South Hobart rallied back from 2-1 down midway through the second half to secure a stirring 4-2 victory over Launceston City. With their season on life support, substitutes Kobe Kemp and Alex Walter helped swing the game late on as South came from the clouds to steal the game and inject some major life into the title race.

South made the dream start in just the second minute as Niko Giantsopoulos failed to deal with Adam Gorrie’s drive from range alllowing Renato De Vecchi to prod home from a yard out and deliver his side the perfect start.

It came from a period of early dominance by South as they looked the sharper side out of the blocks but City would start to work their way back in, and a typically clinical counter attack on 17 minutes saw them draw level.

Tyler Fischer showed off his trademark pace, burning off the South centre backs before delivering a perfectly placed shot into the bottom left corner of the net. It capped the type of counter attacking move that City were causing big problems at the back for South with, despite their advantage in possession early.

As the half wore on, City started to have the better of the game and Jarrod Linger came close to giving them the lead when he hammered a shot into the crossbar, the best of the games chances before the break.

Tyler Fischer was looming large over the game though and he struck early in the second half to put City ahead, getting on the end of a Mies flick on and driving past Brown at his near post.

Two minutes later Fischer almost had his hat-trick as he burst in behind again and fizzed a shot that was spectacularly saved by Kieran Brown. In a real sliding doors moment, City were made to rue their inability to get the third goal that may have put the game out of reach.

But South were allowed to hang in there and Ken Morton turned to his bench and made some magical substitutions that would swing the match and quite possibly the league title.

Sending on Kobe Kemp paid immediate dividends, his shot from outside the box was parried by Giantsopoulos into the path of De Vecchi who tapped home his second, and against the run of play, South were back on terms.

After Jack Turner had squandered a pair of prime scoring chances it seemed a 2-2 draw was in store as the game ticked towards stoppage time, but the next of Morton’s subs was yet to have his say.

Just after being introduced, Alex Walter got himself in the right spot at the right time and tapped home from close range from the Connor Schmidt cross.

City were stunned, and South added yet another as De Vecchi capped off his hat-trick by rounding the keeper in the 90th minute and passing into the gaping goals.

Only some good keeping from Giantsopoulos managed to prevent a fifth, with City’s spirit broken by that point and South riding the adrenaline right to the final whistle.

That rung out around the ground and South walked away with a huge victory that sees them cut the gap to City to 6 points, ahead of a big game against Olympia next week.

City meanwhile continue their brutal stretch of schedule with a showdown against the Devonport Strikers in a top of the table encounter.