Forest bag seven at Leeds; Saints five clear

An insane 10 goals were put away at Elland Road, where Robert Snodgrass’s early penalty was quickly cancelled out by on-loan Adlene Guedioura before the visitors took the lead on the stroke of half-time through McCleary.

Dexter Blackstock would double their advantage early in the second period, which sparked a mad frenzy of five goals in eight minutes as Luciano Becchio and Michael Brown initially pulled the hosts level.

But goals two and three for McCleary made it 5-3 to Forest on the hour mark - then his fourth and Blackstock’s second marked the first ever time the Whites had shipped seven on home turf.

Elsewhere, an own goal from Jack Hobbs and Jos Hooiveld’s clincher extended Southampton’s lead at the top of the table to five points in their 2-0 win away to Hull City, with Peterborough United doing them a big favour by defeating second-placed Reading 3-1.

Noel Hunt had given the Royals the lead on 20 minutes, only for George Boyd to level the score five minutes later from a corner before Tyrone Barnett and Paul Taylor secured the three points.

West Ham's chance to overtake them and return to the automatic promotion spots was spoiled by Bart Ogbeche’s stunning late drive after Abdoulaye Faye had put them ahead on 67 minutes.

The Hammers were booed off the pitch at the full time whistle after another frustrating draw at the Boleyn Ground which dents their hopes of automatic promotion.

Brighton and Hove Albion were able to overtake Boro into fourth place with a 2-0 win at home to Derby County, with Inigo Calderon and Ashley Barnes scoring either side of the interval.

Birmingham’s outside chance of challenging the top two were dealt a huge blow by a 4-1 defeat at bottom club Portsmouth. The Blues were reduced to 10 men at one goal apiece when David Murphy was shown a second yellow card.

Chris Maguire had equalised after Nikola Zigic put the away side ahead and, within a minute of the red card, David Norris turned the score around before Kelvin Etuhu and Marko Futacs ensured a miserable night for Chris Hughton’s men.

There were home turf woes for Bristol City and Doncaster Rovers, defeated 2-0 and 3-0 respectively by Watford and Millwall.

David James punched the ball into his own net before Sean Murray ended the scoring at Ashton Gate after just 23 minutes, while Kenny Jackett’s Lions collected a much-needed three points courtesy of Andy Keogh, Harry Kane and Darius Henderson.

And in a game which kicked off slightly later in the evening, Crystal Palace moved back into the top half of the table with a dramatic late win at home to Barnsley thanks to a diving header in stoppage time from Sean Scannell.