Jimmy Thompson scored a double, the young guns stood tall again, but it was veterans Alex Read and Ryan Clarke who delivered the coup de grace to seal Maitland's 4-1 win in the local El Clasicoal derby against Weston on Saturday night.
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The injection of Read and Clarke gave the Magpies the impetus to turn a tight one-all arm wrestle into a 4-1 rout.
Another veteran Matt Swan showed he is keen to collect further silverware with another strong performance.
"The impact of Ready and Clarkey coming on just makes so much of a difference in that final 30 minutes of the game," Magpies coach Mick Bolch said.
"For Ready and Clarkey to score coming off the bench was excellent. Matt Swan was really good again."
It was a special victory as the Bears had beaten the Magpies twice last year and won this year's earlier encounter at Cooks Square Park
Just the time for Thompson to step up with his first goals in the El Clasicoal derby.
He turned in another powerful performance with his double taking his season tally to 11, leading the competition.
"I don't think he (Thompson) has scored more than four goals in a season before. He had never scored against Weston before," Bolch said.
After Weston's Cooper Buswell scored on the counter in the 10th minute from a Maitland set-piece gone wrong, Thompson got the game back on equal footing with a classy 25 metre free kick which beat the four-man wall and finished in the top right corner.
"I thought the first half we were a little bit off, but second half we were very good," Bolch said.
"We probably controlled the first half but we went down early after some poor defending on the counter from our own set piece.
"We adjusted few things, we needed to defend a lot better through the middle of the park which I thought we did in the second half."
Thompson's second in the 70th minute was the result of three pin-point passes finishing in a wonderful pass through from Charlie Cox which allowed Thompson to storm into the box and beat the keeper with an emphatic strike.
Read, on the end of a Thompson through ball, cut inside defender Paul Sichalwe to beat the keeper diving to his right.
Clarke finished the scoring when he tapped in a deflection off the keeper from a Thompson strike.
Bolch said the win would be a great confidence booster going forward with the prize of the premiership very much a possibility.
"Our goal at the moment is making top three, but we play Jaffas in the final game and if we win the two before that it could down to that game to decide the premiership.
"Magic are still in the running though. It could be like two years ago with the title decided on the final day with the trophy hovering between the two grounds."
The Magpies will be further strengthened with the return of Central Coast-based players Adam Blunden and Sean Pratt for next week's game against Adamstown.
The two key players will have completed their 14 days in isolation and be able to return to action.
"They have been two of our best all year. To get them back three weeks before the finals will be a massive boost for the group," Bolch said.
"It's in our own hands now, if we win our last three game we can win the comp."
Results fell way with Edgeworth (fourth) and Lambton Jaffas (first) playing out a nil-all draw. Third-placed Broadmeadow Magic were also held to a scoreless draw by Valentine.
The results leave Jaffas on top with 35 points, Maitland second on 34, Magic third on 31 and Edgeworth fourth on 28. Magic and Edgeworth have a game in hand.
