The ninth-placed Mariners were poised to move up to seventh spot and within a point of sixth, but now face the top two teams over the final two rounds.
The draw effectively ended 10th-placed Brisbane's finals aspirations as the Roar went a 10th consecutive game without a win.
Sam Klein's fourth-minute header gave Brisbane a halftime lead, but second-half goals to teenager Jesse Mantell and substitute Nathanael Blair put Central Coast ahead at Polytec Stadium in Gosford on Friday.
In the third minute of added time, substitute Lauton beat Mariners goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne to the ball after a deflected Quinn MacNicol shot looped into the air.
The home team had a late chance to win the game, but Blair shot straight at goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis a few seconds before the final whistle.
The Mariners wanted to mark Redmayne's 300th ALM game with victory, but ultimately their untimely winless streak stretched to five games.
"We're devastated for so many reasons," Mariners coach Warren Moon told Paramount Plus.
"We obviously wanted to keep fighting for finals, and although mathematically possible it becomes very difficult now, but also for 'Redders' as well.''
Central Coast were playing their third game in six days and just a day after the club revealed Moon had opted not to stay beyond the end of this season.
"My wife is a confident professional in her own right and has a job which wouldn't mean she would be able to move to New South Wales, and I've got kids at high school," Moon said.
"So just to be transparent and honest with the club, a few weeks ago I let them know that whatever happens with the ownership, I wouldn't be able to move down here."
The Roar had the first six shots of the game and 10 more overall than the Mariners, hitting the woodwork twice in the second half.
"This been the story of 2026, in the end it was good to get a point though," Roar coach Michael Valkanis said.
"They kept pushing, which is great, but disappointed we didn't leave with three points."
Klein almost doubled the Roar's lead in the ninth minute, but his fine first-time shot was pushed away well by a diving Redmayne, who made three more comfortable saves in the first half.
The Mariners showed more urgency in the second half and were ahead by the hour mark.
Diminutive teenager Mantell and the home crowd had to wait two tense minutes before VAR overturned the original offside decision and he could fully celebrate his well-struck first ALM goal.
"I thought I was offside to be honest," Mantell told Paramount Plus.
Blair threw himself at a perfect cross from Lucas Mauragis to send his header flying past Bouzanis, but either side of that goal James McGarry and Henry Hore each struck a post.
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