Kemar Roofe scored his first goal for Leeds as a 2-0 home win against Aston Villa lifted them up to fourth in the Sky Bet Championship.

Roofe, signed in the summer from Oxford and who hit the post for Leeds in their midweek EFL Cup defeat at Liverpool, finally ended his 22-game goal drought by heading home Souleymane Doukara's cross to break the deadlock in the 68th minute at Elland Road.

Chris Wood added his 10th of the season in stoppage time as Villa chased a late equaliser in a game that kicked off at 5.30pm, but the visitors slipped to their first defeat in eight games under manager Steve Bruce.

Brighton missed the chance to go top and finished the game with 10 men as they were held to a goalless draw at Cardiff.

Chris Hughton's side extended their unbeaten league run to 11 matches, but the point was not enough and defender Gaetan Bong was dismissed in stoppage time for his second yellow card.

Fulham routed third-placed Reading 5-0 at Craven Cottage (UK Sports Pics Ltd)

Third-placed Reading slipped to their heaviest defeat of the season, losing 5-0 at Fulham.

Fulham led 1-0 at half-time courtesy of Chris Gunter's headed own goal and Chris Martin struck early in the second period before Reading defender Danny Williams was shown a straight red card following an altercation with Stefan Johansen.

Sone Aluko and Johansen struck for the Cottagers within the space of three minutes midway through the second half before Martin added his second in the final minute as Reading's four-game winning run crashed to a halt.

Preston team-mates Eoin Doyle and Jermaine Beckford were sent off after an angry exchange towards the end of their 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, who moved back into the top six.

Fernando Forestieri headed Wednesday into a ninth-minute lead but was shown a straight red card in the 65th minute following an off-the-ball incident involving Beckford.

Steven Fletcher doubled Wednesday's lead from the penalty spot before Doyle pulled one back for Preston with eight minutes left.

But Preston's hopes were dashed when he was sent off along with Beckford for violent conduct.

Birmingham began the day in fourth place but like the teams above them they too came unstuck as they slipped to a surprise 3-0 home defeat to Barnsley.

Blues hit the woodwork twice through David Davis and David Cotterill after Marc Roberts' header had given Barnsley the lead and Sam Winnall struck twice with late headers.

Norwich's poor run of form ended at Carrow Road (Getty)

Norwich halted their miserable run in emphatic fashion as they beat Brentford 5-0 at Carrow Road.

The Canaries had lost their previous five league games, but Jacob Murphy and Graham Dorrans put them 2-0 up inside 16 minutes, the latter scoring from the rebound after his penalty for Harlee Dean's foul on the former had been saved by Daniel Bentley.

Robbie Brady put the game beyond Brentford in the 59th minute before goals from Nelson Oliveira (79) and Alex Pritchard (88) ensured Norwich's biggest league win of the season.

Huddersfield slipped to eighth after their 1-1 draw at improving Blackburn.

Danny Graham's 34th-minute penalty, for Michael Hefele's foul on Sam Gallagher, cancelled out Kasey Palmer's early header for Huddersfield, who had hit the crossbar through Martin Cranie's earlier header.

Derby maintained their climb up the table by winning 1-0 at Wigan for their fifth straight league victory.

Bradley Johnson's first-half header put Derby in front before Johnny Russell's shot hit the post and although home midfielder Max Power's header struck the crossbar, Wigan went down to their fourth home league defeat of the season.

Bristol City snapped a three-game losing run with a 2-0 win against Ipswich at Ashton Gate.

Lee Tomlin converted a 31st-minute penalty after Bartosz Bialkowski's foul on Tammy Abraham and Luke Freeman doubled City's lead midway through the second half.

Managerless Rotherham's woes continued as a 2-1 defeat at Burton extended their winless league run to 15 matches.

Australia international Jackson Irvine gave Burton a first-half lead and Matt Palmer made it 2-0 soon after the hour mark.