THE Horsham Saints came from behind to record victory on the road against Nhill on Saturday. The visiting team left it until the last quarter to sneak in front for the first time but once it was there it held on for a thrilling 12.16 (88) to 13.3 (81) win.
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Saints coach Luke Fisher said it was a relief when the final siren sounded with his side in front. “It was certainly exciting for the group to get over the line after a close game last week,” he said.
Nhill were by far the quickest team out of the blocks as the side slammed on the opening five goals of the game within five minutes of play. Fisher said his side had had a focus on starting well but they barely touched the ball during the opening passages.
Once the Saints settled the lead was pulled back to a single goal at quarter time.
“Credit to the boys,” Fisher said. “They really stuck with it and started to do things the way we wanted to towards the end of the first quarter.”
Momentum swung back in favour of the home side as it kicked with the breeze to end the quarter as Daniel Batson played strongly out of full forward.
Converting opportunities proved difficult for the Saints at the other end and it led to Nhill opening up a 19-point lead at half-time despite having one less scoring shot.
Inaccuracy has become a problematic pattern for the Saints in the early round but Fisher was not concerned.
“I’m not going to look into that too much,” he said. “At the end of the day we had 28 shots and a few more that fell short, I prefer to look at the fact we are starting to create more opportunities.”
The second half of the game saw the Saints start to dominate territory and possession but not the scoreboard. For all its domination the side had to wait more than half the quarter to kick a goal and only added one more before the final change.
Nhill still had a one-point lead going into the fourth even after it had failed to score in the third.
The first goal of the last went the Tigers way after a well-worked clearance.
The Saints then started to control territory again and Matt Combe put his side back within kicking distance when he kicked truly after a shot drifted across the face from a similar position minutes earlier. Another centre clearance led to a Nhill goal before the Saints drew level. A scrambled Sam Clyne’s snap put the Saints in front with minutes to space and the side held on to win.
“We spoke about awareness of the game last week,” Fisher said. “For the boys to be able to close out the game was really pleasing.”
It was some of the youngest Saints that stood up when it counted. Angus Gove played strongly off half-back while Mitch Martin marked strongly and made good decisions in just his second senior game.
