Prop and skipper Doug McKillop sent the home fans into a frenzy when he crashed over with a minute and a half remaining, and Ben Clarke added the extras, to pip Gunnedah 29-23 and post their first win for the season.

They had led 12-8 at half-time only to trail 23-22 with only minutes remaining. 

“They were really proud of themselves and I was proud of them,” coach Luke Bailey said.

They had to fight hard for the win.

Leading up to McKillop’s try they had been under pressure for probably around 15 minutes.

“We held them out and held them out,” Bailey said.

Eventually we got a break and got a couple of penalties.

“Our defence really won us the game,” he said.

“It was very committed, the boys had the desire to win.”

“The most pleasing thing was there was a period where we were just defending forward play.”

“I’d say the boys defended for probably three quarters of the second half.”

Heading in, Bailey had spoken about being not too worried about the result.

They just tried to go out and play better than they had the week before.

That’s been their focus, Bailey backing that if they keep getting better each week the scoreboard will take care of itself.

He said it was hard to pick their best, with so many players standing up but couldn’t go past number eight Toby Twigg.

He was closely followed by McKillop and young winger Sam Barton.

The Red Devils’ disappointment was amplified by the amount of possession they had.

“We had more than 60 per cent of the ball,” coach Jason Waerea said.

“They defended very well on their line in the first half.”

“We peppered them pretty hard.”

He also counted probably three tries they blew through dropped balls, or trying to go a couple of phases too many or the wrong person finding themselves at first receiver.

That was the only thing Waerea could fault – the mistake level.

“We had trouble finishing off,” he said.

“We had a lot of line breaks but we just didn’t turn them into tries.”

One of the reasons for that was their lineout.

It wasn’t the reliable source of possession it has been in previous games.

“We spilled a lot of four ball and three ball, which has usually been pretty good,” he said.

They would have probably turned over four lineouts in the last 20 minutes alone.

“The boys realised they played a lot better,” he said.

“In terms of continuity the boys were pretty happy and they were pretty happy defensively.”

Tighthead prop Russell Johnson, second-rower Matt Roseby and half-back Fred Strang were their best.