The main stand at the oldest professional football ground in the world shook. It was the moment to ignite Mansfield Town dreams, a goal from the substitute Will Evans early in the second half to hint at something extraordinary.
It ought to have been a mismatch. Quadruple-chasing Arsenal, the top team in England and Europe so far this season, against the one that sits 16th in League One. It was anything but and now Evans had cancelled out Noni Madueke’s first-half opener.
The Mansfield fans were delirious; disbelieving, too. Nigel Clough’s team, after all, cannot buy a league win at present. It was only the fifth time that Mansfield had reached the FA Cup fifth round; the previous occasion was in 1975. Was one of the biggest results in their history about to play out?
Arsenal cut through the romance. They had the outstanding player on the pitch in the 16-year-old midfielder Max Dowman – a celebration of drive and balance – and they had the answers.
It said plenty about the outstanding collective effort from Mansfield that Mikel Arteta had to turn to one of his big guns on the bench. He introduced Eberechi Eze, the hero of last season’s final for Crystal Palace, just after the hour. Minutes later, Eze had fizzed a shot high into the Mansfield net from the edge of the area to break their hearts.
