Melbourne Victory may have thrown away their A-League Women title defence with a 99th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix.
Needing a win against the last-placed Nix to lock down a finals place, everything was going to script early.
Alana Murphy and Melina Ayres scored in the opening half-hour at Sky Stadium, threatening to turn Saturday's showdown into a stroll.
However, the reigning champions fell to pieces in the final quarter-hour, gifting Ava Pritchard and Grace Wisnewski goals with absent defending.
A-League statistician Andrew Howe said Wisnewski's acrobatic equaliser was the latest regulation time goal in the league's 15-season history.
"Everyone's really upset at the moment. Myself included," coach Jeff Hopkins said.
"We gave away two ridiculously poor goals. Just totally unlike what we normally do. Maybe the pressure got to us."
The last-round result is a shocker for both sides.
Victory will now sweat on Sunday's season-ending clash at AAMI Park, where Canberra United will qualify at their expense if they can beat Melbourne City by under seven goals.
While Wellington coach Natalie Lawrence delighted in the comeback, it came too late to spare the Phoenix second-successive wooden spoon.
"So many times this season, we lose that 2-1 even though we work and we never give up and we keep going until the end," she said.
"Today we didn't. Today we found that goal even though we knew a draw still wasn't good enough ... there's huge character in this team."
Victory were far too classy in the first half, powered by a superb turn in midfield by Murphy.
The 18-year-old scored her first ALW goal with a free kick in the fourth minute after Paige Satchell's handball.
Ayres rocketed a thunderbolt in the 26th minute, turning Marisa van der Meer and striking her ninth of the season off the crossbar past Brianna Edwards.
The Nix's defensive shortcomings were plain to see in both first-half goals.
For Murphy's goal, Betsy Hassett appeared to jump out of the way as it sailed towards the inside corner, leaving goalkeeper Brianna Edwards exposed.
Van der Meer failed to deal with Ayres for Victory's second, allowing the forward to turn and shoot far too easily.
Wellington struggled to create chances and needed a gift from Victory captain Kayla Morrison to get on the scoresheet.
Morrison failed to put enough weight on her backpass to Dumont, allowing Pritchard to round the goalkeeper outside the box and strike past a pair of retreating Victory defenders.
Dumont was injured in the bingle, requiring a taped knee to continue.
Shaken up, Victory rebounded well but Ayres missed a clutch of chances to restore the two-goal buffer - misses that proved costly.
As the eight minutes of added time expired, Wisnewski broke Victory hearts when Dumont failed to deal with a bouncing ball in the box, prodding home.
