Bristol City's 1-1 draw at home to struggling Colchester took them top of the Coca-Cola Championship table - for a couple of hours at least.
While Watford were suffering a surprise 1-0 defeat thanks to a Neil Mellor goal in the 75th minute for bottom-of-the-table Preston at Deepdale - and with West Brom having to wait for an evening kick-off at Hull for the chance to re-establish their superiority - the Robins did just enough.
They were behind to a Kevin Lisbie goal for the Us in the sixth minute but hit back for a share of the points when Ivan Sproule equalised in the 33rd.
Charlton put themselves within challenging distance of the top three by beating Blackpool 4-1 at The Valley.
Their goals came from Madjid Bougherra (six), Luke Varney (10) and Zheng Zhi (24 and 52) - with Ben Burgess (12) giving the visitors just fleeting hope.
Ipswich had to settle for a draw at home to in-form Stoke, who stayed fourth with a Ricardo Fuller equaliser in the 33rd minute - after Danny Haynes (19) had put the Blues in front.
Burnley moved up into play-off contention with a 1-0 success at home to Plymouth courtesy of Robbie Blake's 66th-minute winner.
Cardiff are up to a similarly advantageous position, a 1-0 home win also doing the trick for them as Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink made the difference against Sheffield Wednesday nine minutes before the break.
Coventry came back down to earth after last weekend's FA Cup heroics, losing 2-0 away to Leicester - for whom new signing Steve Howard (11) and Barry Hayles (85) scored the goals.
Sheffield United came from a goal down at home to QPR to win 2-1 and stay in mid-table safety.
Patrick Agyemang put Rangers in front right on half-time. But the resilient Blades hit back after the break, a Damion Stewart own goal in the 64th minute and Lee Hendrie (69) putting a smile back on Bryan Robson's face.
There was no cheer for Mick McCarthy at Wolves, however, the hosts losing 3-0 to concede ground and play-off pretensions to Crystal Palace.
Clinton Morrison (24), Sean Scannell (49) and James Scowcroft (66) did the damage.
Norwich recovered from a goal down at Barnsley to run out 3-1 winners.
They were indebted to on-loan Ched Evans (48), Mark Fotheringham (70) and Dion Dublin (74) for the three points which took them clear of immediate relegation trouble - after Martin Devaney had scored for the Tykes.
Southampton kept Scunthorpe in relegation trouble as Grzegorz Rasiak scored the only goal of the game in the 25th minute at St Mary's.
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