The Swans had an opportunity to record first-innings points and then gave the Lions a mighty scare in their second innings, but ultimately failed in both endeavours.

Skipper Jake Best admitted the Swans now cannot make any errors in their quest to take part in the post-season, with his team sitting nine points behind eighth-placed Camberwell with games against Melbourne University and Hawthorn-Monash to round out the season.

"We need to win both games to make the finals," Best said. "We're playing pretty good cricket - obviously we were pretty unlucky yesterday."

The Lions resumed in the impervious position of 3-115, chasing the Swans' 158, but soon batted themselves into a tough position.

A dramatic collapse of 6-39 left the final pairing of Jonathan Fagg and Ejaaz Alavi to make the remaining runs.

Lions skipper Lloyd Mash then declared immediately at 9-162 in an attempt to push for the outright victory, but in reality it gave the Swans an opportunity to push for the reverse outright.

"We put up a good fight getting those wickets early - we were just one short," Best said.

In the Swans' second dig, quick runs were the order of the day and Best (49 not out) and in-form Shane Maggs (32) helped their team to 6-131 declared, leaving Fitzroy-Doncaster needing 127 off 15 overs for the outright points.

Mash (52 off 33 balls) and Matt Bremner (25) put on 78 for the Lions' opening wicket but a dramatic collapse of 7-28 had them reeling before Jacques Augustin (12not out) and Steven Duckworth (7) put them within striking distance in the final over.

It all came down to the final ball of the match, which was to be delivered by left-arm quick Ash Perera. "He did a yorker and they got the one run," Best said, singling out his cool-headed paceman for special praise after Perera had claimed match figures of 7-84.