Lecce secured three vital points in their battle to avoid relegation from Serie A with victory over Catania.

The Salentini halted a run of three consecutive defeats after first-half goals from Gianni Munari and Simone Tiribocchi sealed the win, with Jorge Martinez pulling one back for the visitors.

Catania were dominant in the second period but were unable to find the equaliser, and were reduced to 10 men in injury time when substitute Fabio Sciacca picked up his second yellow card of the game.

Lecce remain second from bottom but the result keeps them three points from safety after both Bologna in 18th and Torino in 17th also won.

Bologna pulled off an impressive 2-0 win over high-flyers Genoa, while Torino ran out 1-0 winners against fellow strugglers Siena as the pressure intensified at the bottom of the table.

Catania, who have already ensured they will be playing top flight football next season, stay in midtable.

Having mustered just 29 goals in their previous 32 matches, Luigi De Canio's team finally seemed to have got their attacking game together as they pushed forward in the opening stages.

Munari backheeled the ball to Tiziano Polenghi in the ninth minute, and his cross found the head of Dimitrios Papadopoulos only for the Greek striker to send it wide.

But two minutes later they were in front, Munari showing greater accuracy with his head to guide the ball past Tomas Kosicky after Andrea Zanchetta had miscued his shot.

And 15 minutes later Lecce had doubled their advantage, Tiribocchi calmly beating Kosicky with a simple right-footed shot.

Catania hit back on the half hour, Ezequiel Carboni sending a long range effort whistling wide and Ezequiel Llama mis-hitting his attempt from a good position, but they were unable to find the net and the hosts went into the break 2-0 in front.

It only took two minutes after the restart for the Sicilians to make the breakthrough, though, Martinez following up to score after Sciacca's long range shot had hit the post, and for the rest of the half, Catania laid siege to the Lecce goal in the search for an equaliser.

Gionatha Spinesi's cross went narrowly wide on 67 minutes and Takayuki Morimoto wasted some clever play four minutes later with a poor left-footed effort.

But they could find no way through, and when Francesco Benussi pulled off a magnificent save with three minutes remaining to keep out Sciacca's volley on the turn, it seemed their luck was out.

And so it proved, for Sciacca in particular, who was given his marching orders - somewhat harshly - just minutes later after being shown a yellow card for obstruction, his second bookable offence.

Lecce held on for the win which gives their fans renewed belief that they can still beat the drop after a dismal season.