Leicester City ascended to the summit of the Championship following a late triumph against Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium.
In the 87th minute, Stephy Mavididi found the back of the net, breaking through the resilient defense of the visitors.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall initiated the scoring for Leicester before Jay Stansfield equalized right before halftime.
Enzo Maresca’s squad surpassed promotion contenders Ipswich and Leeds, both of whom suffered defeats. On the other hand, Birmingham’s loss sees them drop into the relegation zone.
Dewsbury-Hall was instrumental early on, with his cross nearly resulting in an own goal by Emanuel Aiwu, but Blues’ goalkeeper John Ruddy intervened.
The midfielder notched his 12th goal of the season after receiving a pass from Patson Daka.
Birmingham came close to equalizing when Krystian Bielik missed wide from close range, but Ruddy thwarted Daka’s attempt at the opposite end.
Stansfield leveled the score just before halftime, capitalizing on a clearance from Leicester’s goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
In the second half, Wilfried Ndidi almost restored Leicester’s lead, but Ruddy saved the midfielder’s header from Mavididi’s delivery.
Ruddy was tested again moments later, diving to deny Fatawu’s effort, while Jamie Vardy, introduced in the second half, missed wide as Leicester’s tension mounted.
Both teams exchanged chances in pursuit of a winner, but it was Mavididi who made the decisive impact, heading home Yunus Akgun’s cross at the far post to propel Leicester to the 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.”