Burton Albion missed another chance to wrap up promotion to the Football League as they were beaten 1-0 by Oxford United.
Needing only to draw to seal top spot in Blue Square Premier, the Midlanders were undone in the second half when Adam Chapman curled in a powerful free-kick to hand the visitors three points.
Burton missed a glorious chance to open the scoring when Lee Morris fluffed a simple tap-in chance before Oxford had Chris Willmott sent off for bringing down Burton’s Shaun Harrad.
But with the hosts pressing for the precious equaliser, Harrad himself was given his marching orders for a late challenge on Oxford keeper Billy Turley.
The battle for the title is now set to go down to the final game of the season, providing second place Cambridge pick up three points against Salisbury on Saturday.
Burton had been limping towards the finish line since Nigel Clough left the club to take up the reins at Derby, with a 19-point lead dwindling to just seven by the start of this game.
But if they were supposed to be nervous, they did not look at as they were quickly on the front foot against Chris Wilder’s in-form Oxford side.
Darren Stride almost gave the hosts the perfect start when he tried his luck with an acrobatic overhead kick on seven minutes that bounced wide.
And the same player was involved in the action again on 14 minutes when he put his body on the line in throwing himself towards a flick on in the box from Jake Buxton, only to see the ball bounce to safety.
Stride turned provider on 28 minutes, flicking back across goal to Keith Gilroy arriving at the far post to fire in a shot that was well saved by the feet of Billy Turley.
Oxford were struggling to get into the game but did have a glimpse of goal seven minutes before the break when a long cross-field ball found Lewis Haldane on the right-hand edge of the Burton area.
He dragged the ball back onto his left foot before sending a stinging shot from 20 yards straight down the throat of Burton keeper Saul Deeney.
The longer the game went on without Burton scoring, the more nerves started to creep in for the hosts. And Oxford looked to take advantage in a bright start to the second half.
Prolific striker James Constable almost added to his 24 goals this season with a chest down and shot three minutes after the restart that forced keeper Deeney to tip over.
The effort served as a warning to the hosts that they could be made to pay for failing to take their chances.
And it was a warning that clearly was not heeded by Burton’s Morris who passed up a gilt-edged chance to hand them the lead on 52.
Turley did brilliantly to claw away a powerful drive from Marc Goodfellow that was heading for the top corner, but when the rebound was pulled back to Morris he somehow contrived to miss his kick from two yards out.
And Morris was quickly made to regret the chance going begging, when Chapman fired the visitors ahead with a pile-driver free-kick from 25 yards on 70 minutes.
There was more drama to come as Oxford were reduced to ten men with ten minutes remaining when Willmott was given a straight red card for tangling with substitute Harrad.
Harrad gave chase to a long ball forward but Wilmott clumsily cut across his path and sent him tumbling to the ground. The fans inside the Pirelli Stadium roared for a red and perhaps harshly, the referee duly obliged.
Burton then laid siege to the Oxford goal with the visitors surviving a series of goal-mouth scrambles before Harrad saw red for clattering into Turley in injury time.
Oxford held on to keep their own play-off hopes alive, while Burton’s promotion push is now set to go to the wire.