Championship leaders Leicester City wore down bottom side Rotherham United to go six points clear at Christmas.

After being frustrated in the first half by the resilient Millers, Patson Daka steered home the opener on the hour after Viktor Johansson had saved from Wesley Faes.

Daka soon added a second from the penalty spot after the Zambian forward had been taken out by Johansson when clean through, and Cesare Casadei headed in Ricardo Pereira’s cross as Rotherham subsided.

It wrapped up a fifth consecutive win – and 19th from 23 matches in the league this season – as the Championship pacesetters continued to look unstoppable as the season reached its halfway mark.

In contrast, a third consecutive league defeat for new boss Leam Richardson extended Rotherham’s winless run on the road to 26 matches in all competitions – going back to 8 November last year – and leaves them nine points adrift of safety.

The Millers have shown signs of improvement under Richardson, despite the results, and in the first half largely blunted a Leicester attack which had notched 10 goals in their three previous matches.

Johansson saved from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jannik Vestergaard’s header before excellent defending by Hakeem Odoffin denied Ricardo Pereira a certain goal from Mavididi’s cut-back as the Foxes began to up the intensity.

The frustration grew after the break as Johansson turned behind another Dewsbury-Hall strike before Fatawu Issahaku was denied by Sean Morrison’s goalline clearance.

But patience and perseverance was rewarded with two goals in five minutes from Daka – his first league double for Leicester – before Casadei’s first since his debut strike in August underlined the hosts’ dominance.

The Millers have scored just six goals from 12 away matches this season and mustered two attempts on goal, neither on target, in contrast to Leicester’s 24.

Leicester City head coach Enzo Maresca told BBC Radio Leicester:

“We knew it would be a difficult game, but we were patient to wait for more chances, keep the balance, don’t lose any transitions and in the end we did the most difficult thing in this kind of game and found a goal.

“We knew it would be difficult to continue with the same energy for them without the ball. We were happy even with the first half.

“In the first half we created three clear chances and it’s difficult to have a big amount of chances in this kind of game. You need to be patient.

“It’s six points from Ipswich and more points from Southampton and Leeds, but in this moment we are just in the first half of the season. It’s important to have the amount of points we have and we need to continue a little bit more.”

Rotherham United boss Leam Richardson told BBC Radio Sheffield:

“For an hour, 65 minutes, I thought we were very good value for the performance, hoping to take it into the latter stages and hoping they’d throw a couple of bodies forward, possibly counter on them, but you have to respect Leicester.

“They’re full of quality and they’re up there for a reason. We’re in a really challenging division and we’re stretched for bodies at the minute, so fingers crossed we can get reinforcements sooner rather than later.

“But on today’s assessment I thought the lads dug deep and gave a good account of themselves.

“The disappointing thing is the individual goals and the individual errors that we can avoid but that’s habits, and it’s my job to make them stronger going forward.”