Queens Park Rangers picked up three points despite going a man down while Southampton grabbed a valuable point at Ipswich.

QPR enhanced their promotion credentials as Martin Rowland's first-half free-kick earned Iain Dowie's 10-men all three points against Norwich at Carrow Road.

Rowlands opened the scoring for Rangers when his ferocious 30th-minute free-kick from 20 yards evaded everyone, including helpless Canaries goalkeeper David Marshall to give the visitors an unexpected lead.

The goal came just five minutes after Dowie's men had been reduced to 10 men after Matthew Connolly had been dismissed for a second bookable offence.

The hosts dominated the second period but the visitors withstood a barrage of late pressure to hang on for a hard-fought three points.

Tomas Pekhart scored his first goal for Southampton to lift the home side off the bottom of the Coca-Cola Championship table with an entertaining 2-2 draw against Ipswich.

The Czech forward, on loan from Tottenham, came on as a substitute and secured a share of the spoils after goals from Owen Garvan and Alan Quinn had put Ipswich ahead, following Andrew Surman's 12th-minute opener.

The point salvaged by Pekhart's strike puts the south coast outfit on four points, one above Barnsley in the standings.