Hastings 0, St Leonards 1: Des Boateng hit a dramatic second-half goal to earn Saints a surprise win in the East Sussex derby last night.

The combative midfielder fired his 14th goal of the season in the 69th minute at a rain-drenched Pilot Field after turning on a pass from Jimmy Elford and shooting into Dave King's top right hand corner.

The goal gave Glyn White's side their third successive win in the Dr Martens eastern division as they bid to haul themselves away from the relegation zone.

Boateng, 21, said: "I was looking forward to this game. In previous years I didn't really play well in this fixture but tonight I stuck to it and got the goal I deserved. I am confident we can stay up."

White added: "The team worked their socks off. It is another three points for us but if we don't capitalise on this at Corby on Saturday it means nothing."

Town had been hoping for to win to put them top but leading scorer Paul Jones failed to recover from ankle injury and was replaced by French striker Landry Zahana-Oni.

White named his cousin and former Hastings assistant manager, Terry White, on his bench.

Both teams hit the woodwork in the opening ten minutes. The hosts nearly took the lead in the first minute when Steve Yates' right foot shot from the edge of the box was palmed on to the bar by John Odlum.

Seven minutes later Boateng hit the foot of King's post with a deft left foot chip.

On 22 minutes Odlum dived low to his left to push a long range free kick from Duncan McArthur round the post and three minutes later the Saints' shot-stopper kept out Tony Burt's header from McArthur's free kick with a point blank save.

After the re-start Zahana-Oni fired narrowly wide for Hastings and Roy Goddon shot disappointingly at King when well placed as the conditions began to deteriorate.

The centre of the pitch became almost unplayable as torrential rain turned it into a quagmire.

Hastings: King, Yates, Osborne, Playford, Burt (Simmonds 81), Flanagan, Myall (Hegley 74), McArthur, Zahana-Oni, Honey (Webb 77), Ruddy.

St Leonards: Odlum, Smith, Fisher, Moody, Henderson, Johnson (Ramsden 74), Boateng (White 84), Elford, Godden (Whyman 80), Fox, Fletcher.

Referee: Colin Rolfe Attendance: 684 Bookings: Boateng foul 24. Moody foul 48.