Newcastle preserved their six-point lead at the summit of the Coca-Cola Championship with a 2-1 victory at Watford that left manager Chris Hughton beaming.

Goals from Fabricio Coloccini and Andy Carroll put the Magpies in the driving seat before a Will Hoskins strike gave the Hornets a late glimmer of hope.

"Watford is a tough place to come. They have a lot of energy – they played very well at St James' Park earlier in the season," said Hughton.

West Brom coach Eddie Newton challenged his team to turn up the heat on Newcastle after their 3-1 win against Derby moved them back into second place.

Chris Porter gave Derby a 49th-minute lead but a double from Chris Brunt and a strike from substitute Simon Cox in the space of 15 minutes dramatically turned the game in Albion's favour.

"We know it will be a hard slog because everyone is fighting for something so there are no easy games left," said Newton.

Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies accused some of his players of failing to battle hard enough after they lost ground with a 3-0 defeat at play-off rivals Leicester.

"I was happy enough with the back five but the middle and front players didn't influence the game or compete enough and that was very disappointing," said Davies.

"We didn't compete enough in challenges and in the nasty side of the game." Bruno Berner, Paul Gallacher and Andy King were on target for Leicester.

A first-half penalty from David Cotterill earned Swansea a 1-0 victory and nudged Peterborough closer to relegation. "We had a number of chances to score more goals, which would have relaxed us, but it never happened," said Swansea boss Paulo Sousa.

"We are looking to win games and be competitive but we may have to go into the loan market to cover all these injuries to our midfield players."

Jon Parkin earned lavish praise from boss Darren Ferguson after Preston demolished promotion-chasing Cardiff in an emphatic 3-0 victory.

Parkin, nicknamed 'The Beast', opened the scoring with a penalty in the 30th minute and then showed delightful footwork to rifle home number two nine minutes after the break. "Jon took Cardiff to the cleaners and absolutely battered them," said Ferguson

"John is a big lad, size-wise, but technically he's as good as anyone."

Sheffield United boss Kevin Blackwell was relieved after his side survived a dramatic fightback from bottom-three club Plymouth Argyle to eventually prevail 4-3 and move up to seventh.

"If you were a neutral then you would have been on the edge of your seat," said Blackwell.

"But it's not so good when you are in my position."

Reading manager Brian McDermott felt his side were "good value" for their 5-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, their biggest win of the season.

"That was a really good game and we played some really good stuff. We deserved that win," McDermott said.

Two well-taken penalties by Barry Robson blasted Middlesbrough back into play-off contention after an otherwise stuttering 2-0 home win over QPR.

Boro boss Gordon Strachan admitted the penalties had swung the game his side's way.

"Until the penalties it was a nothing game. I was happy with the points and I was happy with the attitude but it wasn't a great game," he said.

ends