A mountain of second-half errors proved costly for Orange CYMS at Wade Park on Sunday afternoon as Lithgow handed the injury-ravaged green and golds a second consecutive Group 10 premier league loss at home, scoring their first win of the season in the process.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After the two sides went into the sheds deadlocked at 12-all the green and golds consistently coughed up the pill to gift Workies possession and largely did so inside their own half, allowing the visitors to camp in an attacking position for virtually all of the second period.
They took advantage in shooting out to a 24-12 lead 15 minutes into the second period and while CYMS did manage to fight back and cut the margin to just two late in the half Workies held on, Eli Felton's 77th minute four-pointer sealing the 28-22 win.
You could tell both clubs have been struggling with injuries but the boys dug in, a win's a win.
- Lithgow Workies coach Graeme Osborne
They did so despite being down to 12 men at one stage too, producing a gutsy effort and matching CYMS' converted try during the 10-minute period Jack Sullivan sat in the sin bin.
"It's a little hard to comprehend we hadn't won a game yet but they've been playing with plenty of effort and plenty of guts. You could tell both clubs have been struggling with injuries but the boys dug in, a win's a win, we'll always take one [at Wade Park] but especially with the way we've been going," Workies coach Graeme Osborne said.
"We'd been really good in patches the previous few weeks. We put (Bathurst) St Pat's to the sword outside the last three minutes and then we just fell off completely against Cowra, so we did need a win and I'm hopeful that will kick-start us for the rest of the season."
As you'd expect CYMS player-coach Dom Maley, who scored two of his side's four tries in the loss, lamented his troops' lack of execution and said they may have been guilty of trying too hard after falling behind midway through the second half.
"Our completions weren't good enough, I think they were seven of 13 in the first and seven of 12 in the second half. We made too many errors and we were in our own half for nearly all of the second half," he said.
"I actually thought our defensive effort was pretty good considering that but we can't expect to defend for that length of time, virtually the whole game, and still be able to win. That'll be worse against the better sides too.
"I think we probably were trying a bit hard there to make something happen and that caused a lot of the errors, the blokes who don't normally make them were probably trying to step up and get us over the line but in the process not quite getting it right, the errors just killed us."
Workies came out firing and crossed twice in the opening 15 minutes through Greg Alderson and Harley Osland, with Josh Howarth converting one to give his side an early 10-nil lead.
Maley scored his first midway through the period after Mitch Collins was taken from the field after a head knock, compounding the side's injury problems further, and Ryan Griffin dived over in the shadows of half-time following Sullivan's sin-binning too.
McAlpine converted both, the second goal locking the game up at 12-all, Howarth having kicked a penalty goal in between CYMS' two tries.
Despite CYMS enjoying a one-man advantage Workies scored straight after the break, Nick Bender swooping on an offload following a barnstorming run from prop Ryan Jervis.
Howarth duly converted and did so again after Osland scored his second, latching onto the rebound after Travis Adelerhof and Lachie Munro had a mix-up at the back trying to diffuse a Felton cross-field kick.
WATCH: Workies winger Harley Osland scores his second after a CYMS' mix-up
McAlpine sent Maley over for his second just five minutes later and converted to cut the gap to six, not long after producing a kick ahead that took an obscenely lucky bounce in goal to land for Jacob Sutherland to finish.
WATCH: CYMS' Ben McAlpine puts Dom Maley over for his second of the day
His second kick missed though and with the gap at just two CYMS came up with a handful of errors late in the game, Felton eventually scoring three out from full-time to seal the win.
- LITHGOW WORKIES 28 (Harley Osland 2, Nick Bender, Eli Felton, Greg Alderson tries; Josh Howarth 3 goals, penalty goal) def ORANGE CYMS 22 (Dom Maley 2, Ryan Griffin, Jacob Sutherland tries; Ben McAlpine 3 goals)
WANT MORE ORANGE AND REGIONAL SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...