17/03/2008 - Peterboro 0 Notts County 0
In a week when the choice between thoroughbred titans Kauto Star and Denman gave the sporting world a headache, the Magpies' clash at Peterborough was like a paracetamol.
It was a forgone conclusion for the bookies before a ball was kicked in anger.
The league leaders were in supreme form and started red-hot favourites to claim a club record-equalling ninth successive league victory.
Only the margin of a home win needed to be decided.
Relegation-threatened Notts County were, to put it simply, rank outsiders.
Despite boasting an impressive away record of five games unbeaten ahead of the trip to London Road, they were not given a hope of handling the awesome firepower of Aaron McLean - the league's most lethal striker - and Craig Mackail-Smith.
The deadly duo would tear the Magpies apart was the popular belief.
In short, it would be a one-sided 90 minute mismatch of epic proportions.
But in the build-up to the game, there was a strong belief in the Magpies' ranks that universal expectation could be thoroughly and spectacularly upset. And rightly so in the end.
Maybe Ian McParland's men were insulted by being written off before they got off the team coach. Maybe it spurred them on. Maybe it inspired a siege-mentality in the away dressing-room before kick-off. Maybe they walked out on to the pitch intent on proving all wrong. Maybe not.
But the fact is they did. How they did.
It was an outstanding performance from beginning to end.
Notts were put under enormous pressure at times during the game, particularly in the first half. But they were resolute throughout. They stood tall.
There was an opening onslaught from the home side as Claude Gnakpa sent a stinging effort over the crossbar from the right edge of the penalty area in the first minute.
McLean then sent a snap-shot on the turn over the crossbar from 20-yards, after Notts struggled to clear a free-kick, and Mackail-Smith then directed an effort just past Russell Hoult's left-hand upright.
The Magpies could have collapsed under the early pressure. But they didn't.
Peterborough went close to breaking the deadlock again on 37 minutes when Dean Keates curled a cross into the box and Craig Morgan met it unmarked.
He directed his header down, but too steeply and it bounced up and over the crossbar.
George Boyd then turned past Mike Edwards in the closing minutes of the first half and sent a right-footed effort at goal that Hoult held comfortably.
In the face of it all, there was no lapse in concentration and no costly mistake - frailties that have plagued the Magpies so far this season.
Instead, there was a steely determination coursing through the side's veins not to be defeated. The performance oozed pride and commitment to the club's cause.
And in the second half they came out with even greater determination and commitment and stifled the threat of the likes of McLean and Mackail-Smith brilliantly.
Assistant boss Dave Kevan summed it up best when he described each player as a warrior.
In an extraordinary team effort, there were also moments of sheer individual class. Hoult pulled off a series of unbelievable saves to deny the title-chasers - two were a class apart. The first of those scrapbook saves came on the half-hour mark when unmarked midfielder Boyd unleashed a venomous close-range effort at the far post, after a cross from the right had gone all the way across the face of goal.
Hoult showed great agility and instinct to parry the shot out for a corner. It was a certain connection and it would have given the home side the lead had the veteran keeper not intervened so incredibly.
The second came in the dying embers of the game, as Peterborough exerted some late pressure on the Magpies' back-line.
Full-back Gnakpa whipped in a cross from the right that substitute Charlie Lee rose and met with a powerful point-blank header, but Hoult again reacted in a split-second to save the effort - and a precious point for Notts.
Hoult was not alone in being impressive. New signing Wayne Corden showed the kind of flair and familiarity with his team-mates that defied the fact he only arrived at Meadow Lane a day before the game.
He carried a threat throughout and his influence grew in the second half.
He recorded the first effort on target, with a low drive from the left edge of the penalty area in the second half. And he rifled a stinging long-range effort at goal later in the game that keeper Joe Lewis claimed at the second attempt.
His set-piece delivery was also good. And it was from a corner he curled into the box on 66 minutes that Notts came so close to breaking the deadlock.
Mike Edwards made a dart to the near post to flick the flag-kick on and Michael Johnson met it cleanly at the far post, but Lewis threw himself in the path of his shot and blocked it away to safety.
It was arguably the best chance of the game and it would have been a smash-and-grab victory in the truest sense of the meaning if Johnson had scored his first goal for the club.
Notts might have fallen a place in the relegation reckoning. And all three of their rivals, Macclesfield, Mansfield and Wrexham might all have claimed crucial victories as they picked up a point.
But in the grand survival scheme, a point at Peterborough and the manner of the Magpies' performance is hugely significant.