The outcome would indeed prove to be a very close-run thing.
But it must have been a close-run thing.
They were disabused of the idea in a most painful way—it was a close-run thing.
However, it was a close-run thing and yet another distressing occasion for residents.
It is going to be a very close-run thing if the result of the war is to depend on that.
It was a close-run thing at any rate.
Even a layman like myself could see that it was a close-run thing.
Nor, in my humble opinion, was the operation as a whole a close-run thing.
