Bristol City's relentless drive towards Division One continued at Peterborough when substitute Tom Doherty's goal brought a ninth successive Division Two victory.
But City had to work hard for their success against a relegation-haunted Posh side that clearly responded to the promptings of former Wales Boss Bobby Gould who was drafted in as coach at the beginning of the week.
The game was deadlocked for more than an hour and City manager Danny Wilson praised the professionalism of his side.
He said: "Out of the nine games this was by far the toughest and I have no doubt Peterborough will stay-up. Our performance showed just how important defending is. Keeping a clean sheet is vital to our push to go on and hopefully gain promotion." With playmaker Brian Tinnion given little space to use his skills, City found chances few and far between and, until Doherty's breakthrough, 14-goal top scorer Lee Peacock might have had cause to regret not making more of the header he glanced wide before the break.
The all important goal came when Aaron Brown stormed away to fling over a cross from the left that Doherty headed through the legs of Posh goalkeeper Mark Tyler, despite Andy Legg's desperate attempt to clear from the line.
Former City player and still Bristol-based Gould answered the call of Posh manager and long-time friend Barry Fry and breathed new life into a side who made sure City's Steve Phillips was the busiest keeper.
Beaten only four times in the nine-game run, Phillips dropped a fierce drive from Colin Platt with his legs, kept out two headers from the big striker and earlier stretched to snatch a wayward header from his own defender Tony Butler.
Fry took some heart from the performance and praised Gould's contribution.
He said: "We deserved to come off the field with something from the side with the best record in the whole country and that's down to Bob's efforts. But we didn't score again and that's a big worry."