NOTTINGHAM Forest and Leeds stayed in the race for Europe yesterday and stole the limelight from the English Premier League title-chasers - for a day at least.
Forest's 2-1 win over relegation candidates Crystal Palace, their goals coming from Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore, kept them in third place on 73 points while Leeds stayed in the frame with a controversial last-gasp 1-0 win against Aston Villa.
Those defeats spelt despair for Palace and Villa, who remain deep in the mire.
Yesterday's action, however, only acted as an hors d'oeuvre for the main menu - Blackburn's away clash with relegation candidates West Ham today and Manchester United's visit to Coventry tomorrow.
Kenny Dalglish's leaders, on 86 points from 39 games, will claim their first title in 81 years if they win and United, on 78 and with a game in hand, crash to defeat.
Leeds kept their UEFA qualification dream open with a goal in the final moments by Carlton Palmer just minutes after the midfielder's tussle with Mark Bosnich ended with the Villa 'keeper being shown the red card.
Tony Yeboah, himself with 10 goals in 12 starts for Leeds, set up the goal.