INVERELL Saints must back up their best performance of the season when they handed New England Nomads their first loss of 2014 by overcoming the resurgent Roos in Tamworth on Saturday.
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The Saints had not beaten the Nomads for two years when they edged to a three point win last Saturday at Varley Oval.
That win will count for little if the second-placed Saints undo all the good work with a loss in Tamworth against the third-placed Kangaroos.
A seven-goal third quarter blitz against the Tamworth Swans earned the Roos their third straight win last Saturday and they, back to full strength, are eagerly awaiting the Saints.
“That win was great for our confidence,” Inverell Saints coach Nick Baird said of the 13.8 86 to 11.17 83 win over the Nomads at Varley Oval.
‘We hadn’t beaten them since the 2012 final, almost two years to the day.”
The unbeaten Nomads had done exceptionally well to keep their run of successive wins going, Baird said.
“We know how hard it is,” he said.
“It’s a tough task to go through unbeaten – it had been an impressive from them.”
Saints success came from some hard work around the goal square.
Baird admitted his side had been wasting many opportunities in front of goal this season.
“The shoe was on the other foot this time,” he said.
“All the work we’ve been doing did pay off. We took our opportunities and they didn’t.”
The Saints converted many of their chances with just eight behinds on the end of 13 goals while the Nomads kicked 17 behinds and missed some golden opportunities especially in the first half. While Luke Selig had another enormous game, Lachlan McDonald and Justin Pay were also enormous. Pay earned plenty of praise from his coach.
“He led from the front,” Baird said.
“Got his hands on the football and won a lot of contested possession for us. He had a really clear head in the middle.
“But all 22 contributed.”