Northampton Town aimed to bounce back immediately from their home defeat at the hands of York City when they travelled to face Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night.
The Cobblers went into the fixture five points behind the automatic promotion places, knowing that this was their game in hand on third-placed Burton Albion but also that they needed a positive result to help ensure at least a play-off place come the end of the season.
Wanderers are safe in mid-table but defeated Aldershot at the weekend and manager Gareth Ainsworth had promised that his side would battle hard until the end of the campaign.
He was certainly true to his word as the Chairboys earned a goalless draw that leaves Northampton four points off a top-three finish but a point closer to the end of season shootout that is the play-offs.
The Cobblers have gone four games without a goal at a crucial time of the season but at least ended a run of consecutive defeats ahead of a tough trip to Port Vale at the weekend.
Reaction - Aidy Boothroyd said afterwards: "The important thing tonight was to keep a clean sheet, to wipe the blood off our nose from Saturday and to put in a good performance and I felt we did that.
"It's very rarely you come away from home and have a team on the back foot as we did tonight.
"We were going for it and the lads are very disappointed, but I know that over time if we play like that we'll win a lot more than we lose."