John Swift's second-half winner at Birmingham kept Reading in touch with the top two in the Sky Bet Championship.
Gianfranco Zola's Birmingham, without a win in any of their last seven league matches, held their visitors until the 77th minute - but Swift made the difference in the end, as Jaap Stam's Royals moved within five points of table-toppers Brighton with Tuesday's 1-0 success.
Bristol City ended a run of eight successive defeats to frustrate Sheffield Wednesday in a 2-2 draw at Ashton Gate.
It was 1-1 at half-time, Wednesday going in front in the 17th minute through Fernando Forestieri.
Sky Bet Ch'ship
Ipswich 0 - 3 Derby
Birm'ham 0 - 1 Reading
Cardiff 2 - 0 Preston
Bristol C 2 - 2 Sheff Wed
N Forest 2 - 0 Rotherham
Brentford 3 - 0 A Villa
Barnsley 1 - 3 Wolves
The Robins were all square with Lee Tomlin's penalty just after the half-hour, only for Ross Wallace (51) to restore the Owls' advantage - but Tammy Abraham (70) levelled the scoring again.
Barnsley came unstuck 3-1 at home to Wolves.
Sky Bet Ch'ship
1 Brighton 60
2 Newcastle 58
3 Reading 55
4 Leeds 51
5 Huddsf'ld 49
6 Derby 46
7 Sheff Wed 46
8 Barnsley 44
9 Norwich 43
10 Preston 41
11 Fulham 40
12 Birm'ham 37
13 Brentford 36
14 A Villa 36
15 Cardiff 36
16 Wolves 35
17 Ipswich 35
18 N Forest 33
19 QPR 33
20 Bristol C 28
21 Burton Alb 28
22 Wigan 25
23 Blackburn 25
24 Rotherham 16
Kortney Hawes (five) and two goals from Dave Edwards (36 and 77) put Paul Lambert's men in control, and the hosts had found even more trouble when debutant Alex Mowatt was sent off three minutes before half-time for an ugly challenge on Jack Price.
Marc Roberts' 80th-minute effort was no more than consolation for the home side.
Two goals from Lasse Vibe (25 and 65) helped Brentford to a third successive victory, 3-0 this time at home to out-of-sorts Aston Villa. Nico Yennaris (38) completed the scoring as the Griffin Park contest went to form.
Cardiff proved too good for Preston, as Peter Whittingham's 18th-minute penalty and a second from Kenneth Zohore (28) did the job for Neil Warnock's hosts.
Derby eased to a 3-0 win at Ipswich thanks to goals from Craig Bryson (nine), Tom Ince (12) and Darren Bent in first-half injury-time.
The battle of the caretaker managers was won 2-0 by Nottingham Forest against bottom club Rotherham at the City Ground, where Britt Assombalonga was on target twice - from the penalty spot early in the second half and then in open play in the 71st minute.