Hyundai A League leaders Melbourne Victory clung precariously to the top rung of the competition ladder after a last-gasp goal from Archie Thompson gave them an unlikely 2-2 draw at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday night.
The match was turned on its head after 58 minutes when Victory keeper, the very much in-form Michael Theoklitos, blotted his copybook by being sent off for stamping on the foot of Mariners' striker, Saso Petrovski, as both teams prepared for a corner to be despatched.
Few would have spotted the incident, which came after jostling near the goal line inside the goalmouth, but referee Peter Green did, issuing an instant red card.
Most in the crowd and possibly many on the bench were baffled with the action that might on another day have earned the keeper no more than a caution.
Although four goals were eventually scored in the fixture it had been the two keepers, Theoklitos and veteran, Mark Bosnich, from Central Coast, who had shone.
When Theoklitos left the scene Victory sacrificed playmaker Hernandez to make room for reserve keeper, Mitchell Langerak, who continued the trend with a series of crucial saves.
Both sides made more changes towards the end and ultimately it was Melbourne substitute Grant Brebner who proved the more inspirational.
As time ticked away and Melbourne were facing a 2-1 defeat, Brebner found a way through in the last minute of four that had been added on by referee Peter Green.
For some reason, despite his known prowess around the penalty area, Central Coast failed to stop Thompson collecting the precision ball cut back to him by Brebner and the numbers just weren't there to deal with the talented pair, as Bosnich was helpless to prevent the Socceroo from levelling with virtually the last kick of the game.
It was a great escape by Melbourne and a sad loss of two of the three points the Mariners appeared to have in the bag.
"You have to play until the last minute, against a team like Melbourne, it doesn't matter if they have nine men, ten men or eleven men, you can't take your foot off the pedal," said Mariners Football Manager Lawrie McKinna after the match.
"With twenty seconds to go we just switched off and you can't do that.
"Before the game, we thought that we had a lot of boys out and a point would be good against the table topping team, but we believed we could get three and going away with one is a bit hard to take."
After the dismissal of their keeper Melbourne, briefly, tried to close the game down, but instead they merely handed the initiative to the Mariners who regained the lead with eight minutes to go, thanks to a second goal from Matt Simon.
Simon had given his side an 11th minute lead when slotting home after giving Michael Thwaite the slip on the left hand side of the area when collecting a perfect pass from the right by Brad Porter.
Simon's second was a towering header, from another Porter assist, that saw the ball come off the underside of Langerak's bar fallng just behind the line to be called correctly as a goal by assistant referee Daniel Dewhurst.
But Simon's work was twice undone.
With suspicions of offside Melbourne had rallied first four minutes after the Mariners had gone a goal up, with Thompson and Allsopp setting sail for goal after a long ball from deep had sent the pair in behind the defence.
Thompson, on the right, did well to beat Porter before turning sharply and angling a low shot past Bosnich whose several fine saves maintained his run of good form since coming into the side in place of the suspended Danny Vukovic.
But Theoklitos had been just as imposing a force at the other end and was instrumental in denying Central Coast further goals until his moment of madness less than an hour into the game.
Melbourne's ten looked to have the odds stacked against them and even with Thompson carrying the load up front and trying everything in his considerable armoury the visitors looked gone for all money.
That is until Brebner came on the scene.
The 79th minute substitute sparked his team with his incisive running and with Thompson never giving up Melbourne was able to snatch a point they could surely not have believed possible as the minutes ticked away.
The game had been an absorbing one throughout as former Melbourne player, Adrian Caceres, imposed himself on the game only to meet with terrible fortune in front of goal as saves firstly from Theoklitos and later from Langerak denied him.
Bosnich produced superb reflex saves to keep out two goal-bound Allsopp shots, one in each half, in a game that had plenty of exciting action.
Carlos Hernandez was doing well too for Victory, but had to be sacrificed to make way for the replacement keeper, while Billy Celeski had an outstanding game at the heart of the Melbourne midfield as he did all he could to spur his side to success.
In the end a complete lack of concentration, in not seeing the match through to its conclusion, cost the Mariners dearly.
Rather than wind down the clock Central Coast, naively it seemed, tried to play their normal game, despite being in the final moments of stoppage time.
"Even though we got a point it feels like a loss," said McKinna
"We just need to take the positives out of that - take that into the game against Perth next week and try to get three points."