Coventry City drop to eighteen in the League One table after the matches on Tuesday night.
City dropped down a place nearer the relegation zone after Oldham Athletic came back to snatch a 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient.
A win for Crewe would have taken them above Steven Pressley's side who have two games in hand on most of the teams around the bottom of the table but they were beaten 3-1 at home by Notts County who moved off the bottom of the table on goal difference.
Tranmere could have joined City on 42 points but lost 2-1 to Swindon Town and Carlisle and Shrewsbury Town stay in the bottom four after a 0-0 draw at Brunton Park.
At the top of the table, Wolves beat Colchester 4-2 to go four points clear of Brentford who lost 3-0 at Rotherham, who moved into fourth place. Preston are fifth after a 3-1 win against Peterborough.
Elsewhere, Walsall won 2-0 at Bradford City, Port Vale were beaten 5-0 at Bristol City, Sheffield United won 2-0 at Crawley and Gillingham won 1-0 at MK Dons.