Vardy struck for his 12th goal of the season in the 19th minute and Nugent tapped home for his 18th on the half-hour mark. Substitute Wood netted in the 88th minute as City remained at the top of the Sky Bet Championship and stretched their unbeaten run in the league to 13 games.

Both sides were forced into making changes. Leicester were without Paul Konchesky, who started a three match ban having been red carded at Nottingham Forest in midweek, with Jeff Schlupp replacing him at left back.

Ipswich top scorer David McGoldrick was out with a knee ligament injury and Frank Nouble took his place in attack.

The Foxes totally dominated the first half with the blistering pace of Vardy up front terrorising the Ipswich defence.

In the first 10 seconds he chased a long ball down the middle but stumbled just when he looked to be through on goal.

It was all City in the opening stages and Dean Gerken had to scramble away a header from Wes Morgan in the fourth minute. Then, in a rare Ipswich breakaway, Anthony Knockaert's poor pass gave Paul Green a chance but he put his shot just wide of the far post.

Kasper Schmeichel had to tip over a cross-cum-shot from Aaron Cresswell but it was no real surprise when the Foxes took the lead in the 19th minute through Vardy. He anticipated a poor back pass from Jay Tabb, nipped in, went round Gerken and slid the ball home from a tight angle for his 12th goal of the season.

Ipswich had no answer to his pace and City's attacking invention and a second goal duly arrived on the half-hour mark.

Again Vardy was at the heart of the action, chasing down another long ball in the right-hand channel before playing a neat pass to Ritchie De Laet. His cross was half cleared by Christophe Berra straight back to De Laet, who this time found Nugent unmarked inside the six-yard box and a simple tap-in gave him his 50th goal for City and his 18th of the season.

It remained one-way traffic and, when Vardy was fouled just outside the penalty area, Knockaert's free-kick swerved narrowly wide of Gerken's left-hand post.

The half ended with Marcin Wasilewski putting a header just over the bar from a Matty James cross.

City continued their domination at the start of the second half with Lloyd Dyer racing clear only to disappoint with a poor final pass. Ipswich had hardly had a look in but suddenly hit back with a good ball across goal by Stephen Hunt that found Daryl Murphy, but his shot on the turn was straight at Schmeichel.

In the 71st minute Vardy was replaced by Wood and left to a standing ovation.

Good work by Wood almost brought a third goal with Schlupp bringing a fine save from Gerken with a fierce shot at the near post. With two minutes to go, Wood seized on a pass from James to rifle in City's third goal to clinch their 12th home win of the season.

The Observer