Round-up: Baldock double lifts Hammers

Sam Baldock scored twice in four minutes early in the second half at Upton Park as West Ham United blitzed Blackpool 4-0, the win lifting the Hammers to second in the Championship. John Carew had headed in before the interval, but Baldock's first goals for the Hammers, after 47 and 51 minutes, and a Jack Collison strike four minutes later punished sloppy Pool defending.

Sam Baldock scored twice in four minutes early in the second half at Upton Park as West Ham United blitzed Blackpool 4-0, the win lifting the Hammers to second in the Championship.

John Carew headed in before the interval, but Baldock's first goals for the Hammers, after 47 and 51 minutes, and a Jack Collison strike four minutes later punished sloppy Pool defending.

"Defensively sound, quality of play in possession, quality of finishing, and it's not often I can say I'm a little disappointed that we only scored four," West Ham's manager Sam Allardyce said.

Middlesbrough slipped to third after Liam Trotter's 55th-minute scrambled equaliser saw Millwall draw 1-1 at the Riverside, Boro's fourth successive draw. They had led through Barry Robson. Hull, sixth, drew 0-0 at Brighton, fifth.

Steve Cotterill, Nottingham Forest's new manager, watched from the stands as his new side lost 1-0 at Coventry City, Lukas Jutkiewicz's 57th-minute header taking the points that lift the Sky Blues out of the bottom three. Forest slip to one off the bottom.

Cotterill's old club Portsmouth scored twice in 80 seconds to beat Barnsley 2-0 at Fratton Park while Bristol City, also managerless since Keith Millen's sacking, lost 2-1 at home to Peterborough. St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes and Mark Robins, late of Barnsley, are tipped for the job.

Michael Chopra's goal against a former club, Cardiff City, seemed to have earned Ipswich Town a win in South Wales until a Peter Whittingham penalty made it 2-2.

Crystal Palace joined the play-off discussion after a 2-0 win at Watford, while Reading substitute Jem Karacan's goal to earn a 1-0 win at Burnley came in the ninth minute of time added on after an injury to Jay Tabb.

Europe

Lionel Messi scored twice and Xavi Hernandez once as Barcelona beat Santander 3-0 in La Liga. Gonzalo Higuain grabbed a hat-trick in Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Real Betis. Villarreal, who Manchester City play in the Champions' League on Tuesday, drew 0-0 at Getafe.

Arsenal's opponents Marseille battled to a 0-0 draw against Toulouse with 10 men. Their coach, Didier Deschamps, called his side shaky and lacking in confidence. His former team Chelsea face Genk, 3-1 losers to Lokeren in Belgium.

In Italy, Milan found their form in beating Palermo 3-0 while rivals Internazionale lost 2-1 at Catania. Napoli missed the chance to go top when they were upset 2-1 at home by Parma.