Newcastle moved three points clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship with victory at home to Ipswich as promotion rivals Norwich slipped up at home to Preston.
Ayoze Perez scored the fastest goal in the Sky Bet Championship this season, netting after just 60 seconds, and added a second in the 73rd minute to fire the Magpies to a fifth straight win.
Matt Ritchie curled in another from Perez's pass as Newcastle won 3-0.
Norwich could not find a way through against Preston at Carrow Road though and Alex Baptiste's 75th-minute header secured a fourth win in six games for North End, 1-0.
The Canaries slipped to fourth in the table as Brighton and Huddersfield clinched 1-0 wins away to Wigan and at home to Derby respectively.
Dale Stephens grabbed the only goal for Brighton with a fine strike from 25 yards midway through the second half, while Elias Kachunga headed a stoppage-time winner for Huddersfield as Derby suffered their first defeat since Steve McClaren returned to the club.
Wolves 0 - 1 Leeds
Sheff Wed 1 - 0 QPR
Norwich 0 - 1 Preston
Newcastle 3 - 0 Ipswich
Huddsf'ld 1 - 0 Derby
Rotherham 0 - 1 Reading
Wigan 0 - 1 Brighton
Bristol C 1 - 0 Blackburn
A Villa 1 - 0 Fulham
N Forest 1 - 2 Cardiff
Brentford 0 - 2 Barnsley
Sheffield Wednesday are up to fifth after Gary Hooper's goal late in the first half was enough to beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0 at Hillsborough.
Bristol City are also in the play-off places thanks to substitute Aaron Wilbraham's deflected 88th-minute winner the day after his 37th birthday saw off Blackburn 1-0.
Jonathan Kodjia's 80th-minute goal secured a 1-0 win for Aston Villa at home to Fulham as their revival under Steve Bruce continued.
Kodjia's third goal in successive games inflicted Fulham's first away defeat of the season and gave Villa back-to-back wins for the first time since May 2015.
1 Newcastle 31
2 Brighton 28
3 Huddsf'ld 28
4 Norwich 27
5 Sheff Wed 24
6 Bristol C 23
7 Birm'ham 23
8 Reading 22
9 Preston 20
10 Leeds 20
11 Brentford 19
12 Barnsley 19
13 QPR 19
14 Fulham 18
15 Burton Alb 17
16 A Villa 17
17 Ipswich 17
18 Wolves 16
19 N Forest 15
20 Cardiff 15
21 Derby 14
22 Blackburn 12
23 Wigan 11
24 Rotherham 6
Kenny Jackett's first match as Rotherham manager ended in defeat as a late goal from Paul McShane clinched a 1-0 win for Reading at the New York Stadium.
The Royals wasted the chance to take the lead when Garath McCleary's penalty was saved by Lee Camp, but McShane ensured there was no harm done when he prodded home from close range in the 86th minute.
Kemar Roofe grabbed his first goal for Leeds to earn a 1-0 win at Wolves, who have now gone five matches without a win, while Barnsley ended their miserable form with a surprise 2-0 win at Brentford.
The Tykes had taken just one point from their previous six matches but Adam Armstrong put them in front in the 29th minute before Sam Winnall's second-half strike sealed the win.
In the day's late game, Cardiff continued their revival under Neil Warnock as they made it three games unbeaten with a 2-1 victory at Nottingham Forest in the Sky Bet Championship.
First-half goals from Aron Gunnarsson and Joe Ralls put the Bluebirds 2-0 up by the interval at the City Ground, and the hosts were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Thomas Lam saw red.
A Henri Lansbury penalty late on reduced the arrears but in the end proved little consolation as Forest suffered a second straight loss.