Sheffield United staged a second-half comeback to win 2-1 at Pride Park and end Derby County's Sky Bet Championship play-off hopes.
Derby were in control at the break through Sam Szmodics early goal but the visitors came back strongly to dash the home side's dream of a top-six finish.
A mistake by Joe Ward allowed Tom Cannon to level before an unstoppable strike from Sydie Peck turned the game on its head.
Derby had to win but - in front of a 32,000-plus crowd - it was United who had further chances to score with Danny Ings and Patrick Bamford both denied by Jacob Widell Zetterstrom.
There was a terrific atmosphere in the stadium before the kick-off and Derby had a great chance to go in front in the second minute.
Szmodics got away down the United right but rolled his shot just wide when Ben Brereton Diaz was unmarked in the middle.
However, the former Ipswich player made amends in the fifth minute after a corner was only half-cleared. When Jaydon Banel played the ball back in, Szmodics reacted quickly to score from close range.
It had been all Derby but when United won a free-kick just outside the area, Zetterstrom had to dive to his right to deny Gustavo Hamer.
Derby were doing everything they could to get the win they needed and only some resolute United defending denied Matt Clarke a second goal.
United spent most of the half on the back foot but had a decent spell before half-time, without really threatening the Derby goal.
It was the visitors' goal that came under threat again early in the second half, with a Ward free-kick punched away by Adam Davies at his near post.
United almost caught Derby on the break in the 56th minute with Bamford playing in Callum O'Hare, who shot narrowly wide.
Derby had done little wrong until the 62nd minute when a poor backpass by Ward allowed Bamford to set up Cannon to score with a low shot from 12 yards.
It got even worse for the Rams seven minutes later when Peck was given the space to unleash a shot from 25 yards that whistled into the bottom right corner.
United came close to a third when Bamford played in a low ball to Ings, who was denied by a point-blank save from Zetterstrom.
Derby were struggling to create anything and although 10 minutes of stoppage time gave them some hope, it was United who looked more likely to score again.
Derby's John Eustace:
"I'm sitting here with immense pride at what we've done this year.
"The players have been outstanding, irrespective of the result today. The effort of the group and the progression we've made this season has been excellent.
"Hopefully, it's really exciting times to be part of the football club moving forward. I think this was the highest league attendance in the EFL today, so it just shows the size of the club and the fan base.
"Where we want to go is obviously to get into the Premier League with the backing over the next two or three seasons. That's why I came and that's what we want to do.
"It's been a group effort to get to where we are now but there's still a hell of a lot of hard work ahead, for sure, and it's really important that we don't go backwards now."
Sheffield United's Chris Wilder:
"I've given them credit all season for what John has done here.
"From last year, being in the position that they were to having a shot at the play-offs is testament to the work that himself and his coaching staff have done.
"That's what we're trying to get to. You have to give them an enormous amount of credit, they've set it up and we haven't done enough and done it consistently. This league is about experience, personality and characters and that's the reason they've got the amount of points they've got.
"I think it's a reasonable amount of points we've got from the challenges we've had, and I'll go again on record as saying that this has been by far and away the biggest challenge that I've ever had and I've had some huge challenges.
"I'm really disappointed we haven't given the supporters something to play for at the end of the season but we haven't been good enough on certain aspects of the game. But the good thing about it, for me, is that I know what we haven't been good at and we know what we need to do."
