Richard Stearman and Patrick Kisnorbo's first-half headers condemned the Tractor Boys to their eighth away defeat of the season to move Leicester out of the relegation zone.

It was only Leicester's fourth home win in a year and Magilton's flimsy travellers never looked like picking up their first away victory since March. Ipswich's promotion bid has been built on the foundations of an outstanding home record but on their travels they look more like relegation fodder.

Magilton will be given around £12million by new owner Marcus Evans next month and he needs to find players with big hearts to finally end their struggles on the road. He said: "I don't think we can be considered contenders if we can't start picking up points away from home.

"If we're to be anywhere near the top six we need to sort this out. If we weren't winning at home we would be in trouble. We'll be bringing in one or two players in January and they have got to have the resilience and character that we want.

"We don't have those characters at the moment when we go away and Coventry, who we play on Saturday, are going to be licking their lips if they'd seen this defending."

Magilton must have thought it was Groundhog Day, not Boxing Day, when his troops capitulated in the 12th minute as Leicester scored with their first threatening attack. Stephen Clemence's freekick completely bamboozled the Ipswich defence and Stearman had the simple task of glancing the ball into an unguarded net. He needed to perform heroics in the other penalty area on the half hour when he headed Jon Walters' lobbed shot off the goalline.

But Leicester moved further in front three minutes later with a virtual carbon copy of their first goal, as Clemence's set-piece was firmly headed into the corner by Kisnorbo.

Ipswich should have given themselves a chance in the 41st minute when Gavin Williams found Walters unmarked in the box but he wastefully headed wide.

Ref Keith Hill needed to be substituted early in the second half after he was struck by a clearance from Alex Bruce.

Magilton made a triple substitution in the 65th minute to try and rescue a point but Ian Holloway's first home win since taking charge never looked in doubt.

Ollie said: "I watched the films on Christmas Day and my players should feel like Nemo and Shrek - instead of the poor ginger lad off EastEnders. If we play like that at home the fans won't grumble. I was hurt after the Hull game but that's two good performances and four points.

"There are lots of irons in lots of fires and I want to bring in good players here. We need some balance - we had a six-a-side game the other week and played the goalkeepers against the right-backs!

"The transfer window is madness because everybody's trying to get their Christmas presents in one month - imagine the queues!"

Daily Mirror