Norwich recover from Garner's stunning strike

Norwich City, who had lost three of their previous five games, at least added a point to their First Division promotion challenge yesterday when they rescued a 1-1 draw at home to Rotherham United.

They fell behind to a 25-yard free-kick from Darren Garner that flew into the top corner, that surprised the home goalkeeper Robert Green. He was not the only one suffering from shock; the goal, after Malky Mackay's foul on John Miller, was quite out of context with a dull game which thankfully improved after the recalled Garner's first goal since August.

Paul McVeigh equalised after 59 minutes with his first goal in eight games to edge Norwich up to fourth place, with other promotion contenders left idle by the bad weather.

Norwich's East Anglian rivals, Ipswich Town, were given the start they wanted at Burnley when Pablo Couñago capitalised on a simple chance after Jim Magilton flicked on a Darren Ambrose corner in the sixth minute. It was his 14th goal of the season and the 13th successive match in which Ipswich have scored. But the Spaniard had to go off with an injury before half-time. Ipwich's new-found resilience served them well until halfway through the second half when Robert Black equalised from the penalty spot and at the end the Suffolf side were grateful for a shocking miss by Burnley's Dimitri Papadopoulos.

Reading took command at Hillsborough with first-half goals from Nicky Forster and Martin Butler, but reviving Shefield Wednesday came out for the second half firing on all cylinders and Alan Quinn pulled one back after Derek Geary's cross was knocked down by Shefki Kuqi. Gerald Sibon and Allan Johnston then both scored from 25 yards in the space of two minutes to earn Wednesday a third victory in four games to put them four points clear of the bottom side, Brighton.

Robert Ryan (no, not the one from The Wild Bunch, the one who plays for Millwall) finally scored for the Lions in their 2-2 draw at home to Gillingham on Boxing Day, his 195th start. He clearly enjoyed the feeling as he scored again yesterday, from Paul Ifill's lay-off after a long throw, as injury-hit Millwall beat Watford 4-0 at the New Den to extend their unbeaten run to eight home games. Steve Claridge scored the first from Ifill's low drive, Ifill added the third himself 12 minutes from time and Peter Sweeney made it four a minute from time.

Wimbledon went 2-0 down at home to Grimsby Town through a strike by Michael Boulding and an own goal by Trond Andersen, but they fought back to equalise with two goals in quick succession midway through the second half by Patrick Agyemang and Jermaine Darlington. There was more to come, Stuart Campbell put Grimsby back in front, only for Damien Francis to make the final score 3-3. Derby rescued a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Gillingham, a Luciano Zavagno penalty following Guy Ipoua's opener for the Gills.

Crewe Alexandra leapt to second place in the Second Division thanks to two goals by Steve Jones in their 2-1 win at Colchester, while in the Third Division, two goals by Paul Hall gave Rushden & Diamonds a 2-0 win at Kidderminster that kept them on the heels of Hartlepool United, whose game at Macclesfield was postponed. Both Scunthorpe United and Torquay United capitalised on the opportunity to play while most of their promotion rivals were idle. Scunthorpe beat Leyton Orient 2-1 while Torquay got off to a sticky start at home to York City but went on to win 3-1. They moved up to third and fourth, respectively.