FOR close to 80 minutes on Sunday, it appeared as if the parish of St Ann would have to endure yet another year languishing in the obscurity of parish football.

But all that changed rapidly as in the space of 12 short minutes, a jam-packed Drax Hall was a sea of jubilant fans celebrating their team’s miraculous recovery against heralded Kingston and St Andrew team Cavalier.

The festivities came at the conclusion of Benfica FC’s Premier League play-off final-round match, which they won 2-0, to end a 14-year drought for St Ann in Jamaica’s top-flight football competition.

Goals from Damion Newton (81st minute) and Gregory Tape (93rd) in the last 10 minutes of play ended the parish’s long wait while Cavalier, who only needed a draw, will have to endure an even longer wait after an absence of 16 years.

President of Benfica, Tyrone Rose, said the victory was more for the parish than for the club: “We’ve been working for two hard years and we have the whole of St Ann behind us… St Ann needed this and we needed this and at the end of the day, the boys delivered,” he said.

Benfica finished behind Reno on goal difference as both teams ended their fixtures with 10 points each.

Despite losing their first two matches and drawing the other in the first round, the St Ann team rebounded to win all three of their second-round matches to clinch their berth.

Dejected Cavalier coach Lamar Morgan said it was a disappointing end to the season for his team, as they lost the game in the last 10 minutes.

“The last 10 minutes we will want to forget… because we played very poorly… we needed a draw we came out and played to the system to get a result, but we didn’t played the last 10 minutes the way we should have played,” he said.

Both teams struggled to settle in the first half, although the home team dominated possession and had a few threatening attempts on goal.

After the break the hosts, spurred by their massive crowd support, pushed their opponents even further back and came close through Ian McAnuff.

Midway the half, Ricardo Scott’s header just missed the target and minutes later, Damion James wasted the opportunity of the match when he headed wide after being left unmark at the far post.

However, the home team’s frustrations were erased moments later when Newton was given too much room and his shot from outside the area beat the sprawling hands of Everdean Scarlett and came off the post before going in.

Cavalier tried desperately to find an equaliser, but found the Benfica defence difficult to breach.

Tape sealed the win for the home team when he picked up the ball deep inside his area and was left to run unmolested before unleashing an unstoppable shot past Scarlett in goal.