High-flying Peterborough United continue to march on after their narrow win at Notts County, which plunges the Meadow Lane outfit further into the doldrums.
The contrasting fortunes of the two clubs were reflected in the attendance. Whereas over 1,500 Posh fans made the journey, there were fewer than 3,000 County diehards in the stadium.
The Magpies at least produced a far more dogged and competitive performance than in their meek exit to non-League Havant & Waterlooville three days before.
That knockout led to Notts manager Ian McParland making wholesale changes, whereas Posh chief Darren Ferguson was content to leave well alone for the third game running.
The contest really came to life in the closing stages of the first half with one of the misses of the season the big talking point.
It was committed by League Two leading scorer Aaron McLean, who was looking for his 17th goal of the season. It was presented to him through a sparkling run by full-back Jamie Day, but McLean's response was to spoon the ball into the crowd.
Peterborough were nearly made to pay for the miss two minutes later. Striker Jason Lee, still searching for his first goal of the season, found himself one-on-one with Mark Tyler, but the goalkeeper blocked the effort and Day tidied up.
The second half had barely restarted when Day once more fed McLean, who this time flashed a volley over the bar.
But on 53 minutes Posh went ahead. An unnecessary shirt-pull by Richard Butcher produced a free-kick which broke kindly for the visitors and Craig Mackail-Smith lashed the ball into the roof of the net at short-range for his 12th goal of the season.
In later exchanges Notts goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington saved splendidly from the save player.
Despite a reasonable amount of possession, Notts lacked a cutting-edge and seldom looked capable of breaking down the Posh rearguard.