Nottingham Forest's automatic promotion hopes look to be over after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Bristol City.
Forest slip 11 points behind Baggies
Nottingham Forest's automatic promotion hopes look to be over after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Bristol City.
The draw leaves Forest 11 points adrift of second-placed West Brom with five games remaining.
Liam Fontaine gave the home side an early lead, but Guy Moussi's stunning long-range effort drew Forest level before the break.
Striker Stefan Maierhofer played in goal for the last few minutes as City were reduced to 10 men due to a serious injury to Dean Gerken, with caretaker manager Keith Millen having used all three substitutes, but Forest were unable to secure a winner and looked destined for the play-offs.
The point delays Newcastle's promotion as defeat for Forest coupled with the Magpies' win at Peterborough would have confirmed the league leaders' return to the Premier League.
Wretched start
Forest made a wretched start, with the in-form Robins taking the lead after just two minutes.
Defender Fontaine tried his luck from the edge of the penalty area and his strike was deflected into the bottom-right corner of Lee Camp's net.
Forest midfielder George Boyd should have done better with a header from 12 yards out but the Scotland international failed to test City goalkeeper Gerken.
Cole Skuse flashed a shot wide at the other end but Forest were back on level terms after 28 minutes courtesy of a fine strike from Moussi.
The Frenchman was allowed too much time and space and the home side were made to pay when he lashed a venomous right-footed drive into the top-right corner of Gerken's goal.
City showed a positive response to going behind and leading scorer Nicky Maynard drove a shot just wide before Camp made a fine save to tip Fontaine's overhead kick over the crossbar.
Boyd had another chance to open his Forest account but shot straight at Gerken after 64 minutes, and less than a minute later the visitors were fortunate not to be behind for a second time when Danny Haynes' right-footed strike came back off the post.
Denied
Forest could have capitalised on that stroke of luck when Nathan Tyson raced clear but the striker was denied by the alert Gerken just a minute after coming on and then Chris Cohen lashed a left-footed shot wide when following up.
Gerken thwarted the visitors once again with 11 minutes remaining when Luke Chambers crossed for Joe Garner and his downward header was palmed away by the City goalkeeper.
The afternoon ended on a sour note for Gerken, who was carried off on a stretcher after suffering an injury, but the 10 men stood firm to secure a point.
