Southend United have had their fate sealed after they were relegated into League Two, despite twice battling back to earn a 2-2 draw at Oldham Athletic and having to play out the game with 10 men.
The Blues suffered a nightmare start when they fell a goal behind after just 70 seconds, but Francis Laurent provided a quick response to equalise with his sixth goal of the season.
Paul Black put the host's back in front before half time, but a series of injuries meant Southend had to play out the last 20 minutes with 10 men, having made all their substitutions.
Injuries to Adam Barrett, Jean-Francois Christophe and Laurent certainly didn't help Southend's cause, but that still didn't stop Jean-Yves M'Voto scoring his first goal for the club to earn a point.
In fact, the Blues will look back on missed chances by Anthony Grant and Scott Vernon, who both should have scored at Boundary Park, having been brilliantly backed by 255 Southend fans who made the long journey up north.
A poor clearance from Johnny Herd inside two minutes saw Southend endure the worst start possible, as it allowed Pawel Abbott to play Danny Whittaker into space down the left and he drilled a brilliant shot beyond Steve Mildenhall and into the roof of the net.
But the Blues bounced back to equalise in the sixth minute, as Oldham only half cleared a throw-in from Herd and as Pat Baldwin knocked the ball back into the box, Laurent reacted quickest to power a header into the net.
Abbott was soon allowed a chance all too easily inside the box, as he got the better of Barrett to aim a strike at goal, but Mildenhall stood tall to make a vital block.
Within 16 minutes though, Barrett had to exit the field with what looked like a recurrence of his hamstring injury to be replaced by M'Voto in the centre of defence.
The Blues then suffered another blow with goal scorer Laurent also pulling his hamstring as he ran down the right wing, with Christophe coming on in his place.
Within a minute of that change, Southend then conceded a second goal, as Black charged down the left wing and with no one making a challenge, he was able to arrow an excellent shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net in the 43rd minute.
Grant should have provided another quick response on the stroke of half time though, as he was played through on goal with just Darryl Flahavan to beat, only to see his low shot saved by the former Southend goalkeeper's legs.
Southend had another golden chance to draw level in the 50th minute, with Vernon this time in the clear, but his shot was too close to Flahavan who made the save before Matt Paterson then wasted the rebound when he miss controlled the ball.
Dale Stephens wasn't far off for Oldham when rifling a 25 yard free kick that sailed just wide of the right-hand post before Paterson blazed over from a decent position inside the box at the other end of the field.
Moments after Southend made their third and final substitution by bringing on Harry Crawford though, Christophe limped off the field injured and unable to make any further changes, they had to play out the last 20 minutes of the match with just 10 men.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, the Blues battled to draw level in the 75th minute as Crawford delivered a fine cross from the right flank which was missed by Flahavan and allowed M'Voto to power a header in at the far post.
Lewis Guy looked like he was set to score for the hosts at the death, but strangely decided to dummie the ball inside the box, as Southend earned a point, but it wasn't enough to avoid relegation from League One.
Southend: Mildenhall, Francis, Baldwin, Barrett (M'Voto 16), Herd, Laurent (Christophe 42), Grant, McCormack, Moussa, Paterson (Crawford 67), Vernon.
Oldham: Flahavan, Hazell, Whittaker, Smalley, Abbott (Eaves 46), Guy, Gregan, Lee, Stephens (Furman 76), Black, Marrow (Millar 68).
