Nyngan were one of three teams snapping at the Magpies’ heels on the competition ladder before Sunday’s game and while fourth and fifth placed Wellington and Westside also had weekend wins, Forbes’ victory at Spooner Oval was a vital one, said captain coach Zac Merritt.

“It was just good to get back into the winners’ circle,” he said of the 19 point triumph.

“We put a big focus on defence through the week and I actually said to the boys last week that our defence against CYMS was pretty good, even though we didn’t win, and we needed to keep doing that.

“I think you could feel a bit of a change in our attitude,” he said.

While Forbes scored first on Sunday, with big winger Rusiate Lawanikula crossing on the eastern flank, Nyngan made the better start overall and soon led 12-4 after back-to-back converted tries to Jeremy Thurston and Hammond Erepan.

Forbes were forced to defend for much of the first half, due to turnovers and poor kicks, but they didn’t concede another point.

Merritt said this was a stand-out statistic for him.

“Definitely,” he said. “Nyngan have some pretty classy outside backs and for us to contain them to 12 points was excellent I thought.”

“We hardly had the ball in the first half but I thought that first 25 minutes probably won the game for us in the end.

“Yeah, our first half was scrappy but to go to half time up 14-12 was a really good result and a real credit to the boys I thought.”

Run out of defence from fullback Matt Morris and centre Joel Davie set up Forbes’ second try to Joe Coe and the Magpies went ahead when Ben Maguire charged on to a perfect Matt Roylance chip kick.

Nyngan also enjoyed sustained possession in the second half but again the Magpies resisted. Tempers frayed at times, with the visitors twice penalised with players sin-binned.

Forbes attacked with greater confidence as the half wore on - Ben Maguire scored his second try after the Magpies capitalised on an overlap.

A try to Joel Davie in the left corner made things difficult for Nyngan and Matt Roylance virtually secured the result with a field goal that increased the lead to 13 points.

With the clock winding down Rusiate Lawanikula scored his second try to seal the win.

While Nyngan had two players sent from the field in the second half, the Magpies have no need to worry about repercussions for their next match, against the struggling Jets at Narromine.

“It was a game we needed to win and they really wanted to knock us off so in that respect there was probably a bit of heat in it,” Merritt said yesterday.

“But our boys responded in the right way, with controlled aggression,” he said.

Merritt named fullback Matt Morris, half Matt Roylance and forward Ben Maguire as the Magpies’ best.

Earlier the Magpies won a tight reserve grade contest 24-20, and a one-sided under 18s match 48-10, however the visitors took the points in the women’s league tag, winning 16-8.