Lancashire set up the possibility of an unlikely victory heading into the final day at The Oval, forcing Surrey to follow-on after the hosts were bowled out two runs short of safety.
A miraculous flurry of wickets in the afternoon session saw Surrey dismissed for 319, before Simon Kerrigan made inroads to remove Rory Burns before the close.
At 67/5, Lancashire would not have expected to see the home side back in on the third evening, but a century from Shivnarine Chanderpaul was backed up superbly by the Red Rose spinners, with Stephen Parry (3-31) claiming two wickets in as many balls to leave Surrey short of their target.
The hosts started the day two men down after Kyle Jarvis (2-72) had Scot Borthwick caught behind with the penultimate ball of the day. Burns may have fallen cheaply in the second innings, but he and veteran Kumar Sangakkara enjoyed a blissful morning session and added 99 runs for the third wicket to steer Surrey towards Lancashire's score of 470.
Burns (91) went to a half-century inside the first ten minutes of the day in 140 balls and Lancashire continued to leak runs through third man, either through edges or subtle strokeplay from Sangakkara.
Simon Kerrigan (2-35) came into the attack and forced an edge from Sangakkara, only for McLaren to fumble a sharp chance, but in the next over Jarvis struck to deny Burns a century.
The Surrey opener edged behind to Davies at 211/3 and five overs later Parry had the dangerman Sangakkara back in the hutch, with Liam Livingstone holding onto the drive from the Sri-Lankan ace.
Surrey went into lunch knowing they could ill afford to suffer any further set backs and the hosts went into their shell to negate the Lancashire spin bowlers. It was an approach which backfired as they accumulate just 20 runs in 24 overs after the break for the loss of three wickets.
Two wickets fell in the space of four overs through a combination of good bowling and indifferent batting; the first came when Kerrigan yorked Ben Foakes (9) and Dominic Sibley was stranded halfway down the wicket and caught short of his ground by the quick-thinking sub fielder - Saqib Mahmood - who fired in a throw to see Sibley (10) run out at 230/6.
Kerrigan's Oval agony of 2013 seemed a distant memory as he continued to deceive the Surrey batsmen, with Zafar Ansari (3) lunging forward, only to be bowled by the left-arm spinner to become the third casualty since lunch.
Corners of the crowd became restless at the lack of urgency shown by the Surrey batsmen, with the Curran brothers now tasked with guiding their side away from danger. Not for the first time this season, McLaren struck with the first ball of a new spell and the first delivery with the new ball, as Sam Curran glanced one off his hip and straight into the hands of Kerrigan.
After a dismal hour of petering around after lunch, Gareth Batty (33) led by example in showing the better batsmen how to fight against Lancashire's buoyancy. He swatted five boundaries in a counterattacking innings alongside Tom Curran, only to throw his wicket away at a vital juncture with his side on the verge of saving the follow-on.
The older Curran sibling was left stranded on 33 when he watched his captain slap a drive off Parry straight to Luke Procter at mid-off, before Mark Footitt lived up to his tag as a true Number 11, as he was trapped lbw to give Parry two quick wickets.
Lancashire, unsurprisingly enforced the follow-on after Surrey were dismissed for 319 and still trailing by 151 runs, but a combination of light rain and poor light threatened the rest of the day.
The spinner were forced to bowl to prevent the players from leaving the field, improving an already formidable over rate, with Lancashire rattling through 102 overs on the third day. Kerrigan made sure Burns did not make another fifty, forcing an edge through to Davies, before the former Durham duo of Mark Stoneman (22*) and Scott Borthwick (4*) steered the hosts home in fading light.
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