West Ham suffered a shock drubbing at Ipswich, Southampton were held at home by Cardiff and Leeds were hammered at home by Birmingham.
Hammers humbled; Saints held; Zigic routs Leeds
West Ham suffered a shock drubbing at Ipswich, Southampton were held at home by Cardiff and Leeds were hammered at home by Birmingham.
Sam Allardyce's league leaders
West Ham were beaten 5-1 by
Ipswich at Portman Road with Michael Chopra, Daryl Murphy, Lee Martin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas all finding the net for the struggling Tractor Boys.
One crumb of comfort for Allardyce would be that
Southampton and
Cardiff's clash at St Mary's ended in a 1-1 draw with Craig Conway's opener cancelled out by Rickie Lambert's penalty after the break.
Nikola Zigic scored all four goals for
Birmingham City as they handed out a 4-1 Elland Road humiliation to
Leeds United, who had taken the lead through Ross McCormack.
Coventry remain rooted to the foot of the table after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at
Blackpool, where Kevin Phillips and Gary Taylor-Fletcher struck in the final four minutes after Conor Thomas' opener.
Barnsley held on to record a 3-2 home win over
Derby, with the Tykes roaring into a 3-0 lead through Matt Done, Andy Gray and Scott Wiseman, before Jamie Ward and Tom Carroll responded for the Rams.
Goals from Troy Deeney and Joe Garner either side of half-time saw
Watford claim a precious three points from their meeting with fellow strugglers
Millwall.
Nottingham Forest remain lodged in the relegation places after suffering a 2-0 home defeat to
Burnley, with Jay Rodriguez bagging a brace for the Clarets.
Crystal Palace and
Brighton were forced to settle for a share of the spoils from their showdown at Selhurst Park, with Chris Martin's penalty cancelled out by Ashley Barnes' spot-kick.
Hull City slipped out of the play-off places as they were held to a goalless draw at home to relegation-threatened
Doncaster.
