Pisa ought to have heeded Filippo Inzaghi’s warning.

“We haven’t achieved anything yet,” the Nerazzurri manager said this week ahead of Modena’s visit to the Arena Garibaldi.

“I told the team to maintain the right concentration. After the win over Cosenza, there was too much euphoria. We need to stay calm and focused.”

Inzaghi’s concerns proved prescient as Modena stunned the Tuscans on Saturday afternoon to check their promotion push and simultaneously reignite their own play-off hopes. 

A relic of a ground belonging to a bygone era, the Garibaldi is an eyesore even in calcio’s tapestry, where concrete monstrosities abound.

And yet, with a packed 10,000 crowd and bathed in spring sunshine the old ground still looked picture perfect as Pisa hoped to cement second place and their automatic promotion berth in a bid to secure a return to Serie A for the first time in 34 years.

But goals from Simone Santoro and Ettore Gliozzi, who scored against his former club, ensured Modena became only the second team to win in Pisa this season after Cittadella at the beginning of February.

Disjointed and devoid of any rhythm throughout the first 75 minutes, the Tuscans badly missed their injured top scorer Matteo Tramoni. 

Inzaghi had acknowledged he may have to reshuffle the pack in a bid to find a “spark” to make up for Tramoni’s absence, but never got the right cards out of the deck.

Not until the final 15 minutes at any rate, when Pisa abandoned any tactical plan to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at Modena.

A spectator for the first three quarters of the match, Modena keeper Riccardo Gagno became the busiest man on the pitch, saving from Gabriele Piccinini before Stefano Moreo’s tap-in reignited the contest. It all made for a pulsating final 12 minutes.

A livewire on the touchline, Inzaghi implored his players forward as time ticked away. How Pisa could have done with SuperPippo in his prime as they chased a late equaliser.

Now came the Nerazzurri again, Moreo drawing another smart save from Gagno, before the Modena keeper parried Olimpiu Moruţan’s piledriver. Incredibly, Piccinini fired over from close range.

But while Pisa lacked a clinical edge, of far bigger concern for Inzaghi will be the fact that for the first time this season his side looked like a team playing with the weight of expectations on their shoulders.

And yet, ill-timed as this case of stage fright was, it was also understandable. It was confirmation, as Inzaghi noted after the match, that Serie B “remains an incredibly difficult league.”

And yet, at the beginning of the season, you’d have got long odds on Pisa to be challenging for promotion let alone in this fashion. 

Even when the Tuscans led the table for three months until the end of November, common wisdom suggested they would run out of steam. Run out of steam they have not. 

In fact, they have never been outside the top three in Serie B save for their draw against Spezia on the opening day of the season. 

It is a remarkable transformation for a club that finished 13th last term with a negative goal difference, just five points clear of the relegation zone.

After the defeat against Modena, Pisa remain nine points behind league leaders Sassuolo and eight points clear of Spezia in third place, who both have a game in hand.

With the Neroverdi having long disappeared into the distance in the race for promotion, Pisa must now be looking over their shoulder to fend off the Ligurians.

But a third defeat in five fixtures suggests this is at least a blip if, not a full-blown crisis, and one coming at the worst possible time.

“What worries me a bit is the excessive euphoria around us, as nothing is done yet, apart from having already secured access to the play-offs,” Inzaghi had warned during the week.

On Saturday, he sounded more bullish despite the defeat.

“Promotion is in our hands. We still have a healthy margin over Spezia and we’re running out of games,” he said.

“We’re already looking forward to next week and I’m sure we’re going to bounce back straight away.”

The play-offs are where Modena are hoping to be come May 14 and, based on this performance, I Canarini have every chance of extending their season as they sit a point behind eighth-placed Palermo having played a game more.

Santoro’s opener, a smart finish from inside the box, may have come against the run of play 27 minutes into the game but Pisa’s possession had been sterile up until then.

Gliozzi’s goal, meanwhile, was a clinic in counter-attacking football with the superb Antonio Palumbo again pulling the strings from midfield.

Then came Moreo’s goal, but Modena held on much to the delight of the small but vocal contingent in the away end. 

When Pisa last graced calcio’s top tier, the likes of Diego Simeone, Jose Chamot and soon-to-be Crystal Palace cult hero Michele Padovano donned the black and blue. Diego Maradona, Marco Van Basten and Roberto Baggio strutted their stuff across grounds around the Peninsula every Sunday. 

And bar the sacrosanct late Sunday night kick-off, every Serie A fixture kicked off simultaneously on a Sunday afternoon. It was another era.

Thirty-four years later, Pisa are tantalisingly close to the promised land and it’s now down to Inzaghi to ensure they do not stumble on the home stretch.