Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and deflected the ball into the net.

Just five minutes after the break, Wilfried Ndidi almost regained Leicester’s lead, but Ruddy parried the midfielder’s header from Mavididi’s cross.

Ruddy was again called into action minutes later, diving to block Fatawu’s effort, and Jamie Vardy, a second half introduction, headed wide as Leicester’s nerves began to grow.

Both sides traded chances as they looked for a winner, but it was Mavididi who made the crucial intervention, heading home substitute Yunus Akgun’s cross at the back post to send the Foxes top of the Championship.

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca told BBC Radio Leicester: “I think once again the team was producing chances. It was just a matter to find the second. Sometimes you struggle, and you concede the second one in transition, but we controlled the game very well.

“When you are there and you struggle to score, you think you’re not going to win the game. The team was fantastic and at the end, I think we completely deserve to win the game.

“I told them at half-time to be very patient; second half, we were even better. The team is playing well but we played even better in the last 10 minutes.

“I am happy for Stephy; he can become even more important for us. We focus on Tuesday now.”

Birmingham interim manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio WM: “When you come to places like Leicester you know you have to accept that such a good team will have a lot of the ball and sometimes key moments don’t quite go your way.

“We need to just have a little bit more bravery and quality in possession, which is why we found it hard to sustain a period with the ball. In the second half, a little bit of fatigue maybe set in so I had to make quite a few changes. You have got to see the game out and what we can’t do is keep conceding late goals because those points are going to be absolutely massive come the start of May.

“We have to make sure we’re doing everything for our teammates to get them out of trouble. You saw so much of that good work. It was disappointing, but we showed a lot of good things. Our season will not be defined by Leicester away.”