Mavididi at the double to give Foxes cheer and leave Rooney feeling blue

Ultimately, a game that until last week, was sold - and let's face it, overegged as a mouthwatering meeting between the partners of the protagonists in the Wagatha Christie libel case turned out to be about the 22 players on the pitch, after all. Jamie Vardy's absence through injury meant a faceoff of sorts against Wayne Rooney, the Birmingham manager, was never on the cards - and no detective work was required to identify which of these teams are favourites to win promotion.

- St Andrew's

The Sky Sports cameras present here doubtless already have one eye on Leicester's run-in.

Leicester, who have now won twice as many league matches as they managed across all of last season, are three points clear at the top of the Championship. Enzo Maresca's understandable rhetoric about there being a long path to navigate yet is increasingly hard to take seriously. Two goals by Stephy Mavididi and one from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall saw off Birmingham, who struck twice through Jordan James, in a lively but, in the end, predictable encounter. Rooney's record since taking charge of Birmingham in October now reads two wins from 11 matches.