I have only seen this done once and the engine braking effect stopped the car dead, better than any brakes could have done. (check for flat spots or vibration)
If you didn't screech to a halt, you must have taken the brunt of the weight on the clutch which must have slipped badly to allow the car to move forward. The slipping was either you dipping the clutch pedal in an instinctive way or it slipped badly due to excessive wear.
I would have the clutch checked for effectiveness just to be on the safe side.
The only other effect would be to bug*er up the gear box but as this is working normally your ok.
Uncle Buck

Strong language.. NSFW, Kids, mother in laws etc.... Selecting the wrong gear.

Now Now Hig we've all missed a gear change, don't be so harsh

have you really?

Yeah the wife had a Renault 5 with the diagonal gear shift gate. Often went from 4th to 1st when going for a quick down shift (Bl**dy French rubbish)

i must say i have gone from just bout redline in 4th went for 5th at got 3rd, the missus at the time wasn`t too happy with the close up of dashboard, engine went past limiter, but all was ok. And more times than not mine wont go in first either, but think thats down to me and the 99model gearbox on my 2003model

1st and 2nd in the morning for me. Others are fine.
So I just redline it in 1st and go straight to 3rd and flat out until 60mph woo hoo!!
After a few mins its hunky dory

hope you do that after the engine has warmed up in a morning!

I drove a 350 mile journey in a new (to me) fiesta once and it just wouldn't get in 4th. It was a bit of a banger so I had a good attempt everytime I needed to with plenty crunching before I would give up and skip to fifth.
What did I learn? No matter how hard you try you will never get a ford fiesta into reverse when you're traveling at 40 miles an hour!

that's just worrying that is

I was 'making progress' in mine a few weeks back, got a little distracted by another driver who didn't like the fact I'd just overtaken him on a duel carridgeway and decided to try and race me (?) and for some reason I chucked it down at high revs instead of up (I drive a semi-auto tiptronic) ! It bounced off the limiter but seems fine two weeks later. The good thing is the tiptronic is designed to change up or down in an emergency so as not to overev the engine, but both the manual and auto should have a rev limiter anyway. You probably burnt the clutch a wee bit, but I'm sure it'll be ok. Most of the parts are japanese anyway, and the whole car seems to be pretty tougth as long as you don't make a habbit of such things.

I know what you mean about being parnoid though, my old Calibra had a weakness in the head which meant it kept blowing head gaskets every year or so (if you really pushed it really, really, hard) due to an eroded waterhole which was rotted to within about 5mm off cylinder 4. Now whenever I give my car a bit of stick I always ping the bonnet when I get out and check the coolant level! I really should stop doing that...

I know what everyone has said about the wipers too. I still frequently put mine on when someone pulls out on me and I go to flash them to let them know what an idiot they are. In the heat of the moment I forget that those are my damm wipers and not the lights!