Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has conceded a loss against Melbourne next weekend will mean the end of his side's A-League season.
A last-minute goal to Sasho Petrovski gave Central Coast a 2-2 draw on Saturday night and left the Glory coach and players shattered.
The draw left Perth six points outside of the top four and Mitchell said next weekend's home game against the Victory was now do or die after just three wins this season.
"It's gut-wrenching really," he said.
"We play Melbourne next week, the best team in the competition, and we have to get the win.
"If we don't then the season is over. It's still do-able but it is becoming harder because we are running out of games.
"The first 25 minutes we looked great when we were knocking the ball around confidently, but they got the break to score the goal and we stopped.
"We went into our shell, but we had a go at them at halftime, saying that we have to lift, and credit to them they did."
While Perth have their problems, the Mariners admitted they must lift or face missing the finals.
Petrovski's goal put the Mariners back in the top four despite a poor second half from the visitors.
The Mariners were down to 10 men with Nigel Boogard sent off just before injury time, but that sparked them into action and they created several chances to equalise before Petrovski nailed one.
"Before the game I was saying I would be happy with the draw and now after it I'm very happy with the draw and we are fortunate to have it," Mariners coach Lawrie McKinna said.
McKinna was also happy with the news Dean Heffernan got through his first game of the season, in the Youth League earlier in the day, along with Paul O'Grady and Greg Owens.
Heffernan finally returned after complications with a leg broken last December.
O'Grady was back from a groin problem while Owens returned from a hamstring injury.
"Dean was the first to put his hand up to say he needed an oxygen mask when he came off," McKinna said.
"He is one of the fittest boys at the club, but playing a game is totally different from training and it's great we now have the Youth League to bring guys back through."
Mariners midfielder John Hutchinson agreed with his coach on the second half performance and said improvement will be need needed against third-placed Queensland at Gosford on Saturday.
"This was our worst second half of the season from a player's point of view," Hutchinson said.
"We didn't defend well at all from the front to the back and our ball movement was poor.
"You can't play like we did in the second half and expect to get a point.
"If we play like that against Queensland next week I'd hate to see the scoresheet."
