Miller's grounds for celebration

Kenny Miller scored a hat-trick as Wolves crushed Crystal Palace 4-0 at Molineux and moved up to fourth in the Nationwide First Division. Palace held out for 40 minutes until Mark Kennedy crossed in low from the left and Miller was on hand to tap in. "When you work your socks off and you're a good player, like he is, you will get your rewards," Dave Jones, the Wolves manager, observed.

Palace hung on but collapsed in the last 15 minutes as Dean Sturridge made it 2-0 before Miller wrapped up his hat-trick with two goals in the final seven minutes taking his season's total to 18. "We were a rag-bag outfit at the end," Palace's disgruntled manager, Trevor Francis, said.

Second-placed Leicester City went to sleep for a second in injury time in the Midlands battle against Derby County and the Rams salvaged a point. In the 92nd minute Craig Burley, not on the very best of terms with his manager, latched on to Fabrizio Ravanelli's short pass, after Matt Elliott had lost a heading duel, and calmly stroked in the equaliser. Burley had earlier spurned a fine chance in the 35th minute when he shot straight at Ian Walker. The ball went up the other end, Paul Dickov won a corner, Elliott won the header this time and nodded the ball into the six-yard box where Brian Deane scored from three yards. So 1-1 it was.

Third-placed Reading's winning run came to a halt at Selhurst Park where Damien Francis and Alex Tapp scored to seal Wimbledon's 2-0 win. "The first goal was always going to be important and sadly they got it," Alan Pardew, the Royals manager, said. "I can't fault us for effort, perhaps only on quality."

There was little joy to be found at the bottom of the table, either, where all four sides lost. Gillingham, without their suspended player-manager Andy Hessenthaler, beat Brighton 3-0. All the goals came in the second half. "In the first half we did a good job," Steve Coppell, the Brighton manager, said, "and to be one-nil down in the second minute of the second half was a real sucker punch."

Another player-manager sitting it out was Coventry's Gary McAllister, who dropped himself and picked John Eustace to take his place in the line-up at Grimsby. It worked, the Sky Blues ended a run of five defeats with a 2-0 win. But the Mariners were architects of their own downfall. Simon Ford headed into his own net and then gave away the penalty that Eustace converted. "We're capable of winning three or four games in a row and can still make the play-offs," a confident McAllister said.

A late play-off surge is on the Burnley manager's mind too after the Clarets won 1-0 at lowly Stoke. "We are enjoying our run in the cup," Stan Ternent said, "but the play-offs remain our most important objective." The bottom club, Sheffield Wednesday, also went down 1-0 at home to Preston. Elsewhere, Bradford City lost 2-1 at home to Walsall.

In Scotland, Dundee United's revival since the arrival of new manager Ian McCall continued with a 3-0 defeat of Dunfermline at Tannadice. They are level on points at the bottom with Motherwell.