Barnsley 0 Crystal Palace 0

Attendance: 11,416

Stephen Foster, the Barnsley captain, was content with his team’s improved defensive performance, but believed that they had squandered the opportunity to collect all three points. “I was happy enough with the clean sheet, especially having been beaten 6-1 at Newcastle in our last game,” Foster said. “But we had enough opportunities and I think that most people would agree that the Palace goalkeeper probably was their best player. He pulled off some really good saves.”

Paul Hart, the Palace manager, was in agreement with Foster. He paid particular tribute to the “excellent goalkeeping” of Julián Speroni and the “outstanding defending” of Danny Butterfield, the right back, who said: “This point could be a vital one come the end of the season. We showed that we are all battling together.”

Coventry City 1 (McIndoe 49)
Plymouth Argyle 1 (Arnason 45+1)

Attendance: 18,127

Michael McIndoe, who has appeared in the play-offs for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bristol City and has been promoted with Doncaster Rovers and Yeovil Town, believes that Coventry can still finish in the top six. “I’ve been in a lot of promotion and play-off dressing rooms before and you can pick up on a little something else in them, and it’s here for sure,” McIndoe said after his second-half equaliser moved City to within two points of sixth-placed Cardiff City, who they play at the Ricoh Arena tomorrow in what he described as “a massive game”.

Argyle took the lead through Kari Arnason’s precise header and the goalscorer admitted that the result was hard to take given their perilous circumstances. “It’s hard to come back again and again and again,” he said. “But we won’t quit. We’ll keep going.”

Doncaster Rovers 2 (Sharp pen 15, Emmanuel-Thomas 69)
Derby County 1 (Hulse 74)

Attendance: 11,858

Billy Sharp, Doncaster’s leading scorer this season with 15 league goals, believes his side can target a place in the play-offs, even though his manager is still concerned about relegation. That Sean O’Driscoll should be looking down rather than up the table is baffling given that his team are only four points off sixth place. They outplayed Derby, with Sharp, from a penalty, and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scoring. O’Driscoll has set a safety target of 50 points, which Doncaster would pass with a win away to Peterborough United tomorrow. “Then you can ask him whether we can get in the play-offs,” Sharp said.

Rob Hulse grabbed a consolation for Derby. Nigel Clough, the manager, said: “It’s impossible to play without fear because we are four points off relegation with ten games to go.”

Ipswich Town 1 (Wickham 90+3)
Scunthorpe United 0

Attendance: 19,378

Although Roy Keane, the Ipswich manager, played down the potential of Connor Wickham, the goalscorer, David Wright, the defender, predicted great things from the 16-year-old. Wright, who played with Dean Ashton at Crewe, said: “Connor showed great composure when he got his chance. Even though they are slightly different in the way Connor works the channels, there are similarities between him and Dean. There is no reason why Connor can’t go on to play for England.”

Wickham’s first league goal was significant for Ipswich, who recorded back-to-back league wins for the first time this season. The defeat pushed Scunthorpe into the bottom three and they look likely to lose Cliff Byrne, their captain, who was sent off for the third time this season. Damien Delaney, of Ipswich, was also shown a red card.

Leicester City 1 (Waghorn 29)
Cardiff City 0

Attendance: 22,767

Kevin McNaughton, the Cardiff defender, says that the club must not allow financial problems to impair their bid for promotion. Cardiff were given until May 5 to pay a £1.9 million tax bill last week or face a winding-up order, and doubts have been cast over the ability of Peter Ridsdale, the chairman, to bring in new investors.

“Reaching the play-offs would obviously help the club financially, and if we could make the step up to the Premier League, it would have a massive impact,” McNaughton said. “The players haven’t had time to think about what’s going on off the pitch, it’s just a cloud that’s hanging over the club. We can’t affect it. All we can do is get as many points as possible.” Cardiff remain sixth despite a fifth successive away defeat inflicted by Martyn Waghorn’s eighth goal of the season.

Preston North End 3 (Wallace 20, Davidson pen 29, James 32)
Nottingham Forest 2 (Blackstock pen 57, Earnshaw 76)

Attendance: 14,426

Matt James, the midfield player on loan at Deepdale from Manchester United, believes his run of regular first-team matches for Preston is helping his game to develop fast. The 18-year-old struck a 25-yard shot into the top corner in the 32nd minute to add to goals from Ross Wallace and Callum Davidson before Dexter Blackstock’s penalty and Robert Earnshaw’s 76th-minute strike brought Forest back into the game.

“I’m learning all the time,” James said. “Every single game has been different and hopefully I can take this experience back to United at the end of the season.” Billy Davies, the Forest manager, remained upbeat about his side’s chances of automatic promotion. “It’s never over until it’s over as there are lots of twists and turns to come,” he said. “You can go on a five or six-game unbeaten run and you are there.”

Reading 2 (Sigurdsson 12, pen 22)
Bristol City 0

Attendance: 17,900

Reading’s transformation under Brian McDermott continued with their seventh victory in the past eight league matches, thanks to two first-half goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson. The Iceland Under-21 international scored with a powerful header after 12 minutes and a penalty just before half-time, awarded after City’s Paul Hartley shoved him to the ground. That sparked an angry exchange between Hartley and Keith Millen, City’s assistant manager. “It was all heat of the moment,” Hartley said. “I have apologised and it’s all forgiven and forgotten now.”

Reading are now focusing on making a late push for the play-offs. “We are getting closer to the play-offs,” Jay Tabb, the midfield player, said. “But first and foremost we have to make sure we get safe and the only way to do that is by taking every game as it comes.”

Sheffield United 1 (Cresswell 44)
Queens Park Rangers 1 (Taarabt 49)

Attendance: 23,456

Neil Warnock, the Queens Park Rangers manager, is confident that he can get the best out of Adel Taarabt, the midfield player on loan from Tottenham Hotspur. The Morocco international scored his seventh goal of the season to earn Rangers a draw, and Warnock said: “He’s an enigma but he’s gradually eliminating his negatives. He needs a lot of loving, which I give him, but he’s smiling all the time and playing with that little buzz.”

Richard Cresswell gave United the lead with a header in the 44th minute, but Taarabt pounced on a mistake by Marcel Seip, the Dutch defender, to equalise four minutes into the second half. Sam Ellis, the United assistant manager, said: “We’re one game off the play-offs. Without the injury problems we’ve had, we’d be in the top six.”

Swansea City 0 Sheffield Wednesday 0

Attendance: 14,167

Shefki Kuqi believes that Swansea can still earn automatic promotion despite dropping valuable points against struggling Sheffield Wednesday. Paulo Sousa’s side are nine points adrift of second-placed West Bromwich Albion, but can close the gap tomorrow when the sides meet at the Liberty Stadium. “We’re very disappointed not to have won this game but we’ve got to stay positive,” Kuqi said. “There’s still a long way to go, there are 30 points to play for and we have West Brom at home on Tuesday. That’s a massive game for us.”

Darren Purse, the Sheffield Wednesday defender, said that his side need five more victories to preserve their Championship status. “It’s a tough ask but we can take a lot of encouragement from the way we played against Swansea,” he said.

Watford 0
Peterborough United 1 (Dickinson 51)

Attendance: 16,591

Scott Loach, the Watford goalkeeper, has promised he will not let the mistake that handed Peterborough their first away league win of the season affect his future performances. Peterborough remain bottom despite Liam Dickinson’s 30-yard chip over Loach, who had made a poor clearance, but the result means that Watford are now only one point above the relegation places. “I’m a goalkeeper,” Loach said. “If strikers miss chances, they get another one; if I make a mistake, it goes in. There’s not a lot I can do about it, it’s a goal, so let’s get on and go with it again.”

Dickinson, who is on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, thinks that Peterborough, now within a point of Plymouth Argyle, can close an eight-point gap to reach safety. “The lads are starting to believe,” he said.

West Brom 3 (Miller 13, Koren 53, Dorrans pen 78)
Blackpool 2 (Adam 6, Ormerod 72)

Attendance: 21,592

Ishmael Miller scored on his first start since December 2008 and then said that West Brom still believe they can mount a late surge to pip Newcastle United to the Championship title. “We have certainly not given up hope of catching Newcastle,” Miller said. “The gap is not too big and there are still ten games to go, but the most important thing is to at least get second place.”

Miller equalised Charlie Adam’s fourteenth goal of the season before Robert Koren and Brett Ormerod, a Blackpool substitute, traded second-half goals. For the second time this season Ian Holloway’s team were undone by a late penalty by Graham Dorrans, after Giles Barnes had been fouled by Joe Martin. “I felt the tackle was outside the box,” Martin said. “Even Giles said to me it was outside.”