Crewe 1-0 Peterborough United

Steve Davis's Crewe have kept consecutive clean sheets in League One

Crewe beat nine-man Peterborough at Gresty Road to move off the bottom of League One, as second-placed Posh lost ground on leaders Bristol City.

Posh keeper Ben Alnwick kept out George Ray's header before Michael Bostwick was sent off for fouling Crewe's Adam Dugdale from the resulting corner.

Marcus Haber converted the penalty, while he and Brad Inman were denied a second by Alnwick before half-time.

Jack Baldwin saw red for a second bookable offence in stoppage time.

Prior to that, Inman missed the opportunity to double Crewe's lead late on, shooting wide when one-on-one with Alnwick.

Despite the best efforts of the impressive Marcus Maddison, who was a threat for the visitors throughout, the Alex were able to keep consecutive clean sheets for the first time this season.

Peterborough, who had won three of their previous four matches, remain second in the table, but they are now six points behind Bristol City after Steve Cotterill's side drew 2-2 with Bradford at Ashton Gate.

Crewe, meanwhile, climb above Scunthorpe and Walsall after beating Posh for the first time since April 1996.

Crewe Alexandra manager Steve Davis told BBC Radio Stoke:

"I'm looking up, not looking down any more. It's still very close down there. But we're scrapping for everything now. It's always amazing how quickly things can change in football, in just three games.

"Peterborough were very good. They've got some excellent players, but when they went to 10 men they were still good. We've done well to overcome a team of that calibre.

"The penalty has proved the winning incident. I didn't see it at first but I watched it again in the changing room at half time and you could clearly see that he pulled him back. There could've been no complaints about the second red card either."