30/10/2007 - Shrewsbury 0 Mansfield Town 0
IF there comes a point in the rest of the season where results start to go badly wrong for Mansfield again, boss Billy Dearden only needs to pull a DVD of this game out of his office drawer to give his players inspiration.
Because what they will see is a performance that brings together all the characteristics a team needs to get out of a rut and back on track.
All the odds were stacked against the Stags at the New Meadow, yet they emerged with a terrific point that was richly deserved after a gutsy and committed effort from the whole squad.
Playing in the rough and tumble, highly competitive world of League Two, matches are never going to be easy and rarely pretty.
But if the team continue to show this kind of resolve, even when events conspire against them, then there is no way they are going to be the relegation fodder they were beginning to look a few weeks ago.
Gone is the defensively leaky, nervous team that crumble and look beaten once things begin to go against them.
In their place is one that is much more thrifty, confident and keen to scrap until the death. It was always going to be difficult for Mansfield in Shropshire because of the direct and physical style of their opponents.
So when Matt Hamshaw was carried off on a stretcher in the 38th minute after partially swallowing his tongue - he was okay after hospital treatment - and then Johnny Mullins was sent off for two bookable offences in first-half stoppage time, it would have been easy for Mansfield to wave the white flag of surrender.
With 45 minutes still to go, Shrewsbury were suddenly big favourites to take the points, despite being out-of-form themselves. There were times in the second period that the Stags rode their luck and they needed a spectacular save from Carl Muggleton and a header off the line from Lee Bell within seconds of each other to maintain parity.
Yet in the end, a draw was a fair reflection of their endeavours and they might even have snatched a first away success of the season.
As it was, the single point they collected - the fourth consecutive match they have contested against Shrewsbury that has ended all square - was not only enough to lift Mansfield off the bottom of League Two, but also out of the relegation zone as well.
After Wrexham and Lincoln both lost, three teams now have nine points each, but with the Stags having tightened up their rearguard, they have the best goal difference.
There is no underestimating the psychological boost the move up the table will give Dearden's side after their morale-destroying six defeats in a row in September and the first half of October.
It is also a testament to how much they have improved because just three weeks ago they were four points adrift at the bottom.
What is crucial now, though, is that the players do not think the job is done. After all, they are still far from where they want to be. Dearden has always stressed that this team are capable of pushing into the top half of the table - and that is possible.
But it is still a long way off at the present time and the only way it will be achieved is if Mansfield keep their mini-run going.
Stags have gone three games without defeat but if that were to become seven games by the end of November, the club's prospects would look much healthier.
And the good thing is they have every opportunity of doing just that. First up is this Saturday's home game with Macclesfield and there is also a Field Mill clash with fellow strugglers Wrexham.
Away from home things look slightly trickier with high-flying Hereford and Rochdale - who have the Midas touch against the Stags at Spotland - the next two trips. But the team showed at Barnet and again on Saturday that even if three points are not forthcoming, sneaking a point at least keeps the momentum going.
The game as a spectacle was poor with not too much in the way of goalmouth action at either end.
Shrewsbury went closest when Colin Murdock headed wide at the far post from Dave Hibbert's centre while Bell shot wide of the right-hand post with Glynn Garner at full stretch.
The main talking point was the length of the half - nine minutes of stoppage time were played because of Hamshaw's nasty injury - and the dismissal of Mullins. After being rightly booked in the third minute, the former Reading man saw red for fouling Marc Pugh just moments after being handed a final warning by the referee.
That left Mansfield with a mountain to climb after the break and, with Sean McAllister on for the injured Arnold and Bell dropping in at right-back, they initially struggled in a 4-4-1 formation with Michael Boulding on his own up top.
It was during that period that the Shrews threaten to over-run Stags and had their best chances, but the decision to go back to two up front and three in midfield was critical.
Boulding and Simon Brown were able to close down the Shrewsbury full-backs out wide, while skipper Jake Buxton and Alex John-Baptiste coped admirably with the raft of long balls hoisted through the middle.
Substitute Sean McAllister also reinvented Mansfield as an attacking threat as Murdock almost put through his own goal and first Brown, and then Boulding from the follow-up, failed to capitalise on close-range shooting chances in the 72nd minute.
It was a sign of Mansfield's assuredness that they never looked likely to concede in the last five minutes -which has so often been their downfall in the past.
Full-time brought a loud cheer from the 400 visiting fans that was followed by an even bigger one when they realised Mansfield had moved up two places.
Without doubt, they believe their team can pull away from danger and, crucially, it seems the players now share that optimism.