Saturday 3 December 2016 21:21, UK
Brighton missed the chance to go top of the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday and finished the game with 10 men as they were held to a goalless draw at Cardiff, while Norwich and Fulham both hit five.
The Seagulls would have climbed into pole position with victory following Newcastle's 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Friday night.
However, while Chris Hughton's side extended their unbeaten league run to 11 matches, the point was not enough and defender Gaetan Bong was dismissed in stoppage time for his second yellow card to make matters worse.
Third-placed Reading also failed to make up ground on the leaders as they slipped to their heaviest defeat of the season, losing 5-0 at Fulham.
Fulham led 1-0 at half-time courtesy of Chris Gunter's headed own goal and Chris Martin struck early in the second period before Reading defender Danny Williams was shown a straight red card following an altercation with Stefan
Johansen.
Sone Aluko and Johansen struck for the Cottagers within the space of three minutes midway through the second half before Martin added his second in the final minute as Reading's four-game winning run crashed to a halt.
Birmingham began the day in fourth place, but they too came unstuck as they slipped to a surprise 3-0 home defeat to Barnsley, who registered only their second win in 12 league games.
Blues hit the woodwork twice through David Davis and David Cotterill after Marc Roberts' header had given Barnsley the lead and Sam Winnall struck twice with late headers.
Leeds moved above Birmingham in the table with a 2-0 home win over Aston Villa in the evening kick-off. It was a fifth win in six games for Garry Monk's men, who struck in the second half through Kemar Roofe and Chris Wood at Elland Road.
Norwich halted their miserable run in emphatic fashion as they beat Brentford 5-0 at Carrow Road. The Canaries had lost their previous five league games, but Jacob Murphy and Graham Dorrans put them 2-0 up inside 16 minutes, the latter scoring from the rebound after his penalty for Harlee Dean's foul on the former had been saved by Daniel Bentley.
Robbie Brady put the game beyond Brentford in the 59th minute before goals from Nelson Oliveira (79) and Alex Pritchard (88) ensured Norwich's biggest league win of the season.
Sheffield Wednesday overcame the second-half dismissal of Fernando Forestieri to move back into the top six with a 2-1 home win against Preston.
Forestieri headed Wednesday into a ninth-minute lead but was shown a straight red card in the 65th minute following an off-the-ball incident involving Preston striker Jermaine Beckford.
Eoin Doyle pulled one back for Preston with eight minutes left but was sent off along with Beckford for violent conduct as the Owls held on.
Huddersfield slipped one place to seventh after their 1-1 draw at improving Blackburn.
Danny Graham's 34th-minute penalty, for Michael Hefele's foul on Sam Gallagher, cancelled out Kasey Palmer's early header for Huddersfield, who had hit the crossbar through Martin Cranie's earlier header.
Derby maintained their climb up the table by winning 1-0 at Wigan for their fifth straight league victory.
Bradley Johnson's first-half header put Derby in front before Johnny Russell's shot hit the post and although home midfielder Max Power's header struck the crossbar, Wigan went down to their fourth home league defeat of the season.
Bristol City snapped a three-game losing run with a 2-0 win against Ipswich at Ashton Gate.
Lee Tomlin converted a 31st-minute penalty after Bartosz Bialkowski's foul on Tammy Abraham and Luke Freeman doubled City's lead midway through the second half.
Managerless Rotherham's woes continued as a 2-1 defeat at Burton extended their winless league run to 15 matches.
Australia international Jackson Irvine gave Burton a first-half lead and Matt Palmer made it 2-0 soon after the hour mark.
Tom Adeyemi struck for the Millers in stoppage time, but they have now lost 11 of their last 12 games in the Championship.
