Leicester’s Stephy Mavididi punishes Birmingham as Rooney woes grow

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” case turned out to be about the 22 players on the pitch, after all. Jamie Vardy’s absence through injury meant a face-off 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 to the Premier League. 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 too 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, when they were sixth in the table, now reads two wins from 11 matches.

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