Crusaders grabbed their ninth Super League victory of the season on a return to South Wales with a vital 30-24 victory over Castleford.
It was a thrilling finale to a great clash at The Gnoll, Neath, which is more used to hosting the Welsh Premiership rugby union club than the 13-a-side code.
Over the past few weeks, Castleford, Wakefield and Crusaders have been in a three-way battle for the last play-off place and so this first match back in South Wales since the switch from Bridgend to Wrexham was of real significance.
Castleford's victory over Wakefield last weekend threw the cat amongst the pigeons and took them into eighth place, four points ahead of the Welsh club.
So, with five matches left, it was pretty much do-or-die at Neath for the Crusaders, who were without groin strain victim Gareth Thomas, the Wales legend who who was the subject of verbal abuse at Castleford earlier this season which earned the Yorkshire club a hefty £40,000 fine from the RFL, something that was not wasted on the travelling support before kick-off.
And, in the opening half-hour, it seemed like the Crusaders would again suffer another of the dreadful starts that have left them facing a mountain to climb at the
break in other matches.
It was tight in the first 20 minutes, with loose forward Joe Westerman converting his own try for Castleford after 16 minutes and adding a second goal when full-back Ryan McGoldrick put through a neat grubber kick to the goal for stand-off Dean Withers to ground the ball.
The Crusaders did not look to be in the match, although scrum-half Jarrod Sammut covered every blade of grass in scrambling to the rucks and pulling the opposition down in defence.
But the onslaught did not occur from Cas and the Crusaders' pressure on the visitors' line paid off when stand-off Rhys Hanbury collected a loose ball to go over.
Four minutes from the break, a move inside the Cas 25 saw replacement forward Jordan James drive over. Both tries were converted by full-back Clinton Schifcofske to tie the match at 12-12.
The momentum looked to be shifting to the home side as second row Weller Hauraki quickly took the ball yards from the Cas line and drove over.
Schifcofske's conversion put the Welshmen into the lead for the first time in the match.
However, the lead did not last as the Tigers began to roar and they pressurised the home 25.
Centre Michael Shenton went through a wide gap in the centre to touch down easily underneath the posts, and scrum-half Rangi Chase delivered the lead back to Cas.
With the clock ticking down, the Welsh crowd wanted a grandstand finish - and they got it with two tries in three minutes that resorted a six-point lead to the home side.
Centre Tony Martin latched onto a neat kick to the goal-line and just grounded it ahead of the cover.
Then Sammut got a well-deserved try under the posts which he celebrated with a cartwheel and backflip that would have done a decent gymnast proud.
Cas tried to grab the draw, with Westerman coming agonisingly close to his second touchdown of the game before the ball was turned over.
That was it for the Tigers as the Welsh club clung onto their play-off hopes.
Crusaders head coach Brian Noble beamed: "We have got five games to go so our destiny is in our own hands (for the play-offs). We are still throwing punches, which
is really pleasing.
"We knew we would score some points today. You never know how many but our challenge was to stop a team which has been free-scoring even when they are getting beaten. They are averaging 30 or 40 points a game.
"We found enough reasons to get down to their end and post some points although I thought we were a bit scruffy in attack which might have been that element of anxiety because it was a must-win game."
Cas head coach Terry Matterson described the last ten minutes of the match, where his side were 24-18 ahead before centre Martin and scrum-half Sammut grabbed the winning tries, as 'diabolical'.
"We had to overcome a few obstacles in that we lost our two front rowers at half-time," said Matterson.
"After a really solid start, I thought we could go on and get on with it. But credit to Crusaders, they hung on in there and got back to level and then went ahead of us.
"We showed some fight but the last ten minutes was pretty diabolical, to be honest."