A piece of Mathew Head magic lifted St George lllawarra to a dramatic 26-24 victory over the Sydney Roosters in a sometimes spiteful Anzac Day clash at Aussie Stadium.

With both sides reduced to 12 men and the Dragons down 24-20 with three minutes remaining, halfback Head put through a chip kick on the halfway line before regathering the ball and passing to centre Matt Cooper, who slid over the line to tie the scores and set up the pressure conversion for Head.

The Dragons No.7 nailed the kick from the eastern touchline to secure the win and relieve some of the pressure on under siege coach Nathan Brown following the club's slow start to the season.

"It's just one of them things that just sort of happen and playing under Brownie gives us a lot of confidence to them things and today it came off for me so I'm pretty happy about that, Head said.

"We trained all week and we knew (Roosters fullback Anthony) Minichiello was going to be deep so I knew the opportunity was there and I just had to take it.

"It's something I suppose you dream about doing but in saying that we really needed it as a club ... it's good to have the two points and now we can just look forward to next week."

Brown was a relieved man following the win, and said the team's performance had been building over the last few weeks.

"The last three weeks hasn't been doom and gloom for us, we've been doing some good stuff," Brown said.

"Today we found a way to win ourselves by hanging in there and that's important for where we're heading in the future.

"It's just a matter of keep turning up with our attitude. If we get our attitude right ... we find ways to win."

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