A breathtaking postscript to Everton versus Aston Villa saw Ashley Young and Joleon Lescott trade injury-time goals and the visitors triumph 3-2.
Everton were celebrating wildly the hardest of hard-fought points through Lescott's second goal of the game two minutes into injury-time...
Villa's players lain prone on the pitch - two points had surely been cast off their team's Premier League total...
No! Young was still to streak clear and finish into the bottom corner to secure Villa a 93rd-minute winner!
To any neutrals present at Goodison Park, and for yours truly, it was like being hit by a car before being run over by a lorry.
All that and this game included a goal after just 34 seconds from Villa's Steve Sidwell.
With a raft of injuries to Everton strikers and with Villa too shorn of frontmen in the absence of John Carew, the attention was shifted on to players less accustomed to the limelight. How they delivered!
For a large spell of the second half, the attention, all of it unwanted, belonged to Phil Jagielka after his errant pass inadvertently ushered in Young for his first goal and Villa's second.
It was cruel on Jagielka, normally the model of consistency, and cruel on Everton too who dominated the match, despite falling behind to a first-minute thunderbolt from Sidwell.
Lescott drew the hosts level before half-time and the defender looked to have secured a draw in stoppage time only for the most incredible of finishes.
The match also began dramatically. Young’s ball in field was laid off by James Milner and Sidwell seized on the invitation to lash a 25-yard shot past Tim Howard.
Villa succeeded then in proving the old adage of scoring too early. Marouane Fellaini’s promptings from midfield encouraged The Toffees and the hitherto subdued home faithful who witnessed their team utterly dominate proceedings.
Brad Friedel was called upon to make his first save in the 25th minute when Leon Osman’s astute header ushered in Cahill to shoot powerfully but straight at the American.
On 30 minutes Everton achieved the parity their play had deserved.
The needless concession of a free-kick by Carlos Cuellar gave Mikel Arteta license to drift a free-kick in and, after the ball had been flicked on by Osman’s head, Lescott, from right in front of Friedel, poked the ball past the goalkeeper.
Cuellar atoned for his earlier mistake by clearing another header from the aerially proficient Fellaini off the line with Friedel beaten as the half drew to a close.
Fellaini’s luxurious head of hair was in the thick of the action again two minutes after the restart, with the trailing hand of Friedel touching the Belgian’s header against the underside of the crossbar.
The die seemed to have been cast when the second half kicked off in an identical vein to the first, but no-one reckoned on the contribution of Jagielka in the 54th minute.
The normally ultra-reliable defender’s errant backpass to his goalkeeper Tim Howard was seized upon by Young who resisted even a peep at the inside of the gift horse’s mouth, dispatching a shot first time over Howard and into the back of the net.
For the second, but not final, time in the match, Goodison Park had been stunned and resuming normal service was looking an altogether more difficult prospect.
Minus a raft of strikers and forced to deploy only one recognised front-runner in Victor Anicebe, David Moyes shifted Fellaini further forward to double the hosts’striking number.
Villa’s own attacking threat was as neglible in the second half as it had been in the first despite their retaking the lead. However their visiting defenders, led by captain Martin Laursen, remained attentive as ever.
Andy van der Meyde's first appearance in an Everton shirt for 20 months was succeeded 10 minutes later by something even more unexpected.
Everton finished the game playing with a front two of Fellaini and Jagielka and, after two minutes of stoppage time, the ploy appeared to have earned a just reward.
The versatile Jagielka, who counts goalkeeping among his alternative employment, won a header back to Cahill who nodded on for Lescott to swivel and shoot past Friedel to give Everton what must have been a draw.
Anything else was inconceivable. However just 12 seconds from referee Martin Atkinson's final whistle, Young defied belief.
Star Man: Martin Laursen (9/10): Immense and impervious, the Dane was an inspiration to his backs-to-the-wall team-mates. Click here for all player ratings and the game's vital statistics