Adel Taarabt's 14th goal of the season finally snapped Portsmouth's resistance at Loftus Road as Queen's Park Rangers maintained their five-point lead at the top of the Championship with a 2-0 win.
Taarabt pounced in the 59th minute after an awful error by Pompey keeper Jamie Ashdown, and Clint Hill sealed a 2-0 win for Neil Warnock's men when he headed home a Taarabt corner.
Norwich left it late to keep the pressure on the leaders as they were forced to battle back from behind to claim a 2-1 win over improving Millwall at Carrow Road.
Theo Robinson fired Millwall into a 56th-minute lead after Steve Morison went off injured. Elliott Ward equalised after 77 minutes and Henri Lansbury fired home the winner in injury time.
Craig Bellamy claimed a dramatic point for Cardiff in a 2-2 draw at home to Reading.
Mathieu Manset appeared to have won it for the visitors in injury time but there was still time for Bellamy claim an equaliser. Jay Bothroyd had struck three minutes into the second half to cancel out Mikele Leigertwood's 21st-minute opener.
Swansea relied on a Darren Pratley double to stay third with a 2-0 win at Bristol City and erase the memory of their dismal FA Cup fourth-round exit to Leyton Orient at the weekend.
Pratley opened the scoring in the 10th minute and wrapped up the points for the Swans after 67 minutes when he headed home a left-wing corner from Mark Gower.
Nottingham Forest leapfrogged Cardiff into fourth place after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Coventry.
Marlon King put the home side in front after 26 minutes but Forest hit straight back with Lewis McGugan equalising five minutes later and Robert Earnshaw firing home a 36th-minute winner.
There was also a fine recovery from promotion-chasing Leeds at the KC Stadium, with goals from Robert Snodgrass and Davide Somma clawing out a 2-2 draw with Hull, who led through Matt Fryatt and James Chester.
Simon Grayson's men now hold a three-point lead in the last of the play-off positions over Watford. The Hornets drew 1-1 at home to Crystal Palace, for whom James Vaughan equalised Andreas Weimann's early opener. There was more misery for the bottom three sides who all lost.
Phil Brown's Preston went down 2-0 at Barnsley for whom Garry O'Connor and Danny Haynes were on the scoresheet.
Scunthorpe had Abdisalam Ibrahim sent off and went down to goals from Kris Boyd and Tony McMahon at Middlesbrough, while Andy King's early strike gave Leicester the points at Sheffield United.
Jimmy Bullard and David Norris scored as Ipswich came from behind to win 2-1 at Derby, who had led through Alberto Bueno, while a 59th-minute own goal from Michael Duff handed Doncaster a 1-0 win over Burnley at the Keepmoat Stadium.
