Newcastle seize top spot as Brighton suffer first defeat since September

Newcastle climbed to the top of the Sky Bet Championship with a 2-1 victory at Brentford as previous leaders Brighton saw their long unbeaten run came to an end at Preston.

Dwight Gayle netted his 20th goal of the season to give Newcastle the lead at Griffin Park after breaking the offside trap and finishing from a tight angle.

Lasse Vibe scrambled in from close range to level for Brentford but Daryl Murphy sealed the win with his first league goal for the Magpies with 12 minutes remaining when he converted Ayoze Perez's cross.

The victory saw Newcastle leap-frog Brighton, whose 17-match unbeaten run in all competitions was ended by a deserved 2-0 defeat to Preston.

Defender Paul Huntington headed in Paul Gallagher's free-kick for Preston's opener before Callum Robinson hit his seventh goal of the season to earn the hosts all three points as Brighton missed a late penalty through Tomer Hemed.

It was just Preston's second home win in eight attempts in all competitions with North End moving up to ninth in the table as a result.

Sheffield Wednesday made it six wins in their last eight league matches with a 2-0 victory at 10-man Huddersfield.

A sensational goal from Ross Wallace gave the Owls the lead before Jack Payne was sent off for the visitors for an off-the-ball incident with Sam Hutchinson.

Fernando Forestieri sealed the win over their promotion rivals when he finished from close range following a quick counter-attack in stoppage time.

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Rotherham secured only their second win in 20 matches with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Norwich to put more pressure on Canaries manager Alex Neil.

Jerry Yates marked his first league start for Rotherham by netting a seventh-minute opener and matters got worse for the visitors when Nelson Oliveira received his marching orders for an off-the-ball incident moments later.

Despite being down to 10 men, Cameron Jerome equalised for Norwich early in the second half but Tom Adeyemi sealed the three points for the league's basement club.

Cardiff twice came from behind to condemn Bristol City to their seventh successive league defeat courtesy of a late brace from Anthony Pilkington and a Kadeem Harris header.

City opened the scoring through an own goal from Bluebirds goalkeeper Brian Murphy after 51 minutes before Pilkington levelled from the penalty spot after Joe Ralls was hauled down in the area.

Tammy Abraham notched his 15th league goal of the season to regain the lead for the hosts but Harris' first of the campaign and Pilkington's superb 25-yard strike five minutes from time sealed back-to-back wins for Cardiff for the first time this season.

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Tom Lawrence came back to haunt his former loan club Blackburn by scoring a brace to earn Ipswich a 3-2 success. Christophe Berra was also on the scoresheet for Ipswich, with Blackburn's goals coming from Hope Akpan and a Danny Graham penalty.

Fulham were 2-0 victors over Barnsley thanks to Chris Martin's first-half penalty and Scott Malone's second-half strike, while Callum Connelly capped his Wigan debut by scoring both goals in their 2-0 win over fellow strugglers Burton.

Gianfranco Zola is still waiting for his first win as Birmingham manager as his side were held to a goalless draw by Nottingham Forest.

In the evening fixture, Wolves took the bragging rights over their Midlands rivals Aston Villa following a 1-0 victory at Molineux.

Joe Mason scored the only goal of the game early in the first half when he was the quickest to react to Sam Johnstone's half-clearance after the Villa goalkeeper was forced to parry Nouha Dicko's low driven cross.

Despite the visitors dictating the play for large periods of the match, they failed to have a single shot on target at the Wolves goal as the hosts earned all three points for manager Paul Lambert against one of his former sides.

PA.