Football League your thoughts: Brighton and Reading slip up in Newcastle chase

Brighton were held to a goalless draw at Cardiff City while Reading were thumped 5-0 by Fulham and Norwich City also stuck five past Brentford

Championship

• Reading and Brighton both failed to capitalise on Newcastle United’s defeat on Friday night as the Royals were thumped 5-0 by Fulham and Albion held to a goalless draw at Cardiff City. Second-placed Brighton missed the chance to go top – after Newcastle were beaten at Nottingham Forest – and while they did extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches, the defender Gaëtan Bong was sent off in injury time after receiving a second yellow card.

• Reading meanwhile, were roundly beaten at Craven Cottage as Chris Martin scored twice to end the Royals’ five-match winning streak. Chris Gunter’s own goal put the home side on their way before Martin fired in his first from outside the area and Reading’s Danny Williams was sent off for kicking out at Stefan Johansen. Sone Aluko and Johansen were on target in quick succession before Martin completed the rout by curling home a free-kick.

• Elsewhere, Norwich City also hit five, putting Brentford to the sword to end a run of five defeats on the bounce. Early goals from Jacob Murphy and Graham Dorrans got the Canaries up and running – Dorrans knocking in the rebound after his penalty was saved. Robbie Brady, Nélson Oliveira and Alex Pritchard were all on target in the second half.

Related: Preston pair sent off for fighting each other in loss at Sheffield Wednesday

• Derby County’s winning steak continues apace – their 1-0 victory over Wigan Athletic is a fifth in a row and came courtesy of Bradley Johnson’s first-half header at the DW Stadium while Danny Graham’s penalty for Blackburn cancelled out Kasey Palmer’s headed opener for Huddersfield in a 1-1 draw.

• Rotherham’s woes continued as a 2-1 loss at Burton Albion condemned the Millers to 15 matches without a win and 11 defeats from their last 12 Championship matches. Jackson Irvine and Matt Palmer put the Brewers into a 2-0 lead before Tom Adeyemi pulled a late goal back for managerless Rotherham late on.

• Birmingham City, fourth at the started of the day, were convincingly beaten 3-0 at home by Barnsley with Marc Roberts and Sam Winnall (2) doing the damage while Bristol City ended a run of three straight defeats with a 2-0 win over Ipswich Town at Ashton Gate thanks to Lee Tomlin’s penalty and Luke Freeman’s effort. And Sheffield Wednesday defeated Preston 2-1 in an ill-tempered affair in which Fernando Forestieri was sent off for the Owls and both Eoin Doyle and Jermaine Beckford saw red for North End for fighting each other.

League Two

• Just two matches but 12 goals in the fourth tier as Doncaster Rovers went top of the table after a 4-3 away victory at Stevenage. Three goals in the space of 13 first-half minutes put Rovers in control – Andy Butler, Liam Mandeville and Matty Blair the scorers. Stevenage rallied through Tom Pett and Fraser Franks but Jamie Jones’s own goal put Doncaster 4-2 up before Rowan Liburd hit a third for the hosts.

• Yeovil Town moved into the play-off places thanks to a 5-0 win over Crawley Town, Otis Khan scoring twice with Tom Eaves, Ryan Hedges and François Zoko also finding the net.