Enzo Maresca said his Leicester side delivered a “complete performance” following a 2-1 victory at Watford that maintained their 11-point lead at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.

Patson Daka’s 10th-minute penalty and a 55th-minute effort from Ricardo Pereira appeared to have put Maresca’s team on course for a comfortable victory.

But a mistake by Foxes midfielder Harry Winks gifted Watford substitute Emmanuel Dennis the chance to reply in the 63rd minute and the visitors were forced to go on the defensive to protect the points.

And Maresca – who insisted he had got everything he wanted on his 44th birthday – said the combination of his side’s forward efforts together with their late resolve summed up their progress this season.

“We got three points and yes we are happy because it has been a complete performance in terms of we play when we have to play,” he said.

“And we suffered together, after the goals we conceded we lost a bit of confidence but overall I’m happy.”

He added: “It has been a complete performance because when we needed to play, we played the way we want to play. It’s part of the season we are trying to change some things.

“I can understand that the only thing that people can see is just get promoted. But for me get promoted is just at this moment.

“This was a club in transition last summer with lots of important players leaving.

“There are many more thing we have done. But I can understand the focus is on promotion, but we are changing many things.”

And the manager was adamant he would not criticise Winks for the misplaced pass that set Dennis up for the Watford reply.

He added: “The mistake is part of the process. I always said that if they try to do what we work on everyday and make a mistake, then it doesn’t matter. But if they don’t try, then they are not going to play.

“At the end Harry was a bit sad and upset, but it’s not any problem. And we are very happy with the second goal. It was very nice and the performance was good as well.”

Watford boss Valerien Ismael was pleased with his side’s efforts against the league leaders, and in particular ending a run of three games without a goal – even if he was unhappy at the decision to award a penalty after Leicester’s Dennis Praet went to ground after a challenge from Giorgi Chakvetadze.

“I’m really proud of the players and pleased with the performance and mentality they showed,” he said.

“In this game, you saw we had bad luck. After one minute, Bayo was injured and we needed to change the plan. After that, a soft penalty. I’ve been many years in English football and that was a soft penalty.

“Even when 1-0 down, we were disciplined and we were aggressive.

“I said at half-time it was still 1-0, and we had to be patient. It would have been wrong to have lost our heads and pushed too much.

“We had two or three situations on the edge of the box when we should have taken one or both to get back into the game.”

Leicester boss Enzo Maresca is content to ignore criticism from some Foxes fans after seeing his side move 11 points clear at the top of the Championship with a 5-0 demolition of Stoke.

Doubles from Patson Daka and Jamie Vardy helped the visitors take another step toward an immediate return to the Premier League.

Daka opened the scoring with a tap-in shortly before Kasey McAteer’s deflected long-range strike doubled the Foxes’ lead.

After the restart the in-form Daka converted Leicester’s first penalty of the afternoon for a sixth goal in eight games.

Substitute Vardy then notched his ninth and 10th goals of the season, his second deep in stoppage time also from the penalty spot.

It was the league leaders’ biggest victory of the season, much to the delight of boss Maresca.

“The most important thing for me is the way that the team is getting better,” said the Leicester boss.

“I don’t like it when people hurt the players, because I know the effort that they’re doing to bring this club back to the Premier League.

“Since the start, I see the way that they’re working and I know that they’re doing everything they can.

“If some of the fans aren’t sure or convinced, it doesn’t matter to me. The performance was very good today and that experience will make us better.

“I’m very happy with the result and the clean sheet, especially with the first half-an-hour, that was very good and we played the way that we like to play.

“The last 10 minutes of the first half, we conceded two yellow cards that we needed to avoid as it could compromise the game, but that was it.

“We’re very happy and when we play away, the environment is always nice and the players and fans together enjoy the moment.

“I’ve said many times, our fans are unbelievable. At home some of them maybe aren’t convinced, but it is what it is.

“It’s important for us to have lots of options and every time we need them, they help, so we’re very happy.”

It was another dismal afternoon for Stoke, whose winless run at home now stands at nine games, dating back to October.

“We were miles off it and they were just too good for us,” said boss Steven Schumacher, who oversaw a third defeat on the spin.

“They showed today why they’re top of the league. They’ve done everything properly, but they didn’t have to work hard at all.

“We didn’t have the belief or the quality. We tried, but they had too much for us and their goals were too easy.

“We knew we were coming up the best team, this result wasn’t going to determine the outcome of the rest of the season, but the next two might do.

“I need to make sure that we respond and put in a better performance and try to get a win.

“It’s three games now with three defeats and we need to do something about it, so Blackburn’s going to be a big game at the weekend.

“We need to get the players ready for it. We have to react and we won’t go away and sulk.

“There’s a real lack of confidence at home. When things go against us or there’s a little adversity, the crowd turns against us and it affects the players.

“We have to work hard to try and change that now.”

Leicester forward Patson Daka headed in an 88th-minute equaliser as 10-man Zambia salvaged a hard-earned point at the death to deny Tanzania a first ever Africa Cup of Nations win.

Tanzania had led from the 11th minute when Simon Msuva punished some sloppy play with a powerful strike and Zambia’s problems grew worse when Rodrick Kabwe earned a second yellow card just before half-time.

But just when it appeared Avram Grant’s side were running out of time, Daka got across his man to divert a corner inside the far post.

Tanzania were under new, temporary, management in the form of Hemed Morocco after Adel Amrouche’s meltdown following the 3-0 loss to Morocco saw him banned for eight games and subsequently sacked.

They offered the ideal response when they took the lead 11 minutes in, with Mbwaba Samatta picking off the ball in midfield and striding forward to tee up Msuva, whose shot was still rising as it found the top corner.

Zambia wasted opportunities to level, with Fashion Sakala heading wide from point-blank range on the half-hour mark, and then somewhat harshly lost Kabwe to a needless second yellow in the 44th minute.

With the extra man, Tanzania were on top for much of the second half. They might have had a second when Mohamed Hussein’s cross deflected off Frankie Musonda and bounced narrowly wide, while substitute Morice Abraham brought a good save from Zambia goalkeeper Lawrence Mulenga.

Daka had already wasted a good chance when he shot straight at Aishi Manula just after the hour, but with time running out the 25-year-old scored to avoid a costly defeat.

Enzo Maresca felt Championship leaders Leicester thoroughly deserved their thumping 4-0 win over Plymouth as they secured their biggest victory of the season so far.

Leicester took the lead through Stephy Mavididi’s 14th-minute penalty before Patson Daka coolly found the net four minutes into the second period and the former struck again with a drilled effort after 52 minutes to make it three.

The Foxes completed the scoring after 55 minutes courtesy of Wilfred Ndidi’s accurate finish, the Nigeria international continuing to impress boss Maresca, who has given the midfielder more of an attacking role this term.

Maresca said: “It was a very good performance, we completely deserved the three points, we controlled the game really well.

“We are trying to improve the way we play. We know we have the best defence and we have scored the second most goals in the league.

“Wilf has improved a lot. In terms of physicality you expect everything, you don’t expect quality (in the final third), but since day one I can see there is something there.

“I’m happy because when you see a player making the effort to understand how they have to play it’s good and he deserves it.

“The situation with Patson has been a bit strange. Since day one he has worked and behaved fantastically, but because I play with one striker he hasn’t got many minutes.

“It was a chance for him and he took it and I’m very happy for him because he completely deserves it.”

Plymouth suffered their heaviest defeat of the season and remain winless in 10 matches on their travels this campaign.

Argyle boss Steven Schumacher said: “We’re disappointed with the result. I was really pleased with a lot of aspects, the performance, effort and commitment was outstanding.

“We should have been level at half-time. In the second half we’ve been undone by one moment of quality and a couple of mistakes.

“As long as the players keep putting the effort in, which I know they are and our fans can see that they are, then we’ll be fine.

“We just didn’t have enough quality to put the ball in the back of the net. They’ve got better players than us and are more clinical and have played at a better level, we’re doing the best we can.

“The fans can see we’re giving it our all and doing our best, unfortunately we just came up against a team who are better than us.

“We cannot let our standard drop, we can’t let the energy drop, we need to be a bit more clinical in both boxes.”