Grady Diangana and Dara O'Shea fired West Bromwich Albion back to the top of the Championship table as they strengthened their grip on automatic promotion on Wednesday.
With Leeds United not playing until Thursday evening, when they entertain Stoke City, the Baggies took full advantage with a 2-0 home win over Derby County, whose hopes of forcing their way into the play-off places suffered a setback as a result.
They were ahead on 11 minutes when Diangana scored from a tight angle after running on to Kamil Grosicki's beautifully-weighted through-ball.
Slaven Bilic's men doubled their tally when O'Shea headed home a 76th-minute corner with Louie Sibley's injury-time dismissal completing the Rams' misery.
Swansea City came from behind at Birmingham City to win 3-1 and close the gap on arch-rivals Cardiff City in the final play-off spot to a single point.
Lukas Jutkiewicz handed the Blues the perfect start when he headed them in front after just five minutes, but Rhian Brewster levelled seven minutes later to drag the visitors back into it.
The Swans went in ahead at the break courtesy of Ben Cabango's effort on the stroke of halftime, and Jay Fulton made it 3-1 after 52 minutes to wrap up the points.
At the other end of the table, second-half goals from Britt Assombalonga and Ashley Fletcher eased Neil Warnock's Middlesbrough out of the bottom three with a 2-0 win at Millwall.
They were replaced in the drop zone by Hull City, who slipped back into trouble following a 2-1 defeat at Bristol City.
Wigan Athletic gave their survival hopes a boost with a 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers.
Kieffer Moore's first-half goal was enough to secure a victory which leaves the Latics, who are in administration and have launched an appeal against a 12-point penalty which will be imposed this season should they finish outside the bottom three, eight points clear of the relegation zone with four games to play.
There was late drama at Hillsborough, where Preston came from behind to boost their own play-off hopes with a first league win since February.
Jacob Murphy gave Sheffield Wednesday a 58th-minute lead, but North End substitutes Scott Sinclair, Jayden Stockley and Brad Potts all struck in the final 12 minutes to claim the spoils.
Australian Associated Press
