Nottingham Forest moved up to second place in the Championship with a 3-1 win over West Brom.
Reds prevail in the battle of the promotion hopefuls
Nottingham Forest moved up to second place in the Championship with a 3-1 win over fellow promotion hopefuls West Brom at The Hawthorns.
Dexter Blackstock, Radoslaw Majewski and Chris Cohen did the damage for the Reds, as they stretched their unbeaten run in the league to 17 games, while Roman Bednar grabbed the Baggies' consolation.
A cagey opening saw both sides trade blows without landing anything close to resembling a knockout blow.
It was, however, Forest who settled quickest and they edged ahead after 18 minutes when Blackstock beat debutant Gabriel Tamas to a swinging corner from the left and volleyed home off the inside of a post.
West Brom looked rattled thereafter, while Forest flourished, and they were booed from the field at the interval after giving those who had braved the big freeze little to get excited about.
Things got little better for the hosts after the interval, with Forest wrapping the points up inside 11 minutes.
First Majewski crashed home an unstoppable volley on 53 minutes, with the underside of the crossbar rattled on the way in.
Then, three minutes later, Cohen sent the away support into dreamland as he drilled into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Bednar did pull one back for the Baggies on 64 minutes, and Roberto Di Matteo's men did force plenty of pressure late on, but it was all too little too late.
Tussle
Albion staff worked wonders ensuring the eagerly-anticipated encounter got the go-ahead as the wintry conditions played havoc with the rest of Britain's sporting calendar.
And the first 15 minutes promised plenty as snow started to fall in the Black Country, although there was very little goalmouth action with wayward shooting very much the order of the day.
But all that changed as Blackstock won a corner in a tussle with Jonas Olsson and then managed to break free of Albion new boy Tamas before volleying Majewski's set-piece in off the near post from six yards.
Both sides continued to show enough endeavour and attacking intent as the first half wore on to suggest more goals would be forthcoming.
And it was the visitors who were looking the more likely to find the net with some patient approach play while the Baggies were guilty of losing possession far too often.
As the half-time whistle blew it was Davies' side who were well in control of proceedings but without a second goal to show for their efforts, while the majority of the 22,873 home crowd booed their side off.
West Brom head coach Di Matteo introduced Bednar in place of the ineffective Luke Moore at the interval to try and spark a response.
Hesitant
But his side found themselves with a mountain to climb in the 53rd minute when they were undone by more hesitant defending amid a shaky restart.
Tamas' half-cleared header was picked up by Guy Moussi, he spread the ball out to Chris Gunter on the right and his cross to the back post was emphatically volleyed home off the crossbar by Majewski.
And the game was effectively over as a contest three minutes later as more intricate approach play was finished off with a fine strike into the bottom left corner by Cohen.
The Albion fans that left after the third goal missed their side pull one back shortly after the hour mark when Bednar converted Graham Dorrans' incisive pass across the penalty area.
The goal seemed to spur the hosts into action and it was somewhat of a defensive mission for the Reds in the final 25 minutes.
But they stood firm to maintain their unbeaten away record in the league this season and strike a psychological blow on their rivals.
