CHAMPIONSHIP
Newcastle 3 Preston 0
Nottm Forest 1 Midd'brough 0
Derby 0 Swansea 1
Cardiff 0 Barnsley 2
Plymouth 1 Leicester 1
Blackpool 2 Reading 0
QPR 2 Doncaster 1
Crystal Palace 0 Coventry 1
Scunthorpe 2 Watford 2
Sheff Weds 0 Ipswich 1
Peterborough P-P Sheff Utd
Newcastle strengthened their advantage at the top of the Championship with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Preston, and there was little doubt once Peter Lovenkrands scored his 10th goal of the season in the third minute.
Top-scorer Kevin Nolan added his 13th of the campaign 10 minutes after the break, with substitute Ryan Taylor completing the scoring in injury time to send Newcastle five points clear at the top.
With fellow title challengers West Brom not playing until a day later, Nottingham Forest took advantage to move into second place.
Chris Cohen scored the only goal in a 1-0 City Ground victory over Middlesbrough, the midfielder's fourth this season, and all in his last nine matches.
Rock-bottom Peterborough, whose clash at home to Sheffield United was postponed because of a frozen pitch at London Road, are now five points adrift at the foot of the table.
That was after Plymouth managed to grab a point from a 1-1 draw with Leicester at Home Park as a 39th-minute Craig Noone header cancelled out an own goal from Kari Arnason seven minutes earlier.
Ipswich lifted themselves out of the bottom three with a 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday courtesy of midfielder Carlos Edwards ending a near three-year goal drought.
Boss Roy Keane's side have been replaced in the relegation zone by Crystal Palace who suffered a second successive defeat at Selhurst Park in the space of four days just a week after their stunning FA Cup draw at home to Aston Villa.
Coventry lifted themselves up to 10th with a 1-0 victory over the Eagles, with substitute David Bell grabbing the winner five minutes from time.
Swansea improved their play-off hopes with a 1-0 win over Derby at Pride Park, although an ill-tempered game was marred by two red cards.
Rams' Jay McEveley was the first player dismissed in the 65th minute, and from the resultant free-kick from David Cotterill, Shefki Kuqi headed home his second goal for the Swans.
Six minutes later, and nine minutes after his arrival as a sub, Gorka Pintado was given an early bath for a two-footed lunge on Robbie Savage that sparked an on-pitch melee that involved every player from both sides, the managers and even two policemen.
Cardiff remain fifth in the table, but are now five points behind their Welsh rivals after crashing to a 2-0 home defeat to Barnsley for whom Daniel Bogdanovic scored both goals inside the opening 12 minutes.
Blackpool are now seventh following a 2-0 victory over Reading at Bloomfield Road where Dudley Campbell and Charlie Adam were on target either side of the break.
QPR, in further off-field turmoil after chairman Flavio Briatore quit the club the night before, at least ended their five-match losing streak with a 2-1 win over Doncaster at Loftus Road.
James Hayter cancelled out Antonio German's 25th-minute opener six minutes into the second half, only for Jay Simpson to ease Rangers woes with the winner 14 minutes from time.
At Glanford Park, a penalty five minutes into injury time gave Scunthorpe a share of the spoils from a 2-2 draw with Watford.
After Danny Graham equalised Gary Hooper's opener, John Eustace must have thought he had won it for Watford in the 91st minute, just nine minutes after the Hornets had been reduced to 10 men with the dismissal of Tom Cleverley.
However, Hooper kept his nerve from the spot after Jay DeMerit was adjudged to have handled inside the area.