Dundee-bound Darryl Meggatt’s final act as an Alloa player was to salvage their Championship status as Forfar Athletic saw their dream of returning to Scottish football’s second tier for the first time in 23 years snatched away.
Goals from Michael Chopra, Liam Buchanan, capitalising on a horror error from Rab Douglas, and Meggatt, who will join up with former Wasps boss Paul Hartley at Dens Park next term, saw the hosts progress 4-3 on aggregate.
Alloa’s success came despite going own to 10 men in the second half, with Graeme Holmes dismissed for woefully mistimed scything challenge on Omar Kader.
“I did not see that coming,” said a distraught Forfar boss Dick Campbell. “We were totally in control of the game after 45 minutes and then the goal from Chopra changes it.
“I think the Gods were smiling on Alloa. They work hard at the game and I have a lot of respect for Danny [Lennon], he is a good friend.
“But no-one can tell me that Forfar are not as good a team as Alloa. We are a good football side and, taking nothing away from Alloa, I could not imagine us losing three goals.
“We’ll be back but, at the moment, I am a gutted manager.”
Alloa posted an early signal of intent as they sought to claw back the two-goal deficit, with Meggatt heading a superb Mark Docherty corner inches wide of the post.
Keen not to be penned in, Campbell’s charges responded through Martyn Fotheringham, whose hopeful shot from distance stung the palms of Alloa stopper John Gibson.
The digs from distance kept on coming in a lively opening, with Alloa playmaker Ryan McCord next to try his luck from 20 yards, however his low effort it was well fielded by Douglas.
Forfar almost claimed the lead in bizarre circumstances on the half-hour mark when a Fotheringham free-kick was headed narrowly over his own cross-bar by Docherty with Gibson stranded.
Seconds later, only a superb goal-line clearance from Alloa skipper Ben Gordon denied Loons hit-man Chris Templeman after the towering striker had out-jumped Kyle Benedictus at the back-post.
Chopra – anonymous for the majority of the opening period – delivered a reminder of his pedigree, picking the ball up 40 yards from goal, surging forward and producing a thundering shot which drifted inches wide.
And better was to come from the former Newcastle and Sunderland man on the stroke of half-time when he latched onto a Iain Flannigan cross and showed fine awareness and technique to swivel and rifle a half-volley into the bottom corner from just inside the box.
Forfar emerged with vigour for the second period, with Fotheringham fizzing a 30-yard free-kick just over.
Kader, a goal hero in the first leg, was then sent scampering through on goal but found himself denied by a sensational last-ditch challenge by Meggatt.
The tie was levelled on aggregate when Forfar conceded an uncharacteristically sloppy second.
Douglas rushed from his area to collect a long pass, but the 43-year-old custodian produced a panicked kick which went straight to Buchanan, who made no mistake in rifling a clinical half-volley into an empty net.
A topsy-turvy tie took another twist seven minutes later when Graeme Holmes, a first-half substitute for the Wasps was sent off by referee Willie Collum for a wild lunge on Kader.
Despite their numerical deficit, Alloa broke Forfar hearts with a late winner, with the superb Meggatt capping a man of the match display with a towering header to convert a fine Docherty corner.
The triumph prompted Alloa boss Danny Lennon to draw favourable comparisons with his League Cup triumph with St Mirren.
“My teamtalk was to tell the boys they could be heroes,” beamed Lennon. “No Alloa team has played in the second tier for three consecutive seasons – and this group has achieved that.
“They can be bursting with joy and pride.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about major cup finals or surviving in the Premier League, this is up there with everything I have achieved in football.”
“The journey over the past four years has been amazing but today was the most incredible day we have had – better than beating Rangers or Hibs,” added Alloa chairman Mike Mulranney.
“If we had gone down we would have dealt with it but it would have been hard.”