Jones praises Barnsley as Sheron stalls Wolves

Dave Jones admitted that Barnsley deserved their 1-0 victory over his Wolverhampton Wanderers side at Oakwell on Tuesday night.

Mike Sheron scored the only goal of the game five minutes before half-time, as Steve Parkin's side extended their unbeaten home run to 10 games and denied Wolves the chance to draw level with Manchester City at the top of the Nationwide League First Division.

Jones, the Wolves manager, said: "Barnsley set their stall out with a number of fierce tackles. We got ruffled and lost our discipline. It wasn't our day and the ball didn't roll for us."

West Bromwich Albion were the main beneficiaries as they moved up to third place with a 1-0 victory over Birmingham City at The Hawthorns. Their striker Jason Roberts scored the all-important goal in the 43rd minute as the Baggies celebrated Gary Megson's 100th game in charge with a deserved victory.

Megson felt his side should have won more convincingly and said: "Jason Roberts had four one-on-one situations with the Birmingham keeper and he only managed to get one goal. On a luckier day we would certainly have found the net more often than we did."

Their fellow promotion challengers Crystal Palace suffered a 3-1 defeat at home to Coventry City. The visitors went into a 2-0 lead with goals from Jay Bothroyd and Marcus Hall inside the opening 36 minutes.

The game then exploded into life when Bothroyd and Palace's Danny Granville were sent off for violent conduct. Dougie Freedman pulled a goal back with a 58th-minute effort, but Gary McSheffrey settled the game 15 minutes from time.

The division's bottom side, Stockport County, came from behind three times to claim a point from their visit to Gillingham. Barry Ashby, Simon Osborn and Marlon King all put the home side ahead but Carlton Palmer's side responded each time, twice through Luke Beckett and then Neil Ross.

Though their goalkeeper, Andy Dibble, was sent off in the second half, Stockport held on for a share of points.

At Bramall Lane, the two Sheffield clubs played to a goalless draw. United and Wednesday both had chances to settle the game but neither could take advantage.

Michael Keane scored for Preston, who won 1-0 at Bradford and Dean Ashton struck as Crewe beat Norwich by the same scoreline.

Matt Carbon scored a late winner as Walsall claimed a valuable three points with a 2-1 win over Wimbledon. Things finished all square at Millmoor, where Rotherham United drew 1-1 with Grimsby.

In the Second Division, Marc Goodfellow scored a late winner as Stoke moved up to second with a 2-1 win at Peterborough.