Championship round-up

Barnsley 0 Colchester Utd 3

Colchester made light of their modest away form as Barnsley slid into the bottom three. Karl Duguid put the visitors ahead in the third minute; seven minutes later Jamie Cureton's 15th goal of the season put the U's 2-0 ahead. Substitute Hogan Ephraim wrapped up the win. "I was pleased with the way they started the game, a little bit disappointed in the second half, but we scored a goal and hit the bar twice," a somewhat hard to please U's manager, Geraint Williams, said.

Burnley 1 Sheffield Wed 1

Two sides in the grip of a poor run of results broke the sequences with a point apiece. The Clarets struck first, Ade Akinbiyi heading on to Wade Elliott, who scored. But the Owls had been enjoying a good spell of play before then and levelled just three minutes later when Deon Burton rose to head in. "It was clear there were two sides out there who haven't won for a while," the Clarets manager, Steve Cotterill, admitted. The Owls' Brian Laws was "disappointed we didn't take all three points. We caused them problems from the start."

Coventry City 2 Cardiff City 2

The dismissal of Cardiff centre-back Glenn Loovens, when they were leading 2-1, "definitely changed the game," his manager Dave Jones said. Coventry led after eighth minutes when Leon McKenzie headed in, but a Michael Chopra penalty and Peter Whittingham's curler put Cardiff ahead. After Loovens' second yellow card from referee Graham Poll, Dele Adebola's header made it 2-2. Poll ruled out two McKenzie headers. "You never know what you are going to get with Graham," Jones said.

Ipswich Town 0 Leicester City 2

A precious win for Leicester, courtesy of two powerful headers from Gareth McAuley, lifted the Foxes five points clear of the relegation places. His first came in the 28th minute from Levi Porter's corner; 10 minutes after the break Porter fed a short corner to Mark Yeates, whose cross was met by McAuley's head: 2-0. Owen Garvan's two-footed lunge at Porter saw the Ipswich man sent off. "If you get past the 50-point mark you should be okay," the Leicester manager, Rob Kelly, calculated. His side have accumulated 37 so far.

Leeds Utd 2 Crystal Palace 1

Bottom-of-the-table Leeds gave themselves a lifeline with this priceless win, but their manager, Dennis Wise, was furious with one of his players, who had leaked the side's starting line-up to Palace. "He won't be playing for this football club again," Wise promised. After 27 minutes Matt Heath headed in Leeds' first at the far post and they began to play with confidence. In the 72nd minute Robbie Blake added Leeds' second, but Leon Cort headed in a late goal for Palace to set up a nervous finish.

Plymouth Argyle 0 Sunderland 2

Sunderland's charge to the play-offs is beginning to look unstoppable as goals by substitute Anthony Stokes, his first since joining the Wearsiders from Arsenal after a successful loan period at Falkirk, and David Connolly, back from injury, saw them win. "The opening goal was always going to be very important and Stokes took it really well," Sunderland's manager, Roy Keane, said. "That's the first time this season I think that we have come out second best," Ian Holloway, the Argyle manager, admitted.