Jonjo Shelvey struck twice as Newcastle roared to within a point of Championship leaders Huddersfield with a 6-0 rout of QPR.
Rafael Benitez's men were 2-0 up at the break at Loftus Road through Shelvey and Ayoze Perez, and things went from bad to worse for Rangers when the £12 million midfielder curled home a superb third within three minutes of the restart.
Further goals from Ciaran Clark, Aleksandar Mitrovic and substitute Grant Hanley completed a fifth successive league win for the Magpies and the heaviest home league defeat in the West London club's history.
Newcastle had started the day four points adrift of leaders Huddersfield, but closed the gap when the Terriers lost for the first time in the Championship this season at Brighton.
Keeper Danny Ward could not keep out Anthony Knockaert's 80th-minute effort as Chris Hughton's side did his former employers a favour with a 1-0 victory.
Barnsley maintained their early promotion challenge with a remarkable 4-0 win at Wolves with the goals all arriving inside the last 17 minutes, Conor Hourihane, Adam Hammill, Saidy Janko and Tom Bradshaw doing the damage.
Jacob Murphy ensured Norwich remain hot on the heels of the pace-setters after firing the Canaries to a 2-1 win over Wigan with a pair of goals inside 11 minutes at Carrow Road.
Jordi Gomez pulled one back for the visitors with 18 minutes remaining and keeper Michael McGovern had to make a late save from Will Grigg to deny the visitors a point.
Fulham needed an injury-time equaliser from Ryan Sessegnon to snatch a point from their 1-1 home clash with Burton after Jackson Irvine had put the visitors ahead six minutes into the second half.
But there was even greater drama at Hillsborough, where both Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City finished a five-goal thriller with 10 men.
On-loan Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham headed the visitors into a 2-0 half-time lead and although Steven Fletcher pulled a goal back seven minutes after the restart, Wednesday's hopes were swiftly dealt a blow when Sam Hutchinson was dismissed for a foul inside the box.
But Lee Tomlin's penalty hit the post and after Gary O'Neil had departed courtesy of the game's second red card, Barry Bannan levelled with 15 minutes remaining to set the stage for Kieran Lee to win it in stoppage time.
Derby failed to score once again as former Ram Luke Varney's lone strike handed Ipswich a 1-0 victory at the iPro Stadium, while Reading and Birmingham played out a stalemate at the Madejski Stadium.
At the foot of the table, Preston eased themselves out of the drop zone as goals from Tom Clarke, Callum Robinson and Jordan Hugill secured a 3-0 home win over Cardiff.
But Blackburn remain rooted at the bottom of the pile following a 2-1 defeat at Leeds, who won it through Kyle Bartley's 86th-minute header after Marvin Emnes had cancelled out Chris Wood's opener.