"Crewe was the defining moment in that season. I think we played Stockport [the Tuesday before] and I thought Stockport was a night where I played really well in the game, I scored, we won 1-0 and for me I played as well as I’d ever played.
"It was very clear, everything was very, very transparent for me, everything was so clear in my head.
"I could see everything going on around me. We won the game and I felt that we could really go on and take promotion by the scruff of the neck.
"And then we fell short against Crewe. That Saturday we looked as if the emotion or the Tuesday night game or whatever it had taken a lot out of us.
"They had good players, Dean Ashton, Danny Murphy played, Mark Rivers was a clever players, there were other good players in and around that group [among them future Blues Jermaine and David Wright].
"Crewe was always going to be a potential banana skin and that proved to be the case. That was so disappointing but then coming up against Bolton, who were a good side, so unfortunately, so really, really unfortunate on the night.”
But there seemed to be no play-off hangover for the Blues at the start of the 1999/00 campaign.
"We won five on the bounce, didn’t we? I didn’t start. I was injured. I got injured and then I didn’t play for two or three games,” The Belfast-born schemer remembered.
"Jermaine [Wright], Jamma, came in with another fantastic addition, John McGreal, another brilliant astute signing from George.
"George didn’t get carried away too much. He just said, ‘We’ve got good players’ and you could feel we had good players who probably lacked a little bit of self-belief.
"But certainly the start of that season gave them that, you could feel that momentum was really gathering and that we were going to go on and have a really good season.”
Again the Blues looked on their way to automatic promotion until right at the end of the campaign when Town slipped behind leaders Charlton and Joe Royle’s Manchester City.
However, despite the Blues appearing outsiders as the teams went into the final couple of games, Magilton wasn’t giving up on a top-two place.
"There was an unbelievable sequence of events,” he recalled. "Man City played on the Friday night [at home to Birmingham, winning 1-0] and we had Charlton who were going to be crowned champions on the Saturday.
"I remember watching that game thinking ‘They think they’re promoted. We’re going to go to the Valley and we’re going to beat Charlton’ because we beat them at home in a brilliant game, I think we won 4-2.
"I remember thinking ‘This isn’t over yet’. I remember going to Charlton and it was a beautiful day, absolutely scorching and I remember us playing so, so well. I scored a freekick and we took the game to them and on the day we were better than them [and won 3-1].
"But I remember their celebrations. We had to play Walsall at home in the last game and Man City were going to Blackburn.
"I just felt ‘This ain’t over, this is not over by any stretch of the imagination’. In fact I was more determined, if that was even possible, for the season not to peter out. It was impossible for me to think we weren’t going to get promoted. It was not even a thought that entered by head.”
But while Town beat Walsall 2-0, Manchester City won 4-1 at Ewood Park to join the Addicks in the Premier League and it was the play-offs for a fourth year for the Blues with Sam Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers again the opponents.
"The same factors, again little things in football,” Magilton reflected. "Eidur Gudjohnsen was a top, top player, he made them tick. They had good players, Claus Jensen, Per Frandsen, Paul Warhurst and Mark Fish, Mike Whitlow, Jimmy Phillips, Michael Johansen, Dean Holdsworth, Allan Johnston, they were a top, top side.
"Really they should have been in and around automatic promotion, but for whatever reason they weren’t.”
The Blues got off to the worst possible start and within 26 minutes the Trotters were 2-0 in front, Holdsworth and Gudjohnsen the scorers.
"They had a brilliant opening period where Eidur Gudjohnsen was unplayable at times, a top player,” Magilton said.
"But then we settled down in the game. Matty played a lovely little dinked ball to Stewy [Marcus Stewart] and Stewy cracks one in.
"And then the second goal just epitomised him. He was just an unbelievable finisher. Calm, when there’s chaos all around him he’s the one that can survey what’s going on, knows exactly what’s going on and then he hits the side net of the goal and it erupts.
"So coming away from there with a 2-2 draw, you’re thinking ‘We’re in this, we are definitely in this’. We were depleted, there were injuries here, there and everywhere. Mogga had gone off, Johnno had gone off. We had real injury worries going into the second game. They had injury worries, Gudjohnsen was a major talisman for them.
"That night, I remember the build-up was fine. We had to make adjustments. Wayne Brown came in and Mogga passed fit, Johnno passed fit, Gudjohnsen not. Gudjohnsen injured. That was the deciding factor psychologically.
"I remember thinking ‘We’ve got this’ because he was massive for them. Even though they had good players to come in and they were a strong squad, that was massive, psychologically I think that was massive for us. Psychologically that weakened them and strengthened us. And then obviously the game takes care of itself.”