Lincoln clinched promotion to the Sky Bet Championship for the first time since 1961 thanks to a hard-earned 2-1 victory at League One playoff chasers Reading.

Needing just one point to return to the second tier for the first time in 65 years, Lincoln made a bright start and went in front in only the fifth minute through Ryan One.

Reading levelled in the second minute of stoppage time at the end, from a Lewis Wing free kick, but Jack Moylan snatched the winner four minutes later.

Harry Leonard’s equaliser earned a share of the spoils from a 1-1 draw for Peterborough against second-placed Cardiff who dropped yet more points in the promotion race.

Leonard immediately cancelled out Alex Robertson’s opener for the Bluebirds as their wobble extended to just two wins in eight games, with the gap between them and third – now occupied by Bradford – down to seven points.

Bradford came from behind to beat Wycombe 2-1 at Adams Park, Aden Baldwin’s second-half dealing their play-off hopes a huge boost after Bobby Pointon had cancelled out Andre Vidigal’s opener for Wycombe, who slumped to 11th.

Bolton and Stockport cancelled each other out with a 2-2 draw which effectively ended both teams’ hopes of securing automatic promotion, Ben Osborn’s late own goal earning the home side a point.

Stevenage moved back into the playoff places with a 1-0 win at home to Blackpool, Harvey White firing the winner in the 66th minute to raise hopes of promotion, though seventh-place Plymouth’s 3-0 win at Barnsley kept the pressure on.

Luton kept alive their play-off hopes with a 3-0 win away at AFC Wimbledon, Burton picked up a precious point in their battle for survival in a goalless draw at Mansfield, and Wigan took a significant step towards survival with a 3-1 win over Northampton at Sixfields.

Exeter ended a 15-match winless run to give their hopes of avoiding relegation a boost with a 3-0 thrashing of Doncaster while Leyton Orient lost 2-1 at home to Huddersfield.

In League Two, MK Dons failed to take advantage of leaders Barrow not playing as they were held to a 1-1 draw away at Oldham, Mike Fondop with a late goal to deny Dons after Marvin Ekpiteta’s opener.

Lucas Ness headed in his first two career goals to put Notts County into the top three following a 3-1 win over relegation-threatened Newport County at Meadow Lane, while Cheltenham dented Cambridge’s automatic promotion hopes after Jake Eastwood’s scored a stoppage-time own goal in a 1-1 draw.

Late goals from Fletcher Holman and Aaron Drinan saw Swindon come from behind to beat Walsall 2-1, Salford’s automatic play-off hopes were dented as they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Crewe while Chesterfield won 1-0 at Barrow.

First-half goals from Jaze Kabia and Harvey Rodgers boosted Grimsby’s play-off bid with a 2-0 win at 10-man Crawley, Gillingham were 2-0 winners against Accrington and Ellis Harrison scored twice as Bristol Rovers beat Harrogate 3-2.

Barnet moved to within four points of the play-off places with a 5-2 win over Fleetwood, Grimsby won 2-0 at Crawley and Tranmere lost 1-0 at home to Colchester.

Middlesbrough, who went into the Easter weekend in the top two, still had the opportunity to end it there with victory at Swansea City in the 17:30 BST game.

Alex Bangura set them on their way with a 12th-minute goal but, after two Zan Vipotnik penalties put the Swans in front, Boro needed a Tommy Conway spot-kick to rescue a point.

Boro are floundering with two wins in their past 10 matches and while they scored more than once for the first time in five games, the feeling remains they are a frustrating and inconsistent proposition in front of goal.

Manager Kim Hellberg said after the match there would be more “twists and turns” to come in the fight for promotion – after a day of such similar rollercoaster emotions.

“You’ve got three teams on 72 points – Ipswich have some games in hand, so they’re in a better position than the other two, but we are in a better position than Millwall because of our better goal difference,” he told BBC Radio Tees.

“There will be twists and turns. No team will just go and win games. It’s difficult and you need to just try in this period to get those points and wins.

“We have to keep fighting. It’s tough we didn’t win, because we thought we were good enough in the game to win, but then you have to do it.

“The easy answer at the moment is that we’re not being clinical enough or smart enough in different ways.”

With a four-point deficit to Ipswich, and a vastly inferior goal difference, plus the games in hand the Tractor Boys hold, Hull can be considered the outsiders in this race.

But the Tigers showed against Coventry they can match anyone in the division and once again reaffirmed the fantastic job Sergej Jakirovic has done in his first season in English football under a transfer embargo.

Although when asked about what that point means in terms of the wider context of Hull’s season, Jakirovic was talking more play-offs than automatic promotion.

“Somebody said it is 73, 74, 75 [to reach the play-offs] but God knows how many. Until we are in this position we will just look at ourselves and try to take points in every game,” Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside.

“Norwich are coming, Derby is there, Southampton… but, no matter, we must look at ourselves.”