Game number 13 proved anything but unlucky for Raith Rovers.
A penalty shootout victory on Tuesday evening over Inverness followed a gutsy, attritional 0-0 draw and saw Rovers reach the semi-finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy.
However, boss John McGlynn was the first to acknowledge that fortune favoured his side as their remarkable unbeaten streak continued.
“It was well below the standard we are capable of and what we have been producing,” McGlynn said.
“Maybe we were due one [poor display] by the law of averages, with the amount of good performances we have put in.
“We made a couple of changes but that shouldn’t have had as much of an impact as it did on the game.
“Myself and Smudger [assistant, Paul Smith] were scratching our heads and we couldn’t have complained if Inverness had won the game in 90 minutes.”
But they didn’t. And the Rovers march on.
Breaking records
By prevailing in the Highlands, Rovers claimed a first win over Inverness since October 2000; a 21-year hoodoo spanning 25 fixtures has been smashed.
That should come as little surprise. This is a Rovers team rewriting the records books as they go.
Raith have played some sumptuous football along the way — the likes of Aidan Connolly, Ethan Ross and Dario Zanatta purring in attack — as ‘McGlynnball’ earns rave reviews.
But they have also been resilient and defiant when necessary. An ability to grind out wins and draws in difficult circumstances is a defining feature of this side; something perhaps lacking at times last term.
By extending their unbeaten run to 13 matches, they have superseded 12-game sequences racked up in 2015/16 under Ray McKinnon, Antonio Calderon’s 2002/03 side and the legendary Coca-Cola Cup winners of 1994/95.
One must go all the way back to the First Division champions of 1992/93 for a better streak, with Jimmy Nicholl’s free-scoring Fifers embarking on a staggering 17-game unbeaten run.
They later went without defeat for 14 successive matches in the same season. Spearheaded by Gordon Dalziel’s 33 league goals, they were quite a side.
Rovers claimed the title by a margin of 11 points from — you guessed it — Kilmarnock.
And that promotion race is set to be reprised three decades later.
The sides are locked together at the top of the Championship and face off at Stark’s Park a week on Saturday (the small matter of Arbroath away this weekend is not to be underestimated).
They will also cross swords in the last-four of the SPFL Trust Trophy.
Raith may struggle to match the unbeaten run enjoyed by that storied outfit of yesteryear — but replicating their march to the top-flight appears an increasingly viable target.
