CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
West Brom 4 Bristol City 1
Barnsley 1 Cardiff 0
Doncaster 2 QPR 0
Reading 2 Blackpool 1
Leicester 1 Plymouth 0
M'brough 1 Nottm Forest 1
Watford 3 Scunthorpe 0
Coventry 1 Crystal Palace 1
Sheff Utd 1 Peterborough 0
Ipswich 0 Sheff Wed 0
Swansea 1 Derby 0
The Baggies went a point above Newcastle - who play Preston on Monday - after Jerome Thomas' fourth goal of the season gave them the lead and Northern Ireland international Chris Brunt added the second soon after.
Louis Carey's own goal less than two minutes into the second half heaped more misery on the visitors with Simon Cox volleying in a fourth less than a minute later.
Paul Hartley managed a consolation seven minutes from time.
Leicester moved third with a last-gasp 1-0 win at home to Plymouth.
The sides were heading for a goalless draw until Andy King smashed home the winner nearly three minutes into added time to delight the home fans at the Walkers Stadium.
Mark Cooper endured a difficult start to life as a manager in the Championship as his Peterborough side went 1-0 down in their clash with Sheffield United.
Posh looked to be heading in goalless at half-time but Henri Camara grabbed his first goal for the Blades three minutes before the break.
They could have taken a point from the match had Mark Bunn not saved George Boyd's 66th-minute penalty.
Gordon Strachan is still awaiting his first win as Middlesbrough boss after a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest the Riverside.
Leroy Lita's early strike gave them a 1-0 lead but Robert Earnshaw deservedly brought the visitors level in the 73rd minute.
Scunthorpe suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the Championship after going down 3-0 at Watford.
Following two goals in three minutes from Icelandic striker Heidar Helguson in the first half, Danny Graham wrapped it up three minutes after the break.
Leon Best cancelled out Darren Ambrose's 11th league goal of the season as Coventry came from behind to draw 1-1 at home to Crystal Palace.
Reading's desperate search for a long-awaited victory at the Madejski Stadium finally ended with a 2-1 win over Blackpool.
Gylfi Sigurdsson (52) saw his opener chalked off by Brett Ormerod's equaliser for Blackpool, but Grzegorz Rasiak (82) stepped up to the plate to win it for the home side.
Carl Dickinson's free-kick deep into injury-time earned Barnsley a 1-0 win over Cardiff, who had been hit by the news of midfielder Stephen McPhail being diagnosed with cancer.
Doncaster beat QPR 2-0 as Billy Sharp broke the deadlock following a goalless first half with Northern Ireland international Dean Shiels curling home a second in the 65th minute.
Roy Keane saw Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Lee Grant deny him a much-needed Championship win at Portman Road as Ipswich remain entrenched in the relegation zone following a 0-0 draw.
Lee Martin, Alan Quinn and Carlos Edwards were all denied by Grant - though the visitors did have a strong case for a penalty waved away in the first half.