PALERMO, February 17 (Serie A) - Palermo kept up the pressure on the teams in the UEFA Cup spots in Serie A by seeing off rock-bottom Cagliari on Sunday.

Palermo's Edison Cavani had the unenviable honour of scoring at both ends as the home side ended a run of four defeats in five games to halt their recent free-fall down the table.

The Uruguayan opened the scoring for Palermo after 23 minutes before Bosko Jankovic made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time.

Then in the second half a mix-up in the Palermo area led to Cavani putting through his own net when trying to head clear from a corner.

Before the game was done there was time for more drama as an astonished Francesco Guidolin was sent to the stands by the referee, who apparently deemed the Palermo coach's protests against a foul on Federico Balzaretti excessive.

On the pitch there was plenty of action from the off, as the home side had the first chance on goal within the opening three minutes.

Giovanni Tedesco set up a good shooting chance for Jankovic whose effort was deflected clear by the Cagliari defence.

Two minutes later the Sicilians responded, as the home side needed a last-ditch intervention from Balzaretti to stop Jedaias Jeda who was set to beat Alberto Fontana from inside the area.

Then with quarter of an hour played Cagliari came close again when Pasquale Foggia whipped in a curling free-kick from 35 yards out that needed Palermo keeper Alberto Fontana to be at his best to tip away for a corner.

Having survived the early scares the hosts went up a gear, and with it they found the opening goal.

Giovanni Tedesco's cross found Cavani whose close-range header gave Marco Storari no chance.

This time the visitors had no response and Palermo struck again before the break.

Mattia Cassani exchanged passes with Cavani before squaring the ball to Jankovic who finished well with the last kick of the half.

However, despite looking out of it at half-time Cagliari were handed a life-line shortly after the restart.

Neither side had carved out any chances in the second period when from Daniele Conti's corner Cavani seemed to rush to get his head to the ball before the out-rushing Fontana, and in the process sent the ball into his own goal.

Immediately after Cagliari came on the attack again, but Cristian Zaccardo missed his chance to equalise.

Then the off-field action began when the home crowd seemed to turn against Guidolin for his decision to bring on Mark Bresciano in place of goalscorer Jankovic.

As the atmosphere turned increasingly tense Palermo passed up chance after chance to kill the game.

First Cavani then Bresciano missed opportunities to score before the referee sent Guidolin to the stands with 15 minutes left.

The Palermo coach was left speechless by the decision, as there seemed to be some confusion over exactly why the decision was made.

There was more confusion 10 minutes later, this time over how Bresciano managed to miss the best of the remaining chances to score.

But the result remained unaffected, and Palermo hung on for a much-needed three points.