After six long months that miserable clock can stop. Time will tell if any good comes to Sheffield United from continued involvement in the FA Cup, but for now a purpose has been served - they have been reacquainted with that old joy of winning.
Who knows when the next one will come, or where, or how, or if they will even get close to Premier League survival. But if there is to be a bounce after such a rotten fall this season, then it had to start somewhere.
Maybe this was that place. Maybe the Memorial Stadium will prove to have been the launch pad, after taking a win from a cracking cup tie removed the grubby distinction of Sheffield United being the only side in the top six tiers of English football without a victory this season.
Nothing since July 11, when they beat Chelsea in those glory days of the 2019-2020, to be precise.
In that context, emerging triumphant from a marvellous scrap with the 18th-placed team in League One will feel like something far grander. An upset might even have pushed Chris Wilder over the edge, and at this point credit to Bristol Rovers and Paul Tisdale - they came close and made it an excellent tie.
Twice they fought back from a goal down - in turn, Alfie Kilgour and Max Ehmer managed quick responses to an own goal from Joe Day and a strike from Oliver Burke - before Jayden Bogle put United ahead for a third and final time. Still Rovers pushed on, fighting, but Wilder needed this.
His intent was obvious from his team sheet, of which 10 names matched the 11 most recently used in the Premier League.
The only change was the introduction of John Lundstram for Enda Stevens, as necessitated by injury, so when they emerged from a stairwell on the Thatchers End - they changed in a bar - it was with the message from their manager that another defeat would be unacceptable.
Their play reflected as much. Initially, anyway. Inside a minute Mousset had a stab from close range after a cross from Ben Osborn on the left, and within a further five the same combination put United a goal up.
The delivery was good, the marking was slack, and Mousset's header rebounded off the bar and against the back of Rovers' keeper Joe Day. From there it crossed for an own goal on Day's debut. Cup romance for the Covid era.
For the next quarter of an hour, Rovers offered sweat but little more. But then, with their first attack of any description, they were level, courtesy of that quintessential tool of the upset - a set-piece. The free-kick was looped in by Zain Westbrooke and Kilgour, up from the back, was given too much space to win the header and direct it. At 1-1, we had a whiff of possibility.
United threatened but failed to take control over the remainder of the half.. Lundstram had a shot well saved by Day, and then the goalkeeper flung himself right in blocking a header from John Egan. Mousset buried the rebound but a foul by Egan on Luke Leahy in the winning of the initial header saw it disallowed.
Rovers were flinging themselves left and right to defend what they had, with Leahy diverting one drive from Jayden Bogle over the bar early in the second half, before a further three chances in five minutes from United sparked a mad rush of goals.
The first was finished by Oliver Burke after a 40-yard run and breakaway from John Fleck, though Rovers were quickly level, again from a set-piece. This time it was Westbrooke corner that Jack Baldwin headed across goal to Max Ehmer, who touched in at the back post.
Wilder had a familiar look of irritation on his face, but within 54 seconds, Bogle had exchanged passes with David McGoldrick and slipped a shot through Day's legs. Nothing is ever simple.
