Watford 1 Newcastle 2
Leicester 3 Nottm Forest 0
West Brom 3 Derby 1
Preston 3 Cardiff 0
Sheff Utd 4 Plymouth 3
Coventry 2 Scunthorpe 1
Barnsley 1 Blackpool 0
Swansea 1 Peterboro 0
Middlesbrough 2 QPR 0
Ipswich 0 Bristol C 0
Doncaster 1 C Palace 1
Reading 5 Sheff Wed 0
Albion won ... but as long as ONE of the two challenging sides hits the rails ... it makes it a sweet day.
Fabricio Coloccini headed home the second goal of his Newcastle career in the fourth minute before Andy Carroll made it 2-0 in the 50th minute.
Will Hoskins netted late on but it was a consolation goal and the Toon never looked in trouble throught.
West Brom moved second with a 3-1 win at home to Derby thanks to a Chris Brunt double and a goal from Simon Cox.
Chris Porter had given the visitors the lead four minutes into the second half before Brunt (67 and 77) swung the game in West Brom's favour and Cox (82) netted the clincher.
Leicester strengthened their grip on fifth with a 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest which saw the visitors drop to third in the table.
All the goals game in the second half after Bruno Berner (68) opened the scoring. Paul Gallagher (79) and Andy King (81) secured an important win.
Ten-man Preston dented Cardiff's promotion hopes as Jon Parkin scored twice in a 3-0 victory.
Parkin scored from the spot after half an hour when Paul Quinn's off-the-ball shove on Ross Wallace provided him with the penalty chance.
Preston were reduced to 10 men when Paul Coutts was dismissed with almost 40 minutes remaining for a second yellow card, but Parkin netted his second before Chris Brown wrapped things up late on.
Reading's improved form continued as they thumped Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 with Jimmy Kebe opening and completing the scoring.
Grzegorz Rasiak also scored twice with his efforts coming either side of a strike by Simon Church.
Jamie Ward scored twice as Sheffield United edged a seven-goal thriller against Plymouth at Bramall Lane.
Henri Camara opened the scoring before Ward's double, only for Yannick Bolaise to bring the visitors back into it.
Joe Mason made it 3-2 only for Richard Cresswell to score with 10 minutes to go before Jamie Mackie netted to lead to a nervous last five minutes for the home side.
Coventry hung on to beat Scunthorpe 2-1 despite having a player sent off with half an hour left.
Jon Stead had given the home side the lead with 55 minutes gone before Leon Barnett was dismissed for a second booking four minutes later.
Sammy Clingan got Coventry's second but Grant McCann pulled one back for the visitors with seven minutes to go.
Neil Warnock saw Crystal Palace draw 1-1 at Doncaster in what was expected to be his last game in charge.
Jame Coppinger gave the home side the lead in the first half before Kieran Djilali got the equaliser with a little over 20 minutes to go.
Barry Robson scored two penalties in the first half as Middlesbrough beat QPR 2-0.
David Cotterill also scored from the spot as Swansea beat Peterborough 1-0,
Iain Hume earned Barnsley all three points with the only goal at home to Blackpool and Ipswich were held goalless at Portman Road by Bristol City.