Two late strikes rescued Rugby Town a point at Loughborough University.
With twelve minutes remaining it was not looking good for Town after Hussein Issa had doubled the hosts advantage following Marcus Gilpin's opener earlier in half, but Rivel Mardenborough's strike gave Valley hope before Caine Elliott struck at the death with his fifth goal of the season so far.
With Josh Thomas serving the final game of his three-match suspension and Bleu McNeil unavailable again, Ollie West continued in an unfamiliar central defensive role.
Max Beech made a first start in midfield in place of the injured Ryan Sahota, with Stan Anaebonam preferred to Harrison Nee up-front.
Town started well with Mardenborough nearly latching onto West's punt forward, and then Anaebonam probably should have done better with his shot after he had cut in from the left wing.
Callum Griffin's shot from distance was saved by Loughborough keeper Leo Webster, with Nathan Kabeya's dangerous low cross just cut out after Elliott had shown quick feet in the build-up play.
Gilpin's effort - which went wide - was a rare attacking highlight for the hosts, with Anaebonam missing the target again with his strike after a free-flowing Rugby move had ended with Elliott picking out the striker.
Griffin lifted one way over the bar as Town continued to spurn chances, with Mardenborough then flashing his shot wide from a tight angle after Isaac Adegoke had played him in with a slide rule pass.
The dangerous Issa had already seen a strike blocked by Hanson when he had the best opportunity of the half when drawing a fine reaction save from Marcus Bald after Alex Spiteri had picked him out at the back post.
Gilpin also put one over the bar shortly before the half-time whistle, with the hosts re-emerging for the new period to put in their best spell of the entire game.
In this time, Tobenna Ikegwuonu's effort from 25 yards flew over and Gafar Abari dragged a shot wide, before Gilpin broke the deadlock on 54 minutes when he lifted the ball home after Issa had done well to skip past West on the right-wing and then pick out his team-mate.
Rugby responded positively to the set-back though, and back-to-back efforts from Anaebonam were both blocked in the goalmouth before Webster was finally able to gather the ball.
Bald did then execute a decent take to Abari's curled strike, but it was generally the visitors that were in the ascendance with debuting sub Evangelos Empochontsif's header narrowly missing with his first involvement in the game, and Mardenborough also acrobatically flicking wide of the post.
Another Mardenborough effort was saved low down by Webster, with Cairo Taylor's low cross-shot pushed away by the busy Students' keeper and Nee's follow-up attempt blocked in the subsequent phase of play.
Nee fired another decent chance over after good pressure from Rugby, before Loughborough grabbed their second against the run of play when Will Dean broke quickly to centre the ball to Issa - who punished the visitors by coolly slotting home.
Issa almost added a third when he fired over after Rugby had again surrendered possession far too easily in a critical position, but Town's persistence and energy paid off when Mardenborough's low first-time effort on the turn found the bottom corner of the net.
Another Empochontsif header narrowly missed the target, and Griffin fired one wide after a neat back-flick from Nee, with Bald then called into action at the other end when he tipped over Abari's effort from the edge of the box.
The equaliser came in the sixth minute of added-time with virtually the final kick of the game when Elliott's free-kick from the left drifted in - possibly thanks to a small deflection off the body of a Loughborough defender.
