Western Bureau:

Village United kept western Jamaica on the radar of top-flight national club football yesterday afternoon when they upstaged Sporting Central 2-1 in their crucial final round fixture, to escape relegation from the 2008-09 Digicel Premier League, at the Elliston Wakeland Youth Centre in Falmouth.

In a gallant display of never-say-die football, Village scored second-half goals through the burly Marrian Grant (65th) and the wily Jeff Pearce (78th) and were basically home and dry when Sporting Central got their consolation goal via a defender in stoppage-time play.

"It was a courageous per-formance by the players and all credit to them," said Village United's coach, Cassman Williams. "It was a splendid performance all the way through and I could never have asked more of them. They truly delivered for the west this afternoon."

Victory pushed Village to 40 points, one more than Sporting Central, which ended with the same number of points as Meadhaven United, following the KSAFA team's 1-1 draw with Reno.

Despite his team's loss, Sporting Central's coach Christopher Dawes nonetheless had a pleasing smile at the end of the game because by then, news had come through that Reno held Meadhaven United to a draw, condemning the KSAFA team to relegation due to an inferior goal difference.

"We are just happy to have qualified for next year, this result here today doesn't really matter again," said Dawes. "It was a tough game and we gave it our all. We must congratulate Village on a fine performance."