A last-gasp own-goal broke Paderborn hearts and pushed them ever closer to relegation from the Bundesliga as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Schalke.
Despite dominating for much of the game, the East Westphalians were unable to find a goal and they were punished in the 88th minute when Uwe Hunemeier turned the ball into his own goal as he challenged Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
The defeat leaves Paderborn at the bottom of the Bundesliga and three points adrift of automatic safety with one game to go - at home to third-bottom Stuttgart next weekend.
Schalke, on the other hand, are assured of their place in the Europa League, although they failed to convince again in Gelsenkirchen.
Out of protest at their team's recent form, Schalke's fans kept quiet at the Arena AufSchalke with Paderborn using the eerie atmosphere to their advantage to deliver the first shot of the game from Moritz Stoppelkamp, which took a deflection but was still stopped by Ralf Fahrmann.
The Royal Blues were hardly giving their fans anything to cheer about either with Paderborn showing far more hunger and determination.
Lukas Rupp missed the target by inches as the silence started to turn to jeers and whistles with the home fans' patience starting to run out.
The hosts then had a very lucky escape in the closing stages of one of their worst first-half performances of the season when Fahrmann was caught out of his goal, but Stoppelkamp missed the open net.
Julian Draxler was introduced at the start of the second half and he nearly made an instant impression, although the ball was cleared before he could get a shot in.
He did give Lukas Kruse some work to do moments after with a 25-yard effort as Schalke appeared transformed after what was probably a grilling from coach Roberto Di Matteo in the dressing room.
Paderborn still had chances through Suleyman Koc and Elias Kachunga before Schalke hit them with a sucker-punch.
Hunemeier and Huntelaar both rose for the ball and it was the Paderborn defender who made contact, turning the ball unwittingly into his own goal to do Schalke a huge favour, but dent his own side's survival hopes.