Championship Round-Up

Barnsley 0 Preston NE 1

Third-placed Preston's Liam Chilvers scored the only goal of the game, a header at the far post from Paul McKenna's corner kick, to stay on promotion pace and push Barnsley deeper into relegation trouble. "We could have made it comfortable for ourselves with the chances we created, particularly in the first half," Preston boss Paul Simpson said. Barnsley hit post and bar. Simpson thinks his acquisition of striker Michael Ricketts "could be the biggest snip of the January window".

Cardiff City 0 Southend Utd 1

Lee Bradbury's 23rd-minute goal, a 20-yard drive from Freddy Eastwood's knock-down, saw Southend earn their first away win of the season and keep alive their hopes of avoiding relegation. "It's been coming," Steve Tilson, the Shrimpers manager, said. "We'd not lost in our last four away games but this result gives us that little bit of hope." Cardiff fired blanks. "Our strikers need to start banging them in again," manager Dave Jones admitted. "There's no point putting balls in the box if there's no one on the end of it."

Coventry City 2 Crystal Palace 4

Coventry came back from a 3-1 deficit last Saturday to earn a Cup draw at League One Bristol City, and Micky Adams joked that the recovery had saved his job. There might be no reprieve after another dismal defensive display saw them trail 4-0 after 39 minutes, Palace running riot with goals by Carl Fletcher, his first for the club, Shefki Kuqi, Leon Cort and Jobi McAnuff. Some pride was recouped when Leon McKenzie and Kevin Kyle scored, but Adams' position is looking precarious.

Hull City 2 QPR 1

Tigers substitute Stuart Elliott scored two late goals as Rangers saw their lead, established by Dexter Blackstock's close-range effort in first-half stoppage time, swept away in injury time. Elliott, whose goals were set up by Dean Marney crosses, was "the hero this week and every credit to the lad," Hull manager, Phil Brown, said. "He's a very honest lad and has an asthmatic problem. He came to me five or six games ago and admitted he can't do 90 minutes and was not doing justice to himself or for the team." Supersub it is, then.

Norwich City 1 Plymouth 3

Two excellent second-half free-kicks from 25 yards by Akos Buzsaky saw Argyle end their run of five games without a win. Youssef Safri gave the Canaries a half-time lead with a curling shot, but Barry Hayles levelled for Argyle before the hour. Then came Buzsaky's bullets. "He does that all the time in training but so far never in a game," Ian Holloway, the Argyle manager, said. Signing two extra Hungarians - "first and foremost they're good players" - made Buzsaky feel more at home, he added.

Southampton 0 Burnley 0

Southampton were unable to break down resolute Burnley in a match low on quality, but Saints manager George Burley thought his side were denied a penalty when John McGreal brought down Mario Licka. "Right in front of the referee, I cannot believe he did not give the penalty," Burley said.

More positively, he added: "We've now only lost one game in the last 15 at home and we're starting to build a bit of consistency. But we did not create enough clear-cut chances, that was the only thing lacking from our game today."