Carlisle United's gap to League One survival increases

With the Blues' game at Cheltenham Town frozen off, other strugglers made the road to safety even tougher for Paul Simpson's side.

Exeter City's goalless draw with Cambridge United took the third tier's fifth-bottom side onto 27 points, with United second bottom on 20.

Fourth-bottom Reading failed to take the chance to make inroads in the survival battle as they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic, Thelo Aasgaard getting the only goal.

The Royals are now four points adrift of safety.

The bottom end of League One after this weekend's games (Image: Google)

Bottom side Fleetwood Town, meanwhile, were unable to leapfrog Carlisle in the relegation zone.

They fell to a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of leaders Portsmouth.

Abu Kamara's goal consigned Charlie Adam's hosts to a fifth straight defeat, keeping them two points adrift of the Cumbrians.

Other sides hovering above the danger zone had mixed fortunes in the other games that survived the weather.

Burton Albion claimed a 2-0 home win over Charlton Athletic to move up to 15th, Mark Helm and John Brayford getting the goals as new boss Martin Paterson claimed a first victory since taking charge.

Shrewsbury Town slipped to 19th after they suffered a 2-1 defeat to promotion-chasing Peterborough United.

Jordan Shipley gave the Shrews a half-time lead but Joel Randall and Josh Knight hit back for second-placed Posh. Shrewsbury are on 30 points, ten more than the Cumbrians.

Elsewhere in League One, Carlisle's next two opponents met in east London as Bolton Wanderers suffered a 1-0 defeat at Leyton Orient.

Dan Agyei hit the only goal for the home side, who are ninth with Ian Evatt's Bolton fourth ahead of next weekend's trip to Brunton Park.

Blackpool kept their promotion hopes alive with a 2-1 win at Bristol Rovers. CJ Hamilton and Karamoko Dembele were on target for Neil Critchley's side, Chris Martin getting the hosts' consolation at the Memorial Stadium.

Lincoln City and Derby County played out a 0-0 draw at Sincil Bank, the sides 11th and third respectively.

As well as United's trip to Cheltenham, other games postponed in the division were Oxford United's home fixture against Northampton Town, Port Vale's home clash with Wycombe Wanderers and Barnsley's trip to Stevenage.

Carlisle have still played at least a game more than all the sides around them, with Fleetwood having played one game fewer, Reading two games fewer and Cheltenham three.