Leicester City has risen to the top of Championship after securing an late win over Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium.

Jay Stansfield, on the stroke at halftime, restored the parity after Kiernan Hall opened the scoring.

Enzo Maresca’s side leapfrogs promotion rivals Ipswich who lost and Leeds who also lost. Birmingham are now in the relegation zone after losing.

Dewsbury Hall played a major role in the first half. His cross almost led Emanuel Aiwu to score an own goal. But Blues goalkeeper JohnRuddy blocked it.

Patson Daka fed the midfielder, who scored his 12th goal in the current season.

The visitors almost retaliated when Krystian Biedlik missed the target from close range before Ruddy denied Daka on the other end.

Stansfield equalized just before the half with his second goal of the week. He deflected into the goal after he pounced on the clearance of Foxes goalkeeper MadsHermansen.

Wilfried Ndidi nearly regained Leicester’s lead just five minutes after the half, but Ruddy parried his header from Mavididi’s cross.

Ruddy was called to action again minutes later when he dived to block Fatawu’s effort. Jamie Vardy – a second-half introduction – headed wide as Leicester’s nerves started to grow.

Both sides had chances to win, but Mavididi was the one who scored the decisive goal, heading in Yunus’s cross from the back post. The Foxes now lead the Championship.

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca told BBC Radio Leicester“I believe that the team once again produced chances. It was only a matter of finding the second. Sometimes you struggle and concede the second in transition, but our game was very well controlled.

“When you are there, and you struggle to score goals, you think that you won’t win the game. The team was fantastic, and I think that we deserved to win.

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

“I’m happy for Stephy. I think he will become more important to us. Now we are focusing on Tuesday.”

Birmingham interim manager Gary Rowett tells BBC Radio WM“When you visit places like Leicester, it’s important to understand that the team is very good and they will have a great deal of possession. Sometimes key moments do not go your way.

“We need just a bit more courage and quality in our possession. This is why it was difficult to sustain a long period with the football. In the second period, I think a little fatigue set in and so I made a lot of changes. You have to finish the game and we can’t keep conceding goals late because those points will be very important come May.

“We need to do everything to help our teammates get out of trouble.” You saw a lot of good work. It was disappointing but we did a lot of things well. Our season won’t be defined by Leicester at home.”