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Late penalty gives St. George’s survival hopes

St. George’s 2Dandy Town 1Relegation threatened St. George’s live to fight another day after captain David Signor struck a late penalty to give them a hard-fought, come-from-victory at Wellington Oval.The victory, combined with Robin Hood’s 4-3 win over Wolves on Friday night and Flanagan’s Onions’ 9-0 thrashing to PHC, means that the two relegation spots are still undecided, though at least one team will be relegated on Thursday night when the bottom two teams meet in their make-up match. Cool heads prevailed in the St. George’s camp at windy Wellington where the home team came back from a goal down at half time to snatch all three points with goals from Jarizinho Bassett and Signor.The win lifted St. George’s back off the bottom and they now trail Onions by five points with two games to play.“When you have the opportunities you have to take them,” said Signor of his penalty against his former team.“Hard work pays off and it ain’t over, the fat lady hasn’t sung. When we win our next two we will be staying up.”The home team looked to have blown their best chances when, with a strong wind in their backs, they failed to capitalise in the first half. Striker Jarreau Hayward, the team’s most consistent scorer over the last couple of months, missed a couple of good scoring opportunities inside the first five minutes as the wind caused early problems for the Dandy Town defence.The first opportunity for Colts came after just 77 seconds when the ball was knocked around outside the Town penalty area before Hayward got through and drove a low shot wide when with just keeper Daniel Johnson to beat. Four minutes later a long ball out of defence sent Hayward clear and into the penalty box where he just beat the advancing Johnson to the ball before stabbing his effort just wide. The resulting collision with the ‘keeper saw Hayward injure his hand in his fall and immediately leave the field and taken to hospital.At the other end Lorenzo Simmons sidefooted over the bar as Town had a rare early chance.St. George’s missed another good chance one-on-one chance late in the first half when Bassett steered his chance wide. The miss came back to bite Colts as Town broke the deadlock in the 40th minute when Jelani Carlington fouled Caldre Burgess inside the box and Damon Ming converted the resulting spotkick.With the wind in their backs in the second half, Town were looking to extend their lead but the fighting spirit shown by St. George’s kept them in the game.The home side finally got a break in the 60th minute when Bassett converted a pass from a freekick on the right. Then Signor seized the chance to clinch victory for the bottom team when referee Martin Wyer awarded another penalty after substitute Wolde Jones was pulled back as he raced into the box. Signor’s spotkick was well placed low to Daniel Johnson’s right.St. George’s: M. Paynter; E. Signor, M. Hodsoll (J. Darrell 68min), K. Greaves, M. Tucker, R. Basden, D. Signor, J. Carlington (W. Jones 51min), A. Douglas, J. Bassett, J. Hayward (J. Daniels 8min).Goals: J. Bassett (60min), D. Signor (81min pen)Yellow cards: D. Signor, M. Hodsoll.Dandy Town: D. Johnson; S. Darrell, E. Tankard, T. Webb, A. Lowe, F. Frankson, D. Butterfield (T. Goater 66min), C. Burgess, L. Simmons (Z. Butterfield 77min), T. Webb, A. Rocker, D.Ming.Goal: Damon Ming (40min pen).Yellow card: D. Butterfield.Referee: Martin Wyer