Goals either side of half time ensured Altrincham progressed to the semi-finals of the Isuzu FA Trophy, but at the expense of managerless York City, who crash out.
Two poor pieces of defending from the Minstermen allowed Jordan Hulme to turn and fire home the opener, before a free header from James Jones put Alty two goals to the good, with just under half an hour to play.
A Lenell John-Lewis consolation deep into injury time was a lifeline for York, however too little, too late, as they failed to grab another within the remaining seconds, and as a result, bid farewell to their Wembley dream for another year.
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York were "sloppy" right from the off
Interim boss Michael Morton admitted his frustration to local media, despite putting out a weakened side, with the likes of John-Lewis, Ryan Fallowfield and Olly Dyson all handed a place on the bench.
In fact, the stand-in manager had his opinion on where it all wrong, saying, "We were sloppy in the warm-up.
"We knew we weren't right on it, so we had a quiet word before the game, but I think that sort of slipped into the first half.
"I didn't think we imposed our game on them, I felt there was a lot of silly mistakes in terms of what we were doing, that was the most frustrating thing.
"The positive was, in the second half, we had them pinned back in for near enough the whole game, but again we switched off on a set play, and gave them a free header, which just isn't good enough."
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Alty all over again
It's an abnormal situation to be in, given the Minstermen are to host Altrincham on Tuesday night, just three days on from their their home FA Trophy defeat at the hands of the same opponent.
Morton's desire to rest a few players have been met, following countless Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday gameweeks, but now the knockout competition is finally out of the way, it is back to full focus on the league, and avoiding the drop.
York currently sit six points clear of the bottom four, and can't afford to close that gap, heading into the final ten matches.
He briefly discussed the change in preparation and game plan approaching the mid-week match-up.
"We are not sure whether we are going to change the formation yet, it will just be the personnel, which was the plan.
"What we have got to do, is what we normally do, and review the areas that need to be better, and the areas that we feel we can go and pose ourself on them."
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Parkinson pleased - no second chances
Alty manager Phil Parkinson was in contrast, and as expected, rather pleased with his side's first ever win at the LNER Community Stadium, prior to heading back there on Tuesday.
It comes after a couple of demoralising league defeats, but the bounce-back is huge, and due to their progression in the tournament, the Robins sit only 90 minutes away from a spot at Wembley.
"It's all about winning isn't it? You don't get a second chance at this, so it was imperative that we come with a positive attitude", Parkinson added.
"I felt we controlled the first half, and when we got a lead, we had something to hold on to.
"When we weren't really controlling the flow of the game, then we changed shape and made sure we saw it out. We are just devastated we conceded a goal at the end, but luckily, it was too late in the game to hurt us."
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Praise for the fans
It would be wrong not to show a great heap of praise for the healthy Altrincham following that made the trip across the Pennines on Saturday, in support of their team on the road to Wembley.
Singing their hearts out, 663 Robins made their presence count, helping the players over the line to a massive victory.
Parkinson said, "They were great. I can't remember the last time we had a following like that.
"If the fans can do that, and get behind us, that's the extra 10% that you've seen today - it comes from the fans.
"They were brilliant, you could hear them all the way through, they were great at the end.
"I know, no matter what the result would have been, they would have helped the lads, and clapped them, because that's how they've been this season. They know we have had a bit of a rollercoaster of a season for a number of reasons: we are full-time, we are losing all our players, the age of the squad, the up-downs on this journey we are on at the moment."