Eastbourne Borough came from behind to throw themselves a survival lifeline in Vanarama National League south.
Sports beat Havant and Waterlooville 2-1 at Priory Lane.
They are now three points from a place of safety but Taunton and Truro, the teams just about the cut-off line, each have four games in hand.
Tuesday’s match at home to one of the two teams below them was probably must-win for Borough but they trailed after ten minutes.
The equaliser came via a powerful header at a corner from Moussa Diarra which crashed in via the underside of the bar.
Decarrey Sheriff nudged the hosts ahead on 63 minutes, finishing well after good work by Alfie Bendle.
Bendle was shown a second yellow card deep into added time but Borough, to the delight of most of a 1,034 crowd, secured the points.
Borough go to 16th-placed Weston-Super-Mare on Saturday.
Adam Hinshelwood said it was not time to criticise his Worthing players after a rare defeat.
But he felt they had chances to have got some reward at Vanarama National League south strugglers Welling.
Rebels went down 4-1 as Welling added two goals at the end of stoppage time.
Worthing had got back to 2-1 through an Ollie Pearce penalties.
With Welling reduced to ten men, Hinshelwood felt his side should have claimed some reward.
He said: “We’ve got to give Welling full credit.
“They fought and scrapped for their lives and probably deserved the bit of luck they got.
“It’s not time to have a go at the players at all.
“I think they have been superb.
“Maybe one too many injuries has cost us but I still think we had more than enough on the pitch.
“We get back to 2-1 but they have thrown bodies at the kind of goalmouth scramble I’ve not seen at this level for a long time and we have probably got to put that away.”
Any flickering hope Rebels had of catching leaders Yeovil has now surely gone.
They look near certainties to take one of the six play-off places but will want as high a seeding as possible.
That adds importance to Saturday’s game at home to seventh-placed Braintree.
Elsewhere, Burgess Hill went down 4-1 at home to Cray Valley PM, a result which took the visitors to top spot in Isthmian League, south-east division.
Whitehawk bowed out of the Vitality Cup, losing 2-1 at home to Haringey in the quarter-finals.
Crowborough are back on top of the Southern Combination.
They followed their late 2-1 win at Hassocks on Saturday with a 3-1 success at home to Peacehaven.
But the title race remains highly competitive with Newhaven, Hassocks and Steyning all within two points of the top.
Southern combination, premier: Crawley Down Gatwick 1, Pagham 1; Crowborough 3 Peacehaven 1; Horsham YMCA 1 Haywards Heath 2; Loxwood 1 Lingfield 2; Shoreham 2 Litle Common 4.
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