Ipswich snatch late draw with leaders Leicester

Jannik Vestergaard's own goal stopped Leicester from going nine points clear at the top of the table

An injury-time own goal from Jannik Vestergaard handed Ipswich Town a fortuitous draw in their top-of-the-table Championship showdown with Leicester City.

A deflected Leif Davis shot in the 65th minute was the first effort the Tractor Boys managed on target, in a match where few clear openings were allowed to be carved out by the fierce defensive efforts of the league's top two teams.

Ipswich's Conor Chaplin then had a chance punched away by Mads Hermansen, while the Foxes were frustrated to see penalty appeals waved away late on when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was bundled over by Cameron Burgess in the area.

Leicester failed to survived a frantic finish by the hosts, with Sam Morsy rescuing a point with a shot that deflected off both Ricardo Pereira and Vestergaard before beating goalkeeper Hermansen.

The draw means the Foxes remain six points clear of Ipswich, with third-placed Southampton cutting the gap to second to five points after their 5-0 win over Swansea.

Relive Boxing Day's action from the EFL as it happenedStephy Mavididi had put Leicester ahead with his eighth goal of the season

With Ipswich's home form of nine wins and just a solitary loss from 11 games mirrored by Leicester's run on the road, the festive meeting of first and second promised much.

Both sides wasted early chances, starting with with Wes Burns hammering a header from a corner off-target for Ipswich, before Wilfred Ndidi scuffed a shot at the top of the box and ballooned a header over the bar in quick succession.

Abdul Fatawu's diligence in getting back in defence denied Davis a free header at the back post after 15 minutes as the hosts - who were thrashed by fellow promotion hopefuls Leeds 4-0 just three days earlier - pressed for the opener.

Ex-Foxes forward George Hirst, the striker who helped fire Ipswich to promotion from League One on loan before completing a permanent summer move from Leicester, had his hopes of making an impact against his former side dashed soon after by injury.

The evening quickly got worse for the hosts as Patson Daka spotted Mavididi in space on the left, allowing the winger to bend his shot from the edge of the area beyond the diving clutches of Vaclav Hladky.

Both Burgess and Harry Clarke then came up with almost certain goal-saving tackles to ensure it remained 1-0 at the break, with Dewsbury-Hall and Mavididi the ones foiled as they bared down on goal.

Hladky was then tested by Daka as the visitors went in search of a second, but it took an excellent backtracking tackle from Leicester's Wout Faes to deny Burns a sight of goal in first-half injury time.

Ipswich started the second half brightly in front of an expectant crowd, with Burgess squandering a header before Fatawu blocked a Davis effort at one end - then sending an acrobatic attempt over at the other.

It took more than an hour for Ipswich to call Hermansen into action, but he was equal to their best chance from Chaplin, while the inactivity of referee Samuel Barrott ensured the result remained in the balance until the end after he failed to punish Burgess for bringing down Dewsbury-Hall.

Leicester were closing in on a win that would have sent them nine points clear at the summit, but Morsy's hopeful shot from outside the box left Hermansen stranded - after the ball took two heavy deflections on the way to the back of the net in the 93rd minute.