NRL: Sutton steals the show for Souths

South Sydney's Craig Wing celebrated his final NRL match with a try in the win over Cronulla. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - Classy Souths five-eighth John Sutton masterminded a thrilling 26-24 win over Cronulla on Saturday night which leaves the Sharks still in danger of collecting the NRL wooden spoon.

Sutton put prop Scott Geddes over the line with a perfect pass eight seconds from fulltime.

It was also Sutton's monster 25-metre pass to winger Chris McQueen 12 minutes from fulltime which dragged Souths back to an 18-18 tie.

Cronulla started the game level on points with the last-placed Roosters, but with a 76-point superior differential.

However a win for the Roosters over North Queensland on Sunday will leave the Sharks on the bottom.

The lively match included nine tries, five of them to Souths, a couple of scuffles and a sin-binning for Paul Gallen, who threatened to single-handedly give Cronulla victory with a powerhouse performance.

Cronulla twice led by six points in the first half, but fell behind 18-14 early in the second.

Close range tries to Gallen and prop Kade Snowden then pushed the Sharks ahead with 15 minutes remaining before Sutton's late heroics.

The Sharks enjoyed long periods of first-half domination, with Gallen and prop Luke Douglas featuring prominently.

Douglas, who was controversially sent off against Manly last week, scored his first try of the season in the sixth minute when he was perfectly positioned to pounce on a grubber which rebounded off a post.

Douglas was held up over the line later in the half and also needed treatment for an injury in a hectic end to an eventful week.

Souths levelled at 6-6 against the run of play when they manufactured a try on one of their rare forays into Cronulla territory.

Assisted by a penalty on Sharks five-eighth Blake Green for a lifting tackle, Souths scored through second rower Eddy Pettybourne.

Cronulla then lost Gallen for the last eight minutes of the half when he was sin-binned for slowing down play.

Cronulla fullback Mitch Brown restored the home team's lead when he crashed through attempted tackles by Craig Wing and Chris Sandow.

Wing scored in the final minute of an eventful half, with Sandow converting to make it 12-12 at the break.

Skipper and winger Luke Covell nudged Cronulla ahead with a 44th minute penalty.

Souths fullback Nathan Merritt split the Sharks up the middle and outpaced the cover, cleverly diving just before the line with his momentum carrying him over the stripe to give his team the lead.

The defeat meant Cronulla equalled their worst ever losing streak of 10 matches.

Coach Ricky Stuart cut a disconsolate figure in a very brief post-match press conference.

Asked what he told the players after their second heartbreaking, last-gasp loss in as many games, Stuart said: "Not a lot ... pretty shattered actually."

Retiring hooker Corey Hughes was more forthcoming, but added an air of mystery when it came to apportioning blame: "The blokes are devastated, last week and this week there was that much effort and to come home with no result.... there's probably three or four people to blame, but I won't name names."

South Sydney coach Jason Taylor described the finish as unbelievable.

"You would think both teams were playing for semifinals berths or something pretty large, it's a great way to finish," Taylor said.

Asked about Sutton, Taylor felt neither the gifted playmaker nor his team were at their best, but lauded the mercurial five-eighth's excellent end of season form.

"In the second half of the year he's gone to another level and he's taken our team with him," Taylor said.

He was upbeat about the future, declaring several players in key positions had established some good combinations which pointed towards "a very good 2010 for us".

Wing, who missed with his conversion attempt of the match-winning try, said he left the NRL having fulfilled all his goals.

"It was fantastic to win on the bell, I couldn't have asked for anything more," Wing said.

"Getting a try, a try assist, it's just unfortunate I didn't get the goal."

One sour note was a suspected anterior cruciate ligament injury to McQueen whose bright performance Taylor described as "absolutely superb".

Their five-try haul lifted South's tally for the season to 103, equal top of the competition with Wests Tigers.

- AAP