West Ham surged back to the top of the Championship as Sam Allardyce's 10-men thrashed Blackpool 4-1 despite playing without a specialist goalkeeper for most of the second half on Tuesday.
James Tomkins and Nicky Maynard scored two goals in four minutes in the first half to put the Hammers in control at Bloomfield Road, but former England striker Kevin Phillips reduced the deficit just before the break.
The clash seemed to have swung Blackpool's way when West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green was sent off in the 53rd minute for a professional foul on Roman Bednar.
However, with no goalkeeper on the bench, Allardyce put on-loan Arsenal midfielder Henri Lansbury between the posts and he rose to the challege.
It helped that Lansbury was largely untroubled by a lacklustre Blackpool attack and second half goals from Gary O'Neill and Ricardo Vaz Te lifted West Ham one point ahead of Southampton with a game in hand.
Birmingham are up to third place after a 3-1 win at Barnsley that stretched their unbeaten run to 16 games.
Chris Hughton's team, who drew at Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, showed no signs of fatigue in their 44th game of the season as Barnsley captain Rob Edwards put the visitors ahead with an eighth minute own goal.
Barnsley's leading scorer Craig Davies equalised for the hosts in the 19th minute, but Keith Fahey restored Birmingham advantage in the 27th minute.
Birmingham substitute Nathan Redmond sealed the points with a cool finish in the 78th minute to leave the Blues five points behind second-placed Southampton with a game in hand.
Dutch striker Marvin Emnes scored twice as Middlesbrough moved back into the play-off places with a 3-1 win at struggling Millwall.
Tony Mowbray's team had slipped out of the top six after a run of seven games without a win, but they followed up last week's victory over Nottingham Forest - their first in 2012 - with another valuable three points.
Emnes struck twice in the first half before Millwall, who had scored just once in the league at home since November, got one back through Darius Henderson just before half-time.
But the Lions couldn't find an equaliser despite a spirited second-half performance and a late strike from substitute Curtis Main condemned them to another defeat.
Source: AFP
