Welwyn Garden City's Southern League play-off hopes ended after a rollercoaster ride at home to Aylesbury United - and it left manager Marc Weatherstone sick as the proverbial parrot.
City trailed 2-0 at half-time but responded excellently after the break, a double from Brad Wadkins and then a Dernell Wynter penalty putting them 3-2 up with 12 minutes to go.
But after squandering a couple of chances to be put the game to bed once and for all, they conceded a stoppage time penalty, converted by Aylesbury's two goal hero David Pearce, leaving the game tied at 3-3.
That made it impossible to reach the top five on the final day, something that had the boss almost banging his head on a wall about.
"That's football," said Weatherstone, almost searching for a straw to clutch. "Football is a range of emotions and over the whole season there have been loads of ups and downs.
"I'm really, really deflated. It’s been a long, hard season and it has really taken it out of me mentally, what with all the all the games, the backlog.
"And this game just sums us up.
"We were poor in the first half because we didn't play the pitch, and we know how to play the pitch.
"We were trying to play football and you can't, there are too many bobbles as we saw with the first goal.
"But then we showed a bit of character, to come from 2-0 down to go 3-2 up and that was enough to see the game through.
"Good teams do see the games out and that's where we may be lacking, maybe why we're just a little bit off being a good team.
"Teams like Biggleswade Town or Bedford Town, the Wares, they'll see that through, especially after being 2-0 down.
"I’m really proud of our boys for the fightback and to come through this tough schedule
"It hurts, don’t get me wrong, and it’ll hurt until next Saturday.
"The season is done but we’re going to go to Cirencester and try and make it end on a positive.
"I’ve got nothing but immense pride."
They still have one game left, away to Cirencester Town on Saturday, before the curtain comes down on this year's campaign.
And his job is now to fashion a winning end to the year.
He said: "If we could have beaten Aylesbury, at least we’d go there with a little bit of more energy knowing that there's a chance of winning and getting into the play-offs.
"Now there's no chance.
"I've been a player myself and you try and get yourself up for those games.
"We'll do all we can to go there and win a game. We've got a lot of winners in that team, so I won't let the boys just sack it off.
"It's the longest journey in the league and we’ve got a coach for the first time this season.
"We’ll be together and we’ll just try and enjoy the occasion and then enjoy the work over the whole season.
"We started off terribly, we won once in the first eight and we were second bottom.
"We’ve got to look at that in terms of how we bounced back.
"On the whole, we've done really well, whether we finish sixth or seventh.
"If you look at budgets, we should be nowhere near it."
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