Nottingham Forest battled to a 1-0 win over Peterborough to stay in touch with the Championship leaders.
Forest march on at City Ground
Nottingham Forest battled to a 1-0 victory over Peterborough to stay in touch with the Championship leaders.
Robert Earnshaw netted the only goal of the game after 13 minutes as Forest continued their remarkable run of form at the City Ground.
Billy Davies' side have now won 11 consecutive games at home, although they were made to work hard by the division's bottom club.
Forest's aspirations of an automatic promotion berth had stalled on the back of six successive away defeats and the hosts were almost caught cold when Chris Whelpdale went close for Jim Gannon's side early on, flashing a long-range effort a yard wide of Lee Camp's goal.
But the deadlock was broken in the 13th minute when Chris Cohen's long ball to the far post was headed back across goal by Radoslaw Majewski and an unmarked Earnshaw did the rest for his 13th goal of the season.
Earnshaw would have added a second but for a fine stop from United goalkeeper Joe Lewis as Davies was forced into a reshuffle when James Perch was forced off after 20 minutes after taking a knock, Luke Chambers entering the fray.
Tested
Craig Mackail-Smith, Charlie Lee and, with the best opportunity, Tommy Rowe all tested Camp as the visitors battled their way back into the game and the rain continued to fall heavily.
At the other end Dexter Blackstock headed goalwards for Lewis to save while Majewski was fortunate to escape with just a yellow card after a full-on challenge on Scott Griffiths as Forest went in perhaps fortunate to be ahead at the break.
Dominic Green and Reuben Reid were introduced at the start of the second half as Gannon looked to freshen up his side.
Camp was called back into action early on to parry firstly Gabriel Zakuani's header and then gather Mackail-Smith's effort but Forest began to find their feet.
Zakuani hammered an effort that Camp failed to hold as Posh came again but Forest stood firm and were inches away from a second when Cohen let fly from range and Lewis used his fingertips to divert the ball onto a post.
Lewis dived full-length to push sub Garath McCleary's strike away from goal and Cohen was booked for a challenge on Sergio Torres but the hosts held firm for maximum points despite a late Posh penalty shout.
