The game reverted to type. Sholing controlled for long spells, with Sullivan becoming increasingly isolated, and gaps again appearing down both flanks. McCarthy looked certain to restore the visitors’ lead early on, only for Allan’s trailing leg to keep Parkway honest, before Dan Mason found a pocket of space but fired straight down the throat of the busy Parkway keeper.

Parkway did carve out half-chances of their own. Hall’s graft teed up Jenson Ireland for a rising effort from the edge, while a Rio Garside set piece was comfortable for Dec McCarthy in the Sholing goal. Then came a flashpoint: Rio went down in the area under a challenge, and Parkway’s appeals were waved away. It was a good shout, and the home faithful were quick to point out the similarity to the penalty conceded in the first half.

Watts-Barciela continued to be Parkway’s outlet, his penetrating runs down the right causing Sholing plenty to think about. But it was Allan who became the central figure as the half developed into a backs-to-the-wall task. Save after save kept Parkway level during a relentless ten-minute spell where red and white shirts camped in the Parkway half and the hosts simply couldn’t get out, a mirror of Dorchester’s siege in midweek.

Veale, Scarff and Brett were pivotal in the resistance, and on 65 minutes Parkway looked to change the status quo as Rocky Neal returned to the Theatre, replacing the hard-working Simons. Yet Neal too became an isolated figure as the ten behind him dropped deeper and deeper. Sullivan drifted wide and fed on scraps while Sholing kept pushing. McCarthy then rattled the bar with a point-blank header from eight yards with Allan beaten, leaving even the Sholing commentator asking how his side weren’t ahead.

But despite all the dominance, Parkway never quite folded. They had soaked it up at Dorchester four days earlier and finished on the front foot, and there was a sense they were trying to summon that same late surge. Garside found space on the edge but skidded his effort wide, while Rabbetts — the thorn in Parkway’s side all afternoon — continued to motor down the left with a man-of-the-match performance similar in influence to Uxbridge’s Giammattei here earlier in the season.

The final ten minutes were gruelling for the home followers. A host of corners, Parkway’s kryptonite in recent weeks, almost undid them again. A well-worked routine saw Magri denied from six yards by Allan, before Targett flashed a fine effort inches wide as Parkway’s goal led a charmed life.

Tempers then flared after a silly foul on Sullivan sparked a full-on ruck, the referee eventually restoring order and booking one player from either side. Parkway were handed a late set-piece opportunity in the dying moments, but Sholing cleared their lines and the whistle brought relief as much as satisfaction.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a big point. Sholing showed every bit of a side well placed in the table and eyeing a play-off push, while for Parkway it was another step forward in the art of staying in games, turning a looming defeat into a point for arguably the second match in a row.

Next up is Wimborne at Bolitho Park, a side who have already beaten Parkway this season and one the Yellows must surely target three points from.