Cardiff City are just one point away from sealing their place in the Premier League after they beat Nottingham Forest.
Cardiff on the brink; Hull City clear in second
Cardiff City are just one point away from sealing their place in the Premier League after they beat Nottingham Forest and third-placed Watford lost at Peterborough.
The Bluebirds' tally can now only be matched by Hull City and Watford, and with the latter some 12 points off the leaders - Cardiff's return to the top flight for the first time since 1962 is virtually assured.
Cardiff put themselves on the brink courtesy of a 3-0 win over play-off-chasing
Nottingham Forest in South Wales.
Heidar Helguson opened the scoring in the first half before Darius Henderson saw red early in the second half for Forest. The champions-elect took advantage with a brace from Rudy Gestede.
Cardiff's promotion was all but confirmed thanks to
Watford's shock 3-2 loss at relegation-threatened
Peterborough.
Goals from Danny Swanson, Dwight Gayle and Lee Tomlin gave the Posh a surprisingly comfortable win which sees Darren Ferguson's men climb out of the bottom three.
Despite having Marco Cassetti sent off, Watford did manage to set up a frantic finale with Mark Yeates and then Fernado Forestieri scoring - but the home side managed to hang on.
Watford's loss allowed second-placed
Hull City to move six points clear of the Hornets as they claimed a 2-1 win at
Ipswich Town.
Robbie Brady had fired home a penalty just before the half-hour to give the Tigers the lead but Anthony Wordsworth levelled early in the second half.
The winner for Steve Bruce's men - which makes them firm favourites to return to the Premier League in an automatic place - came from Robert Koren with just seven minutes left.
Forest's loss at Cardiff saw them drop out of the top six, as they were overtaken by Brighton and Bolton.
Brighton sealed a 2-0 win over
Middlesbrough at The Riverside as Boro's miserable run of form continued thanks to second-half goals from Andrea Orlandi and David Lopez.
Bolton moved sixth as they claimed a 2-1 win at bottom-of-the-table
Bristol City.
A Liam Fontaine own goal put Bolton ahead just two minutes in before Steve Davies levelled just after the break - but a Craig Davies penalty 11 minutes from time sealed a huge win for Dougie Freedman's side.
Leeds started life under new manager Brian McDermott with a 2-1 win over Yorkshire rivals
Sheffield Wednesday in the day's early-kick-off, thanks to a second-half double from Luke Varney.
Like Peterborough, another team who started the day in the bottom three but ended it out, was
Blackburn Rovers as they hauled themselves above the drop zone with a 2-0 win over
Derby County with first-half goals from Jordan Rhodes and Scott Dann sealing a hugely valuable win.
Replacing Peterborough and Blackburn in the relegation berths are Barnsley and Wolves as they both slipped up at home.
Wolves are second from bottom after losing a massive 'six-pointer' at Molineux 3-1 against
Huddersfield - who themselves are now two-points above the bottom three.
Wolves had started in perfect fashion with Stephen Ward scoring just four minutes in - but that was as good as it got for Dean Saunders men as Sean Scannell levelled on the half-hour.
Two goals in 60 seconds from Jermaine Beckford with 20-minutes left sealed a huge win for the Terriers and Jamie O'Hara's late red card only compounded a miserable day for the Black Country giants.
Barnsley had an equally disappointing day at Oakwell as they went down 6-0 to
Charlton Athletic.
The away side bagging two up at the break thanks to goals from Bradley Pritchard and Johnnie Jackson. After the interval Yann Kermogrant, Callum Harriott, Salim Kerkar and Ricardo Fuller added to Charlton's lead as they finalised a comprehensive win.
Barnsley also finished the day with nine-men as Stephen Dawson and Tom Kennedy were sent-off late on and what was a miserable day for the South Yorkshire side.
Finally,
Blackpool moved into the top half of the table with a 1-0 win over
Burnley with Ludovic Sylvestre scoring the winner on the hour.
