Leicester returned to the top of the Championship with a 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion and two more victories from their remaining three games would secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Enzo Maresca’s side could go up on Tuesday if they beat Southampton at the King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy’s 15th league goal of the season effectively sealed the victory and made up for him missing a penalty in the first half.

Leicester took the lead through Wilfred Ndidi in the 22nd minute after Albion had dominated the early stages and missed a string of chances to take the lead.

West Brom manager Carlos Corberan will wonder how his side managed to squander so many oppportunities to score, and their second successive defeat means their play-off place is by no means certain.

They did eventually find the net through their captain, Jed Wallace, with 14 minutes left, but could not force an equaliser.

Leicester’s win owes much to central midfielder Hamza Choudhury who made three goal-line clearances – two of them coming within seconds of one another.

But with both teams recording a combined total of almost 30 shots, the game was partly a tale of the opportunities that were squandered.

West Brom could have had the match won inside the first 20 minutes. With Maresca’s team playing out from the back, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall passed the ball straight to Okay Yukuslu, but he put his hurried shot over the bar.

Mikey Johnston was then involved on three occasions, seeing an effort cleared off the line after 14 minutes. He then had a shot saved by Leicester keeper Mads Hermansen before putting another chance over the bar.

Leicester made Albion pay for their wastefulness in front of goal by taking the lead. Stephy Mavididi pulled the ball back for defender Wout Faes who crossed for Vardy. His header was kept out by Albion goalkeeper Alex Palmer but Ndidi converted the rebound from close range.

Maresca’s side looked set to take a two-goal advantage into the break. Vardy ran on to a long ball from Hermansen a minute before half-time and was pushed over by West Brom defender Conor Townsend in the 18 yard box. Vardy had scored four penalties from four this season, but he hit the post from his fifth spot kick of the campaign.

Choudhury then cleared off the line twice in the space of a few seconds after 51 minutes. First, he blocked a shot from Yann M’Vila and then denied Grady Diangana. The drama continued as, from the resulting corner, Kyle Bartley headed against the bar with Diangana unable to get the vital touch from close range.

Again, Albion were punished for missing their chances as Vardy increased Leicester’s lead after 65 minutes. Choudhury found Abdul Fatawu on the right and his cross was met by Vardy who headed in from close range.

West Brom finally found the net when defender Cedric Kipre’s inch-perfect pass found Wallace who slid the ball past Hermansen.

Stoke boss Steven Schumacher felt his side got what they deserved as they recovered from 2-0 down to get a point against West Brom.

Second-half goals from Million Manhoef and Andre Vidigal, a rebound after his penalty was saved, secured the battling Potters a vital point in their survival bid at the bet365 Stadium.

The visitors had led through goals from Celtic loanee Mikey Johnston and Jed Wallace, but they had to settle for a point in the play-off race.

Schumacher said: “I thought we played really well. On the balance of the game we definitely deserved something.

“I thought we were the better team. The only negative from the performance was we didn’t take the chances that we created in the big moments, especially to go ahead in the game.

“West Brom were more clinical than us with their two chances but again we’ve shown plenty of character, we didn’t lose our composure or our faith. We kept going for it and got our rewards in the end.

“I told the boys I felt we were the better team and I asked them if they sensed that and they said they did.

“I told them to stick to the plan then because they agreed. And we wanted to keep playing the same tempo and keep going forward.

“We knew if we kept running forward it would tire West Brom out and with our energy at the end of the game we might get something out of it and that’s what happened.

“They got their second with their first attack in the second half. It was almost a smash and grab from an away team.

“Our players didn’t deviate from what we wanted to do and we got what we deserved in the end.”

The Baggies stretched their unbeaten run to nine but it is now three draws in a row, with seventh-placed Coventry just six points behind in the play-off race.

Boss Carlos Corberan praised his side’s clinical nature but was left wanting more after dropping two points from a commanding position.

He said: “They had more chances than us. We should have managed the game better. We were more accurate with our chances.

“Unfortunately, in attack we couldn’t dominate the game more. They started to create more problems as the game went on. That made them think they could achieve something.

“We tried until the end to go for three points and unfortunately we couldn’t score with two very good cutbacks Tom Fellows put in at the end.

“We missed the finishing in front of the goal at the end.

“We didn’t create enough in attack. We didn’t show enough personality in the first minutes of the game. The weather conditions affected us more than we expected.

“We need to compete better than we did early. The level we showed wasn’t enough to win three points.

“As a coach you want to create more chances because the more you create, the more chance you have to win the game.”

Bristol City boss Liam Manning chose ‘not to waste his energy’ talking about the officiating after he watched his side suffer their fifth defeat in six Sky Bet Championship matches as they lost 2-0 at play-off chasing West Brom.

Tom Fellows opened the scoring for the Baggies in the 45th minute, before captain Jed Wallace doubled the hosts’ advantage within five minutes of the second half commencing.

City’s players – including goalkeeper Max O’Leary – took exception to the manner of the opening goal, claiming Albion forward Grady Diangana had blocked O’Leary’s view from an offside position. The goal stood and left Robins players and Manning himself bemused.

“You waste your breath on him [referee Tom Nield] to be honest,” he said. “I thought the ref was really poor all game, so I don’t want to waste my energy talking about him.

“I thought the lads all left it out there. We kept trying to play but we just lacked quality in the final third. We need to keep working and improving on that.

“The big thing today was belief. When you’ve had a tough time, believing in the work you do…too often when we go behind we don’t respond well enough. That’s for us to look at but you can see the work that has been done.”

City are 14th, having fallen away in the play-off race, and away supporters at The Hawthorns voiced their frustrations at the full-time whistle having seen their side win just twice on the road since October.

“I can only control what I can,” Manning replied, when asked about his job security.

“You need to have an element of realism. We’ve recruited, made a change mid-season. We have shown we can make progression despite having sold two players to the Premier League last season.

“We want the fans with us, it helps us and it brings us energy at times.

“I turn up, do my best every single day. You can see what the plan is on the pitch, but we need players to step up at key times.”

West Brom, meanwhile, tightened their grasp on fifth position and strengthened their pursuit of the play-offs with this victory.

Manning’s counterpart Carlos Corberan, who has transformed the club’s fortunes since his appointment in October 2022, was only left to rue the margin of victory, which he believed ought to have been greater because of the chances his side created following Wallace’s finish.

“I think that we should have scored the third one, if we were to say it was comfortable. In these types of games, a goal in the last moments can change the feeling,” he said.

“We needed to be constant more than patient, to insist on the things that we needed to do.

“When the opponent is defending and being well organised, you need to disorganise them to create the chance. When you start to do that, positive things can happen – but so can mistakes that give opportunities to them.

“In general we managed some moments in attack well, in some moments no. The same in defence.

“There are things that (we) need to do better to be more dominant in the game.”

West Brom extended their unbeaten Sky Bet Championship run to six matches as they signed off before the final international break of the season with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over Bristol City.

Tom Fellows netted his fifth goal of the year to fire Albion in front in the final minute of the first half, before Jed Wallace doubled the lead in the 50th minute when he routinely tapped in Conor Townsend’s cross.

Carlos Corberan’s team – without Andreas Weimann, who was ineligible to face his parent club – did not initially settle as well as City.

Cedric Kipre had to be alert to clear his lines after Tommy Conway produced a dangerous centre and West Brom were grateful that Mark Sykes did not do better with the rebound.

Mikey Johnston, who joined Albion on loan from Celtic in January, has six goals in as many league starts and he threatened to add to that tally shortly after the quarter-hour mark when he eased away from yellow shirts and bent a strike from the edge of the area just past Max O’Leary’s far post.

The Robins’ best opportunity of the opening half came when Anis Mehmeti flicked on a Haydon Roberts hooked clearance and Conway was sent racing clear with Okay Yokuslu for company. The forward shot low but Alex Palmer in the West Brom goal was equal to the effort.

Just as it appeared as though the first half would end goalless, Albion nosed themselves in front.

Winger Johnston again caused problems when cutting in from the left, teeing up Yokuslu, who in turn found Fellows on his right. The winger struck a powerful shot through a crowded area and it beat O’Leary at his near post.

The lead was doubled within five minutes of the restart, with the influential Johnston involved again. He fed left-back Townsend, who picked out the unmarked Wallace and the captain rolled the ball home to give Albion a cushion.

From there, Corberan’s outfit, fresh from scoring four at Huddersfield last Sunday, went immediately in search of more.

Yokuslu drove a first-time effort just past the post after O’Leary had denied Johnston and in the final 20 minutes the City goalkeeper was forced into action again when he denied Fellows, who found space on the right hand side.

City boss Liam Manning made a triple substitution which included the introduction of centre-forward Harry Cornick, who posed more of a challenge for opposing centre-halves Kipre and Kyle Bartley.

However, the Robins were wayward when Ross McCrorie and then Sykes were presented with openings, before Gardner-Hickman stung Palmer’s gloves.

The visitors could not find a breakthrough and Albion further cemented their place in the play-off places with three points and 16th clean sheet of the season.

Carlos Corberan highlighted West Brom’s defensive resilience after fifth-placed West Brom secured a 1-1 draw at fellow promotion chasers Hull.

The Baggies looked up against it after 35 minutes when Fabio Carvalho scored an elite goal from distance that swerved into the top-left corner.

But Corberan’s men responded manfully and equalised after 43 minutes after Darnell Furlong’s header off Jed Wallace’s corner looped over Ryan Allsop.

Corberan said: “A point was the fair result for what both teams created on the pitch.

“We both had similar types of chances and a similar number of chances.

“When you don’t win the game, it’s important not to lose.

“I think that the quality of players Hull has right now made it difficult for us and we needed to concentrate in defence to get something.

“Our defence was key to getting something out of the game, but we need to improve in two key parts: don’t concede possession and create chances.”

Sixth-placed Hull had won their last three games and would have moved above West Brom in the table with victory.

But, perhaps surprisingly, the visitors were quicker into their stride and struck the crossbar after 20 minutes through Jed Wallace.

Carvalho’s dipping opener, which did goalkeeper Alex Palmer for pace and zip, therefore came as a shock to Corberan.

But the Baggies retained a healthy tempo before the restart and equalised when Furlong evaded his marker and powerfully headed home.

Both sides struck a post after the restart, but Corberan conceded that a draw was a fair result.

He said: “We tried to be aggressive and to stop them playing from the back and we did that well.

“We had some good possibilities that could have given us something else (more goals), but they had a big chance in the second half, too.

“It was important not to lose, but it was also important that the players gave everything.

“They have a lot of quality players, and Carvalho showed the danger that he has.

“In open play we were fantastic, but we still need to increase our levels of concentration.

“We are going to work even harder, keep improving and increasing the details.

“This year the competition for the play-off positions is going to be very tight. I think there are four very strong teams that have made a gap, but the key for me is to keep going and to keep improving.”

Counterpart Liam Rosenior was unhappy by the manner in which West Brom scored and challenged his players to become more streetwise in key moments.

He said: “I just want to win every game that we play, but if you can’t win, don’t lose – it doesn’t matter at what stage of the season.

“We put ourselves in a strong position against a really organised team, but these games are about fine margins.

“We are a young team but with two minutes before half-time we should have kicked the ball out into touch – and then we conceded a corner.

“That period between Fabio’s goal and their goal, we were in control of the game, but in football it is about managing moments and we didn’t do that, which was frustrating.

“We just need to learn from the mistakes, but I can’t fault players in terms of engagement, energy levels and commitment.

“If that continues, I think we’re in a really strong position.”

Rosenior added: “I love the expectation, but we have to remember where we came from.

“It’s a process, and we’re not going to get it right every week.

“We just need to keep moving in the right direction and stay calm.

“We’re in are really good spot. We need to stay consistent, stay calm and ignore the noise.

“We’ll keep playing the way we believe – this could be a really good point for us.”

Rotherham’s new head coach Leam Richardson said he knows the size of the challenge he has taken on following their 2-0 defeat to West Brom.

Second-half goals from Grady Diangana and Jed Wallace were the difference as the Millers’ winless run extended to nine games stretching back to October.

Richardson, who was officially appointed on Monday to replace Matt Taylor, is looking forward to the challenge but is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing rock-bottom Rotherham.

He said: “It is exactly the same challenge as I thought it was when I came in. It’s one of the top leagues in Europe. West Brom will be right up there.

“They have had two shots on target and they have both gone in. We are in a really challenging league.

“The first goal was a mistake and a technical error, which happens. We won’t dwell on it. We have a group of staff and players who want to get better.

“The work was already done (before this match). You can only commend the effort and endeavour out there.

“There are always areas where we want to improve. Collectively we can get better.

“I have only been here minutes so it’s important that you listen and don’t only talk.

“We are where we are. We don’t look at the past.

“I’ve got ideas about how I want to play. That won’t happen overnight. It will also take one or two transfer windows.”

Early chances fell for both sides, with Darnell Furlong poking wide from a West Brom corner and then Jordan Hugill heading straight at Alex Palmer.

But the game settled into a lull leading into the break with neither goalkeeper remotely troubled.

West Brom badly needed to inject some life into their attacks in the second period and one paid off after 54 minutes.

Jayson Molumby’s cross was only partially cleared by Dexter Lembikisa and Diangana took full advantage with his low shot deflected beyond the grasp of keeper Viktor Johansson.

The Baggies then sealed the points in the final minute with Wallace’s perfect free-kick from the edge of the box.

West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan was pleased to see his side bounce back from successive losses.

He said: “I knew how tough this game would be in its competitiveness.

“We knew they would play long balls to create individual duels and challenges. We needed to be strong on the set-pieces. They are strong and they have the size.

“I watched Leeds’ game here when they drew and Swansea won here by one goal against 10 men for 70 minutes. I knew how uncomfortable the game would be.

“I think what’s important is that the team found better solutions from the situation.”