Siena 0 Novara 2

Two goals inside the final 20 minutes lifted Novara to a crucial Serie A victory at Siena.

The match appeared to be petering out towards a stalemate until 18 minutes from full-time when Marco Rigoni made the breakthrough for the visitors.

Filippo Porcari added a second on 81 minutes as second-bottom Novara hauled themselves to within eight points of safety with their second win in succession.

Defeat for Siena snapped a three-game winning run and they are now six points above the drop zone.

Siena came into today's match still reeling from the blow of losing captain and top scorer Emanuele Calaio for the rest of the season after he fractured his left fibula in last week's win at Cesena.

The hosts nevertheless started the match brightly enough, with Pablo Andreas Gonzalez and Franco Brienza both going close to opening the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes.

But it was Novara who looked the most likely to make the breakthrough as the half wore on, Giuseppe Mascara going closest with an effort that was saved in the left corner by Gianluca Pegolo after 32 minutes.

A minute before the break Novara spurned another presentable opening, this time Jeda heading wide after connecting with Giuseppe Gemiti's cross.

Chances remained hard to come by after the break, with Andrea Lisuzzo's close-range header over the bar in the 52nd minute the best of the early openings.

A draw looked the only outcome as the defences continued to dominate, but with 18 minutes remaining Novara finally unlocked Siena's backline when Rigoni tucked the ball into the left corner of Pegolo's net after latching on to Andrea Caracciolo's header.

And with Siena chasing the game, Novara delivered the sucker punch with nine minutes remaining when Porcari picked up the ball outside the box and clinically fired home.