JUST as York City looked to have got out of the woods against Forest Green, Danny Lowe ensured the most stressful of seasons ended on a high for Yorkshire neighbours Guiseley instead.

On an excrutiatingly fraught final day, Jon Parkin twice cancelled out Omar Bugiel goals for the visitors, whose place in the National League play-offs was already secured.

As the game entered its final throes, that single point would have still proven enough for the Minstermen to avoid relegation to the sixth tier of football as Solihull Moors, who also had a first-half penalty saved and had rattled the Guiseley crossbar on 87 minutes, led 1-0 at Nethermoor Park.

But, when news filtered through of Lowe’s leveller, a deathly hush initially fell on Bootham Crescent, quickly followed by desperate pleas of “Attack, Attack, Attack!”

The hosts, who had been striking the difficult balance between seeking a third goal and guarding against the potentially fatal concession of another in their own net, were suddenly left with no option but to throw all caution to the wind.

As a consequence, on-loan keeper Scott Loach was thrown forward to help contest a couple of late set-pieces, but a 93rd-minute chance, that fell to Sean Newton’s weaker right foot and was blasted wide from ten yards, was the closest City came to wrestling back control of their own destiny.

The final whistle was then greeted with another stunned silence, before the mood turned to anger in the stadium’s car park, as around 40 fans called on chairman Jason McGill to leave the club.

It is hard to contemplate the level of exasperation he must be feeling with City now closer to Tadcaster Albion than Burton Albion in the football pyramid.

Just one division will separate City and Taddy next season, while Burton will be plying their trade four leagues higher.

Harrogate Town, meanwhile, will become derby rivals with Chorley, Gainsborough Trinity and FC United of Manchester amongst the other teams awaiting the Minstermen in National League North.

After a moving one minute’s applause in the memory of former Press reporter Malcolm Huntington, the hosts had earlier started the match with purpose as Parkin’s 15-yard half-volley called Rovers keeper Sam Russell into a flying save following Newton’s through ball.

Bizarrely, long-throw specialist Sam Muggleton then hurled the ball against the away crossbar twice in as many minutes with Vadaine Oliver blazing over from the second rebound.

It was Mark Cooper’s men, though, that forged ahead from their first attack on six minutes.

Dan Wishart brushed past Asa Hall through the left channel and went on to square to Bugiel, who sidefooted high and beyond Loach from 12 yards.

On the quarter-hour mark, City squandered an excellent opportunity to get back on terms when a sliding Oliver somehow cleared the crossbar from three yards after Parkin had drilled low across the face of the visitors’ goal.

Either side of that effort, Wishart and Keanu Marsh-Brown had missed the target after making inroads down the flanks, but Parkin saw a free kick deflected over and Newton also shot wide with an ambitious long-range attempt before the Minstermen levelled on 33 minutes.

Skipper Simon Heslop seized on a loose ball in the Forest Green half and then fed Parkin who, with one swipe of his left foot, beat Russell from 15 yards.

Parity, however, could have hardly been more shortlived as, almost straight from the kick off, Bugiel strode through a parting City defence and prodded past a vulnerable Loach from eight yards.

Afterwards, Muggleton curled into Russell’s arms from the edge of the box and Newton volleyed against the roof of the Longhurst from a similar position, before Loach made his final save of the afternoon on the stroke of half-time after Shamir Mullings had troubled Hamza Bencherif and teed up Bugiel.

The Minstermen switched to a flat back four for the restart with Newton pushed into midfield and were immediately on the front foot.

Russell scrambled a Hall shot that deflected off Parkin around his left-hand upright before the 35-year-old veteran steered another goalbound attempt from a team-mate past the ex-Darlington keeper on 48 minutes.

This time, Amari Morgan-Smith tried his luck at the far post after a long Muggleton throw from the left dropped to his feet and Parkin used his heel to deceive Russell.

Parkin went on to go close with a 25-yard free kick and Hall’s downward header from Oliver’s right-wing cross was brilliantly kept out by Russell’s feet.

On 56 minutes, Oliver was then sent clear through the left channel by Muggleton’s raking pass out of defence, but he curled weakly at Russell.

The City striker also had two headers that lacked the power and direction to get him on the scoresheet.

Away attacks, meanwhile, were rare, with Marsh-Brown, Manny Monthe and Wishart all wayward – the latter with his team’s final attempt on 67 minutes.

But the Minstermen did not pepper the away goal either, with the attention of everybody in the ground divided between what was happening in front of them and elsewhere in West Yorkshire.

Heslop curled over on 84 minutes after winning the ball on the edge of the box but, after being given the signal from the bench and the stands, the rest of the game was played out in frantic urgency.

A two-on-one situation might have seen Oliver release an overlapping Aidan Connolly early, before that opportunity was snuffed out and Newton went on to miss the target, as the Minstermen were left to rue a season blighted by stoppage-time equalisers – even if this one didn’t finish up in their own net.

City: Scott Loach; Dan Parslow, Hamza Bencherif, Sean Newton; Danny Holmes, Asa Hall (Aidan Connolly, 89), Simon Heslop, Sam Muggleton; Vadaine Oliver, Jon Parkin, Amaro Morgan-Smith (Scitt Fenwick, 89). Subs not used: Yan Klukowski, Kyle Letheren, Adriano Moke.

Forest Green: Sam Russell, Dale Bennett (Olly Mehew, 73), Mark Ellis, Manny Monthe, Dale Wishart, Fabien Robert, Liam Noble, Drissa Traore (Curtis Tilt, 60), Keanu Marsh-Brown (Marcus Kelly, 60), Omar Bugiel, Shamir Mullings. Subs not used: Charlie Cooper, Simon Lefebvre.

Forest Green star man: Omar Bugiel – composure in front of goal

Referee: Thomas Bramall rating: 7/10 – generally on top of things

Booked: Muggleton 54, Bennett 64, Newton 71

Attendance: 3,984 (113 from Forest Green)

Shots on target: City 8, Forest Green 3

Shots off target: City 7, Forest Green 5

Corners: City 6, Forest Green 4

Fouls conceded: City 9, Forest Green 7

Offside: City 2, Forest Green 1