After a first round washout and a disappointed second round draw against Cooks Hill, Maitland lifted their tempo and improved their passing game to get the job done against an Edgeworth team missing three of their normal starting line-up.

"A lot better from an effort perspective, way more quality that what we were doing against Cooks Hill," Magpies assistant coach Gavin Wolfe said yesterday of the Magpies. "There are still somethings to work on, but we're a lot happier."

In other news

Ty Cousins started the scoring in style with a mid-air volley off a superb Jimmy Thompson cross in the 52^nd minute.

"It was a really good finish from Ty, he does that sort of stuff at training all the time. It was a little bit unconventional, but quite effective," Wolfe said. "He was very pleased after the game, it's a good way to start the season for sure."

Co-skipper Braedyn Crowley scored the second in the fourth minute of overtime.

A defensive header turned attacking ball and it set up an attacking raid by Crowley and Alex Read who found themselves against one defender and the goalkeeper Josh Owen.

Crowley took the ball and struck it sweetly through Owen's legs putting behind the frustration of a couple of missed opportunities earlier in the game.

"He was a little bit frustrated, he had a couple of really good opportunities before that and just failed to capitalise and he didn't think it was going to be his night," Wolfe said.

"But then he popped up at the end and got one. We're hoping it's the first of many for the season."

Wolfe said the ability to push until the final minute of overtime was something the Magpies prided themselves on over the past three or four seasons.

"Probably for the last three or four years we've really focused on establishing a really good fitness base in preseason with the view that most times the games go for 95 minutes and we want to be playing to the 95th minute as you can still win games in that period of time," he said.

Wolfe was also delighted with the defensive effort, particularly from centre-back pairing Will McFarlane and Zach Thomas.

"The defence were rock solid, they were very impressive back there on Saturday night. Will McFarlane and Zach Thomas were massive for us in the middle of the park.

"Will as far as his defensive headers were concerned and some of the work he did back there to stifle the Edgy attack, some of the quality long balls Zach Thomas was playing were just fantastic. They were both on song."

Wolfe said while Edgeworth were missing three or four players they looked like being a top four side again once again.

"Those sort of games you can kind of relax because they are missing three or four players but we certainly didn't do that last night, which is a really good sign," he said.

The Magpies have their first home game of the season on Saturday when they host Adamstown.

"We're pretty keen to get a decent crowd up there considering it's our first home game. We haven't been on the pitch for about a month because the council has been doing some work for us and it looks a picture," Wolfe said.

Kick off in the main game between Maitland and Adamstown is at 5pm on Saturday.