JOSH Piddington doesn't score many goals and the veteran defender is unlikely to score many more important than the last-minute equaliser to snatch the Lambton Jaffas a 3-all draw at Edden Oval on Sunday.
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With three of the four minutes of stoppage time elapsed, Piddington flew high at the back post and nodded a Riley McNaughton floater into the right corner.
The Jaffas remain in seventh spot on 21 points after 13 rounds.
However, a defeat on Sunday would have made it three on the trot and been a huge dent to the finals hopes.
"The boys showed great character to keep fighting," Lambton coach Dave Tanchevski said.
"Piddo doesn't score many goals, but I often send him forward when we are chasing the game. He is very strong in the air and competes for everything. In terms of our season, it was important to get something out of the match. If it goes another five minutes, we probably win."
The opening 50 minutes had been the Yuta Konagaya show.
The Japanese import put Weston ahead in the 36th minute and added a second two minutes after the break.
Jaffas striker Kale Bradbery had a goal ruled out for offside in the 59th minute.
A minute later, Aaron Niyonkura had a chance to increase the Bears' lead to 3-0 but was denied from the penalty spot by Ben Kennedy.
Bradbery wouldn't be denied a second time after Weston failed to clean up a long ball in the 67th minute.
Niyonkura made amends in the 69th minute, before Bradbery completed his double in the 75th.
In the other game on Sunday, Broadmeadow Magic from 2-0 down to overrun Edgeworth 5-3 at Magic Park.
On Saturday, Newcastle Olympic beat Lake Macquarie 5-2 at Darling Street Oval and Maitland were 4-1 winners over New Lambton at Cooks Square Park.
Valentine's round-13 match against Charlestown at Hunter Sports Centre on Saturday was washed out.
The game between Adamstown and Cooks Hill scheduled for Adamstown Oval on Saturday was postponed.
Olympic led 3-0 at half-time after Jared Muller scored from the penalty spot in the second minute, the Roosters conceded an own goal in the 30th then Muller made it a double in the 41st.
Nathan Toby extended the lead to 4-0 in the 53rd minute before Shukurani Sunzu pulled one back for the Roosters in the 68th.
Jackson Lane restored the four-goal buffer for the hosts in the 69th minute in his first-grade debut then Lake Macquarie's Charlie Buffon found the back of the net in the 70th.
Olympic coach Joel Griffiths rotated his squad after a midweek exchange with Valentine and the Australia Cup match against Phoenix set for Tuesday.
Griffiths said the club would seek to have the match rescheduled for Wednesday night to give players an extra day of recovery.
"We had to rest a couple of players, purely because of the game in the Cup, and I had to make some changes at half-time to give the guys who have played a lot of minutes a rest as well, so just try to freshen up a little bit," Griffiths said.
"It's not ideal that Valentine didn't play, so we're probably backs against the walls again but I think we play better like that. We play with that energy. If we go in really fresh and everyone expects us to win, we don't play the best football, so it's important that we know we've got our backs against the wall now so hopefully the boys can lift and fight.
"We'd love for it to be changed to Wednesday ... I don't think it's in our favour to play Tuesday when they haven't played a three-game turnaround going into a really important game.
"Every single game we play in the Australia Cup is an important one and we take it very seriously, and we're going for our third time to make the round of 32. I would just like it if would be a level playing field."
NPL NNSW leading scorer Braedyn Crowley produced a first-half hat-trick as the Magpies shot out to a 4-0 lead after 32 minutes on Saturday. New Lambton also conceded an own goal in that period. Kent Harrison scored with a header in the 34th minute for the visitors before a scoreless second half.
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