Coventry, Everton, Bradford, West Bromwich Albion and Carlisle have all enjoyed dramatic escapes from relegation in recent years and Northwich Victoria can now add their name to the list of Houdini-like acts.
Without a win in their first 19 games of the season the Vics looked odds-on to become the first club in the country to be consigned to the drop.
But boss Dino Maamria, the club's third manager of the season following his appointment in September, never accepted the seemingly inevitable.
After master-minding an inspired revival his unshakeable belief has proved well-founded with Northwich securing their Blue Square Premier safety with one game to spare.
Victory at Stevenage Borough, one of Maamria's former clubs, on Tuesday night completed the rescue mission, denying the home side a play-off spot and at the same time sending Farsley Celtic down.
I said from day one that we would stay up
Dino Maamria
Halifax Town and Altrincham will now battle it out on the final day of the season to see who joins them, while Maamria can reflect on a job, his first in management, remarkably well done.
He told BBC Sport: "I'd like to think I have arrived. It's the best feeling I've had, nothing compares to this.
"I am not surprised because I said from day one that we would stay up, it's been harder than I thought but we have got there in the end.
"Some people thought I was barking mad three or four months ago when we were 15, 16 points adrift but I knew that as soon as I got the side I wanted we would be capable of matching any team at this level, as we have showed."
Maamria installed a mixture of new players and a new spirit in the Vics' squad after being handed the reins at a time when the club itself could have gone under.
With a successful takeover at the Marston Arena under way Northwich finally recorded their first win of the season on November 24, which launched an unbeaten four-match run and the first real glimmer of hope.
"As a player I was a confident lad and as a manager you have to be the same, I go into any task on the front foot," added Maamria, who played as a striker for a handful of clubs at Blue Square Premier level.
"My belief was there from day one, my hardest job was to spread that to the dressing room and the Northwich supporters but in the last few weeks people started to believe we could stay up.
"The players have been magnificent, two or three months ago I said that I wanted to be safe before the last game and we have done it."
After the season has finished I will reflect on it and try and do the same next year
Dino Maamria
When Northwich recorded their first away win of the season on Boxing Day they were off the foot of the table, although they did not win again until almost the end of February.
They were still nine points away from a safe spot at the stage but seven wins and just two defeats in 14 games since have pulled them clear of the bottom four.
"I don't know what our recent record is but it must be good enough for the top five or top seven.
"After the season has finished I will reflect on it and try and do the same next year," Maamria, 36, added.
The former Tunisian under-21 international, who left his job in Burnley's football in the community scheme to go full-time with the Vics, has already started to make plans with the club's owners for next season and hopes to retain the core of his current squad.
"The sky's the limit for me, I want to get to the top," he said.
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