MANCHESTER CITY displaced Burnley at the top of the first division as the race for the Premier League hotted up - despite the freezing temperatures.

The Clarets, who were beaten 5-1 at Maine Road on Saturday, are now in second spot after falling foul of the weather for the second time inside a week.

That left fans staying at home and monitoring the progress of promotion rivals on another mixed day of results.

City's 3-1 win at Sheffield United took them top for the first time this season, a day later than manager Kevin Keegan had hoped.

Third placed Wolves were also frozen off and Norwich City missed the chance to go second when they were held at home by lowly Walsall.

Millwall enjoyed an impressive 4-1 win at Watford while West Brom hammered another nail into Stockport County's coffin and those two sides now fill the final play-off spots.

Stockport equalled a club record of nine successive defeats when they crashed 4-0 at West Bromwich to stay firmly anchored at the bottom of the table.

Jason Roberts claimed the first, Andy Johnson the second and Daniele Dichio banged in two in five minutes to complete the rout.

Birmingham City squandered an early lead as they were held at home by Nottingham Forest and they have now dropped out of the top six.

But with just 13 points separating the clubs in the top half of the table the one thing that is clear is that the tension will mount in the coming weeks. The Clarets have at least one game in hand on all the other clubs in the top ten and they will also take comfort from the fact that they have already played away at every club in that pack.

The key to success will be how well they cope when the games start to come thick and fast.

Shaun Goater became the country's top scorer with his 24th of the season after 56 minutes of City's clash with Sheffield United and Eyal Berkovic was unmarked to double the lead.

The game was in stoppage time when Michael Brown pulled one back for the Blades but there was still time for Shaun Wright-Phillips to get on the scoresheet.

Keegan said: "It was a good result - they will beat a lot of teams that we want them to beat this season.

"It's a tough place to come - a number of teams around us still have to come here and they won't fare as well as we have."

Norwich produced a disappointing display at home against Walsall ended in a 1-1 draw.

David Nielsen made it five in as many games to put the Canaries in front but when they failed to clear a second half corner Andy Tillson banged in the loose ball to earn the Saddlers a point.

Tim Cahill scored on his 150th league appearance for Millwall, Richard Sadlier bagged his 14th of the season and Steven Reid put the Lions three up.

Heidar Helguson gave the Hornets a smattering of hope but it was snuffed out when Neil Harris netted his first goal since winning his battle against cancer to make it 4-1.

To add to Gianluca Vialli's woes Ramon Vega was sent off in time added on.

Stockport equalled a club record of nine successive defeats when they crashed 4-0 at West Bromwich to stay firmly anchored at the bottom of the table.

Jason Roberts claimed the first, Andy Johnson the second and Daniele Dichio banged in two in five minutes to complete the rout.

Barnsley's clash with managerless Grimsby ended in a 0-0 draw and in the noon shoot-out at St Andrews, Birmingham could only draw 1-1 with Nottingham Forest. Tommy Mooney gave the Blues the lead after four minutes but Stern John levelled 22 minutes later.

The rest of the First Division programme was frozen off and only two games survived in the Second.

Stoke took advantage to go to the top of the table with Ukrainian Sergei Shtaniuk putting them in front against Blackpool and James O'Connor ensuring the points eight minutes from time.

Reading moved into fourth with a 2-0 home win over Port Vale, Jamie Cureton netting from the spot in the 83rd minute and doubling his tally a minute from the whistle.

In the Third Division the only game to survive was at Torquay where Cheltenham won for the fourth time in a five-match unbeaten run, Lee Williams netting in the 58th minute to leave the Devonians without a win in eight games.