Watford have taken another significant step closer in the battle to get into the Premier League, strengthening their grip on an automatic promotion place with a controversial win over ailing Sheffield Wednesday.
An early own goal from Tom Lees was all that separated the sides, but the offside flag had been up when he had tried to beat Isaac Success to Ismaila Sarr’s cross – only for the officials to determine that Success had not been interfering with play.
It was a bitter blow for Wednesday, who were without manager Darren Moore after he tested positive for COVID-19 and are now six points adrift of safety.
In contrast, it was a sixth straight win for Watford, who closed the gap at the top behind Norwich to six points as Brad Potts’ stoppage-time strike saw Preston hold the leaders to a 1-1 draw.
Emi Buendia had put Norwich ahead with a superb long-range effort but managerless Preston replied in the fifth minute of time added on as Potts’ strike found the net.
Philip Billing scored one and made another as Bournemouth boosted their play-off hopes with a 3-1 win over manager Jonathan Woodgate’s former club Middlesbrough.
Jefferson Lerma and Dominic Solanke were also on target as the Cherries picked up their second league victory in a row, with Duncan Watmore having briefly put Boro back on level terms.
Cardiff’s chances of breaking into the top six suffered a blow as they went down 1-0 at home to Nottingham Forest, who ended a six-match winless run thanks to James Garner’s first-half strike.
Coventry, though, could do nothing to pull themselves clear of trouble as they went down 3-0 at QPR, leaving them only four points clear of Rotherham who have three games in hand.
Rotherham could have closed the gap further but saw Michael Smith’s late penalty saved by Bartosz Bialkowski as they lost 1-0 to a Jed Wallace thunderbolt at Millwall.
Wayne Rooney’s Derby took a big step towards safety as they ended a seven-game winless run with a 2-0 victory over Luton.
There was also a victory for basement side Wycombe – only their seventh of the season – as Fred Onyedinma’s goal was enough to see off Blackburn 1-0.
Nigel Pearson is still awaiting his first home win as Bristol City manager after goals in each half from Nick Powell and Steven Fletcher gave Stoke a 2-0 win at Ashton Gate.