Championship leaders Leicester City wore down bottom side Rotherham United to go six points clear at the top 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 straight 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 straight 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 just two attempts on goal, neither on target, in contrast to Leicester’s 24.