EPL Promotion Watch: Crystal Palace Take Championship Lead

Crystal Palace have benefited from the hiring of Ian Holloway as their new manager right away as they took control of the Championship table on Tuesday with a commanding 5-0 win over Ipswich Town.

The home crowd at Selhurst Park were treated to a five-goal win over the bottom club in the second flight as Glenn Murray continued his fantastic form with a hat trick.

Murray now has 13 goals this season, which is three behind Burnley's Charlie Austin for the league lead.

Palace made the jump into first place from third and were the first club to reach the 30-point milestone on the season.

The club that Palace jumped over to take the lead, Middlesbrough, were held to a 0-0 draw on the road at Nottingham Forest at The City Ground.

The draw ended the six-match winning streak that Boro had used to catapult themselves up to second place in the table with 29 points.

As for Cardiff, who led the table for the past two weeks, they suffered a disappointing road result at The Valley against Charlton Athletic.

The Bluebirds fell 5-4 in the most entertaining match during Tuesday's set of matches involving all 24 clubs.

Malky Mackay's club have lost their last two matches and face a crucial stretch of matches in the next two weeks as they host fourth place Hull City and Middlesbrough.

If they are to keep their third-place position, the Welsh club will have to keep their unbeaten run at home together; they have won their first seven matches at home this season.

Filling out the rest of the playoff positions behind third-place Cardiff are Hull City, Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers.

Hull won their third straight match on Tuesday with a 2-1 over Wolves at home.

Sone Aluko and Jay Simpson provided the goals for the club who now face two road trips in a row to face Cardiff and Birmingham.

Leicester's drop down the table continued after their 0-0 draw with Bolton at the Reebok Stadium.

The Foxes have only won one of their last five matches and have fallen from first to fifth during that streak of poor form.

Blackburn barely held on to sixth place in the table after they managed to earn a 2-2 draw with seventh place Huddersfield Town.

Blackburn were up for most of the match, but they conceded a stoppage time equalizer from Lee Novak and ended up with just one point on their travels.

After two days off from play in the English second flight, Middlesbrough will kick off the 16th round of fixtures on Friday when they host Sheffield Wednesday at the Riverside Stadium.

The other 22 clubs will play on Saturday and Sunday with Cardiff vs. Hull being the marquee match.