Town have dropped to third in the Championship following today’s postponement at Portsmouth, but with leaders Coventry again dropping points.
The Sky Blues, who have now won only two of their last eight games, were beaten 3-2 at Birmingham and had central defender Bobby Thomas red-carded for violent conduct late on.
Middlesbrough moved ahead of Town into second following a comfortable 4-0 defeat of Southampton at the Riverside, ending a four-match winless run.
Boro are two points ahead of the Blues and six behind Coventry but with Town having a game in hand on both teams in front of them.
Elsewhere at the top, Preston climbed to fourth after winning 2-0 at Bristol City, for whom ex-Blues skipper Sam Morsy made his debut as a second-half sub.
Millwall bagged a last-gasp winner as they defeated Swansea City 2-1 at the Den, while Stoke moved up to eighth having won 2-0 at Norwich.
Watford’s game at Hull City was postponed 18 minutes before its scheduled start due to potentially dangerous areas surrounding the pitch.
More details have emerged regarding the postponement of the Town match. The covers at Fratton Park, which doesn’t have undersoil heating or a hybrid pitch, were put in place at 1pm on Friday.
After an overnight frost, precautionary inspections, which weren’t made public, were held at 9am and 10am by referee Leigh Doughty with the two managers present, before the clubs announced that a formal inspection would take place at 11am and potentially another at midday should it be required.
Referee Doughty called the game off after the 11am inspection due to a frozen area of the surface which is overshadowed by the South Stand roof and therefore not getting any sun causing concern.
The postponement, the first at Fratton Park for a frozen pitch since February 2014, will be a frustration to the Blues more than Pompey, who were going into the match with a significant injury crisis and following a 5-0 hammering at Bristol City on Thursday.
A new date will now be arranged with Portsmouth also having to find a date for their visit to Charlton, which was abandoned after a supporter was taken ill at the start of December.
Town boss Kieran McKenna will have to wait until Saturday, until the FA Cup visit by Blackpool, for his 200th game in charge of the Blues, while Pompey manager John Mousinho will similarly celebrate 150 matches with his club when the Hampshire side host Arsenal a week today.