Saints take advantage to close gap at top of Championship

Southampton took advantage of West Ham’s postponement to close the gap at the top of the npower Championship to just a point with a 2-0 win at home to Burnley.

Goals from Adam Lallana and Billy Sharp in the first 33 minutes were enough for victory and with the leaders’ game at Peterborough falling victim to the weather they reduced the deficit to just a point.

Cardiff missed the chance to go third as they lost 2-1 at Leicester.

Paul Gallagher converted a 41st-minute penalty for the Foxes and then scored a free-kick 30 minutes later, which proved pivotal after Peter Whittingham pulled one back from the spot.

Hull comfortably despatched strugglers Bristol City having taken an early 2-0 lead through Jack Hobbs and Robert Koren before Matt Fryatt rounded off the scoring on the hour.

Reading moved up to seventh with a 2-0 home win over bottom side Coventry with Jimmy Kebe and Jason Roberts, scoring in his second successive match since signing last month, getting the first-half goals.

Leeds suffered a second defeat in three matches as Alan Navarro scored a 90th-minute winner for Brighton.

Craig Mackail-Smith had put the visitors ahead in the 77th minute only for Luciano Becchio to equalise barely two minutes later.

Struggling Nottingham Forest ended a run of three successive defeats with a 1-1 draw at home to Watford.

Garath McCleary put the hosts ahead in the 19th minute but Troy Deeney’s equaliser just before half-time earned a share of the points.

Millwall’s home game against Derby finished goalless while Ipswich’s encounter against Middlesbrough was abandoned after 37 minutes because of a frozen pitch with the score goalless.

Barnsley v Birmingham and Crystal Palace v Doncaster were called off because of the cold conditions before kick-off.