Play-off chasers Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield both left it late to end 2016 with 1-1 draws in the Sky Bet Championship.
Wednesday were heading for defeat at Preston following Sam Hutchinson's 77th-minute own goal but Adam Reach struck four minutes into stoppage time to keep the Owls in the top six.
Earlier, Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield also scored four minutes into time added on to draw with lowly Blackburn.
Nahki Wells curled home a brilliant late free-kick to cancel out Danny Graham's 81st-minute header.
Sky Bet Ch'ship
Barnsley 2 - 2 Birm'ham
Huddsf'ld 1 - 1 Blackburn
Preston 1 - 1 Sheff Wed
Wolves 1 - 2 QPR
Derby 0 - 0 Wigan
Brentford 0 - 0 Norwich
Rovers remain in the bottom three despite halting their four-match losing run, while Huddersfield end 2016 in fourth place.
Sky Bet Ch'ship
1 Newcastle 52
2 Brighton 51
3 Reading 43
4 Huddsf'ld 43
5 Leeds 42
6 Sheff Wed 41
7 Derby 40
8 Fulham 36
9 Barnsley 35
10 A Villa 35
11 Birm'ham 35
12 Norwich 34
13 Preston 33
14 Ipswich 31
15 Brentford 30
16 Wolves 28
17 Bristol C 27
18 N Forest 26
19 QPR 26
20 Burton Alb 25
21 Cardiff 24
22 Blackburn 21
23 Wigan 19
24 Rotherham 13
Derby sit just outside the top six after being held to a goalless draw at home by struggling Wigan.
Steve McClaren's men extended their unbeaten run to 10 league games but missed the chance to start 2017 in a play-off position.
Norwich squandered a string of chances as they were held to a goalless draw at Brentford.
Cameron Jerome was the biggest culprit as the Canaries kept only their second clean sheet on their travels in 33 games but that statistic was rarely in doubt against a Brentford side that failed to muster a single effort on target.
QPR ended their horrendous run of form by beating Wolves 2-1.
Ian Holloway's men had lost their last six games and failed to score in the previous four.
The goal drought was ended when Idrissa Sylla scored in the 53rd minute.
Dave Edwards equalised for Wolves just after the hour mark but Pawel Wszolek struck with three minutes left to lift his side five points clear of the bottom three.
Gianfranco Zola is still awaiting his first win as Birmingham boss despite the Blues playing all most of the second half against 10 men in their 2-2 draw at Barnsley.
The hosts raced into a two-goal lead after 28 minutes, with Tom Bradshaw scoring following fine work from Marley Watkins before Sam Winnall headed in a second.
Jacques Maghoma pulled one back soon after and, following Marc Roberts' 52nd-minute red card for bringing down Che Adams in the area, Lukas Jutkiewicz equalised from the spot