Siófok Seizes Late Glory with Dramatic Comeback at Pénzügyőr: NB III Rivals Trade Places at the Bottom

On a brisk October afternoon in Budapest, football’s unyielding drama unfolded at Pénzügyőr SE Sporttelep, where two desperate sides clawing at the base of Hungary’s NB III Southwest division delivered ninety minutes that may yet reshape their season narratives. Siófok, battered and bottom-dwelling for weeks, produced a storming late rally to overturn Pénzügyőr 2-1, vaulting off the foot of the table and thrusting their hosts into solitary company just above last place.

For nearly seventy minutes, the contest betrayed its context: two teams low on form, short on confidence, and searching for direction. Pénzügyőr, marginally better off before kickoff, sought to harness home support to steady a campaign that had yielded only five points from ten matches. Siófok, mired in a run that had produced eight league defeats and a pair of catastrophic cup drubbings, were aiming not just for points, but for dignity and momentum.

The match’s turning point arrived in the 67th minute. Pénzügyőr—already struggling to break down a compact Siófok side—saw their task grow steeper when one of their own saw red. The details of the infraction may fade, but the impact was immediate and profound. Deprived of manpower and thrust onto the back foot, Pénzügyőr’s shape wobbled—and Siófok sensed their moment.

It took just five minutes for the visitors to translate opportunity into breakthrough. In the 72nd minute, Siófok breached the hosts’ depleted lines, the identity of the scorer perhaps less important than the eruption of relief and belief among the Siófok faithful. The weight of weeks spent chasing shadows, suffering heavy defeats—not least the 0-5 and 1-7 thrashings of late—momentarily lifted as the visitors celebrated a rare lead.

Momentum, once seized, is not easily relinquished. Siófok pressed their advantage and found insurance ten minutes later, in the 82nd minute, when their second goal further muted the home crowd and sent a ripple of disbelief through the venue. A team that had scored just twice in its previous three league outings suddenly had two in ten minutes—proof, perhaps, that football’s tides can turn violently and without warning.

Pénzügyőr, to their credit, refused to bow out quietly. With the game ticking into stoppage time, the hosts snatched a goal—too late to salvage a point, but a nod to their resilience and perhaps a warning that they will not concede relegation battles lightly. The final whistle confirmed Siófok’s 2-1 victory, their first league win since early autumn, and condemned Pénzügyőr to a seventh defeat in ten, their slender advantage over the cellar cut to a single, precarious point.

Neither side arrived in Budapest expecting a showcase; each, though, recognized the stakes. Recent form had made grim reading for both. Pénzügyőr entered Sunday having scraped just one win in their last five matches—a narrow, breathless 3-2 over PTE-PEAC that felt distant in memory. Their draws at Balatonlelle and Dombóvári offered glimmers, but defeats to Nagykanizsai and Iváncsa revealed all the familiar flaws. Siófok, still stinging from twin 5-0 league facings and that bruising Magyar Kupa mauling by MTK Budapest, looked to stem a slide that threatened to leave them detached at the bottom.

This result accomplishes more than a mere swapping of places: it offers hope to Siófok, whose campaign, just a week ago, seemed irrevocably lost to the undertow. The three points leapfrog them above Pénzügyőr—now 14th with 5 points to Siófok’s 4—but just as crucially, inject belief into a squad that had scored a solitary league goal all autumn before today.

For Pénzügyőr, the plot thickens. Their margin for error narrows with every misstep; matches like this, at home, against direct rivals, are the lifeblood of survival campaigns. A red card at a critical juncture, followed by a late collapse, threatens to cast a shadow over the coming weeks unless lessons are quickly heeded. It’s not so much the league position—still barely outside the bottom rung—as the direction of travel that will alarm supporters and management alike.

For both teams, history offers little comfort. Meetings between Pénzügyőr and Siófok are rare at this level, but today’s script will be remembered: an afternoon when fortunes pivoted, and the first hints of escape flickered for Siófok.

As the league rounds its early autumn third, neither team can rest easy. For Siófok, the challenge is to turn release into revival, to see this win not as an outlier but as a foundation for something more. For Pénzügyőr, the task grows heavier. Another winnable fixture passes without reward, and with the specter of relegation battles intensifying, every match looms as a potential decider.

The stakes, now, are unmistakable: only resilience, discipline and a willingness to seize the moment will decide which of these strugglers writes a redemption narrative this season—and which is left searching for answers as winter closes in.