Chelmsford City will now face Salisbury City over two play-off semi-final second legs after a defeat at Farnborough which saw them drop to fifth position in the Blue Square Bet South, Jamie Slabber's late consolation proving too little too late to rescue anything from the Clarets' final regular league game.
Glenn Pennyfather's team were already three goals down after Daniel Bennett, Steve Laidler and Josh Huggins put the ten men in control - Alan Inns had been sent off on 66 minutes for a dangerous tackle on Joe Whight.
Chelmsford will now host Salisbury on Tuesday and travel for the second leg next Saturday, while Dover Athletic and Eastleigh compete in the other semi.
Pennyfather wants City to move on quickly from the defeat.
He explained: "It's disappointing, because we wanted to win that match. Farnborough were the better team on the day and, as much as you try to guard against it, we were off the pace a little with our spot in the play-offs already secured.
"Now we have to put the game to bed because we can't dwell on it. Although I'd have loved to have won the league - my congratulations go to Welling - we're in the position we wanted to be in.
"We can hold our own in these play-offs now we know what we've got to do. We've played Salisbury twice - won one and lost one.
"We've worked unbelievably hard to get to where we are, and I have total admiration for the players to have delivered the cup runs they have, dealing with the situations they've come up against and still getting us into the top five. We've all stayed together and we'll do our very best to finish on a high.
"We got exactly what we deserved from this game... nothing. There are no positives we can take. It's one we have to box away and forget about.
"If we'd have gone one or two ahead early in the match against a team who didn't really have anything to play for, the story could have been different.
"Farnborough had that siege mentality and extra yard in their legs after a tough week, now we've got to react ourselves."
Chelmsford's home leg on Tuesday will kick-off at 7:45pm, and the return match at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium starts at 3pm next Saturday.
For away coach booking details, call (07506) 873741.
