Cardiff City may be promoted, but for the rest of the promotion chasers, it was mostly a bad night for other reasons as Nottingham Forest, Watford and Bolton Wanderers all suffered setbacks.
A shock defeat for Palace as their poor form continues - they still have a game in hand on most of the teams around them, but they need to find their footing again to remain in the playoff places and indeed to actually stand a chance of winning them. The result leaves them three points clear of Bolton, who are just outside the playoffs. Palace were in contention for automatic promotion but that dream has been ended with a run of no wins in six games - Ian Holloway's men must do something, and fast.
A huge result as the clash of the night also gave us the game of the night. Leicester put their recent poor run behind them to prevail against their closest competitors. The Foxes are now back into the playoff positions after a late Jeffrey Schlupp volley secured victory for Nigel Pearson's men, although Bolton are only a point behind. Full match report from Bolton blog Lion of Vienna Suite here.
The large numbers of promotion candidates suffering setbacks means that Middlesbrough could've kept their slim hopes alive with a victory, and that was exactly what they did, inflicting another defeat on Billy Davies' side to leave Forest back outside the playoff places.
With Hull City suffering defeat, Watford had a fine opportunity to make up some ground on them for the second automatic promotion spot. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they were undone by a late goal from Shaun Batt in a disappointing evening for Gianfranco Zola's men. They are still secure in the playoff positions, but making up a six-point deficit over Hull in three games seems unlikely.
A frustrating afternoon for Brighton as they were the latest promotion-chasers to come unstuck against a Peterborough side in a quite ridiculous run of form. The Seagulls now hold a playoff spot by just three points, although unlike Crystal Palace, they have no game in hand to rely on. The challenge now is to fend off Bolton and Nottingham Forest in the remaining three games.
Hull's defeat was ultimately what granted Cardiff promotion, and it came thanks to Wolves captain Kevin Doyle scoring the winning goal which lifted his struggling side out of the relegation places. Fortunately for Hull, Watford also slipped up, so they have a six-point lead to hold onto to retain their automatic promotion place.
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