Sheffield United nudged to the top of League One but failed to take full advantage of former leaders Tranmere's inactivity as they were held to a goalless draw at Swindon.
The result takes the Blades top of the table on goal difference ahead of Stevenage, who jumped from fourth to second after an impressive 3-1 win at Yeovil.
Filipe Morais opened the scoring for the visitors after two minutes and despite a quick-fire equaliser from Paddy Madden, Stevenage claimed the win with second half goals from Lucas Akins and James Dunne.
Starting the night in third place, Crawley suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Coventry, for whom John Fleck scored a ninth-minute opener then set up David McGoldrick to make it 2-0 in first-half injury time.
Billy Clarke pulled one back for the visitors on 56 minutes but McGoldrick's second just past the hour mark sealed a much-needed win for the Sky Blues.
Neal Bishop and Alan Judge scored in the first half to give Notts County a 2-0 win at Colchester, while Doncaster fell to a 2-0 home defeat to lowly Crewe, Lauri Dalla Valle and Mathias Pogba grabbing the goals for Alex.
Struggling Bury earned their first away win of the season with a 2-1 success at Oldham. A James Tarkowski own goal and a late second from Steven Schumacher sealed the points, before Robbie Simpson's stoppage-time consolation.
And fellow strugglers Scunthorpe shrugged off the 45th-minute dismissal of David Prutton to sail to a 4-1 win at Walsall.
Niall Canavan and Mark Duffy gave the Iron the early advantage and Prutton's dismissal made no difference with Canavan adding his second on 50 and Leon Clarke making it 4-0 five minutes later before Will Grigg's injury time consolation.
An stoppage-time header from Graham Cummins salvaged a point for Preston in a 1-1 draw with Carlisle, who had gone ahead through Joe Garner's 31st-minute penalty, while Clayton Donaldson's ninth-minute header gave Brentford a 1-0 win at Portsmouth.
Two goals in the first 10 minutes from Charlie Daniels and Josh McQuoid set Bournemouth on their way to a 2-1 win over Shrewsbury, who replied through Matt Richards' penalty on 14.
