Barnsley 2 West Brom 1

Attendance 13,083

Barnsley dented West Bromwich Albion’s promotion charge with a surprise victory. Daniel Nardiello fired home the opener on the half-hour before Jon Macken pounced late in the first half to double their lead after Lewin Nyatanga’s header had been cleared off the line. And despite James Morrison’s goal, Barnsley held on to secure a worthy victory and topple the visiting team from the top of the table. Tony Mowbray, the West Bromwich manager, said: “It was an unacceptable performance, I would suggest, and I am looking for a reaction from them on Tuesday night [at home to Sheffield United]. There were a lot of below-par performances.” Simon Davey, the Barnsley manager, said: “It’s been a horrible week for me and the players. From the first minute in this game they reacted in the right way.”

Bristol City 2 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Attendance 15,520

Gary Johnson got the response he had demanded from his Bristol City team as they eased past Sheffield Wednesday. Dele Adebola scored one goal and made the other as City maintained their push for the title. They had a fine start after Michael McIndoe found Adebola and the striker kept his cool to fire home from 18 yards. City doubled their advantage when Bradley Orr struck after latching on to a pass from Adebola. Lee Bullen scored a late consolation for Wednesday. Johnson said: “We had enough chances to have won 5-2, but I was delighted with the lads because they worked hard throughout and we got our football back together after a bad result.” Brian Laws, the Wednesday manager, said: “When confidence is low the last thing you want is to concede early and Bristol had their tails up from that moment.”

Burnley 1 Colchester United 1

Attendance 15,376

Geraint Williams, the Colchester manager, hailed his relegation-threatened team’s battling spirit after Johnnie Jackson salvaged a point against Burnley. Williams said: “Every game is vital and all the players are fighting to stay in the Championship. We are in a battle, but at the moment everyone is rolling their sleeves up.” Andrew Cole marked his first start for Burnley by firing them into a 23rd-minute lead, but Colchester equalised seven minutes from the break through Jackson’s free kick, which took a big deflection off the defensive wall. Owen Coyle, the Burnley manager, said: “We stressed to the players beforehand that it was going to be a very tough game. I thought we did enough in the second half to win the match, but I felt that we never got to the standards we have set previously.”

Cardiff City 1 Norwich City 2

Attendance 11,937

Glenn Roeder, the Norwich City manager, thanked Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Manchester City manager, for loaning him Ched Evans after his double sank Cardiff. The striker put Norwich ahead and grabbed a winner two minutes from time after Gavin Rae had equalised for Cardiff just before half-time. Roeder said: “I am extremely grateful to Sven for letting him come to us and I know he will go back to Manchester City a far better player. He must love playing at Ninian Park because the last time he came here, for Wales, he scored a hat-trick against France Under21s.” Dave Jones, the Cardiff manager, was disappointed with his team. “It was a difficult game and the defences cancelled each other out,” he said. “We had worked so hard to get back into the match and it was very frustrating to end up with nothing.”

Hull City 2 Blackpool 2

Attendance 18,407

Phil Brown, the Hull City manager, hailed his team’s character after they fought back from two goals down against Blackpool to snatch a point. A brace from Paul Dickov put Blackpool in command, but goals from Caleb Folan and Dean Windass secured a draw and ensured that Hull have lost only one league match in their past nine. Brown said: “I thought this was a massive potential banana skin, but to get a point after we were 2-0 down shows great character. We had a couple of half-chances after their sending-off, but you have to give the opposition credit for putting us on the back foot earlier on.” Simon Grayson, the Blackpool manager, was not happy with the result. “We’ve got a point and would have settled for one at the start, but it was hugely disappointing to give away a two-goal lead,” he said.

Leicester City 0 Plymouth Argyle 1

Attendance 21,264

Ian Holloway, the Leicester manager, refused to discuss his feud with Paul Stapleton, the Plymouth chairman, after his former club’s win. Stapleton’s outburst in midweek fuelled an incendiary atmosphere and Peter Halmosi’s composed 34th-minute strike pushed Leicester to within three points of the relegation zone.

Holloway’s men started brightly, but Halmosi’s finish took the sting out of their attacks until the last few minutes, when Gareth McAuley should have equalised. Holloway said: “It’s bitter disappointment. We get affected terribly if we let a goal in. We lack a leader out there.” Paul Sturrock, the Plymouth manager, said: “If we had lost we would have been on a bad curve of results, but the players took on board the importance of this result to the fans and responded accordingly.”

Preston North End 1 Coventry City 0

Attendance 11,857

Iain Dowie, the Coventry City manager, told his players that they must be more clinical after sliding nearer to the relegation zone with this defeat. Sean St Ledger gave Preston North End a 21st-minute lead and although Coventry controlled possession, the visiting team failed to forge a clear-cut opportunity.

Preston’s fourth straight home win has taken them out of the relegation zone. Dowie said: “Football can be cruel. We’ve played well and I think we did more than enough to get something out of the game, but we haven’t. We had some decent opportunities and I think we were poor in both boxes today.” Alan Irvine, the Preston manager, was thrilled to climb out of the bottom three. “It’s a massive result,” he said. “But there’s a long way to go yet – we can’t stop the league now, unfortunately.”

Sheffield United 0 Scunthorpe United 0

Attendance 25,668

Gary Speed believes that Bryan Robson will come back even more determined after fans called for the Sheffield United manager to be dismissed after this draw with ten-man Scunthorpe. Grant McCann was sent off in the tenth minute for a stamp on David Cotterill, but the home team were unable to capitalise.

With supporters gathering to demand his dismissal, Robson failed to appear at the postmatch press conference. That job was left to Speed, the midfield player, who said: “We’ve got to stick together in the changing-room. Robbo will take this on the chin and come back even more determined.” Nigel Adkins, the Scunthorpe manager, said: “It underlines yet again the character and resilience we’ve had all season. My lads crawled off the pitch at the end. They have given their all.”

Southampton 2 Queens Park Rangers 3

Attendance 22,505

Patrick Agyemang had Luigi De Canio, the QPR manager, purring after his two goals sank Southampton. Agyemang scored a close-range strike before a mix-up killed off Southampton. Jermaine Wright was caught napping and kneed the ball over Kelvin Davis, his goalkeeper, to allow Agyemang to tap in.

Martin Rowlands had dragged QPR level after Darren Powell had put Southampton ahead. Youssef Safri, the Southampton captain, was sent off 12 minutes from time before Stern John grabbed a consolation. De Canio said: “Southampton are a good team with good players, but the behaviour of the QPR players, even after we let in an early goal, was excellent.” Jason Dodd, the Southampton manager, said: “We don’t seem to be punishing teams. We made three individual errors, which cost us the match.”

Wolves 2 Stoke 4

Attendance 25,373

Mick McCarthy claimed that Wolves should have been given two penalties against inform Stoke. McCarthy said that Andre Marriner, the referee, prevented Wolves from taking a share of the points by not giving Rob Edwards or Andy Keogh a spot-kick. “The last one was a stonewall penalty and the Andy Keogh one was one - I’ve watched it again,” McCarthy said.

Wolves came back from going behind to Rory Delap’s header in the fourth minute before goals either side of half-time from Edwards and Keogh swung the game in Wolves’ favour. Liam Lawrence restored parity shortly afterwards before goals from Leon Cort and Ricardo Fuller won the match for Stoke. Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, was delighted. “They have got a fantastic spirit and there are goals in the side,” he said. “There are goals all through the team.”