The Maitland Pickers held on for a gutsy 22-16 win against Western Suburbs after having just two players on the bench and playing with 12 men for 10 minutes in a testing second half.
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Maitland finished with backrowers Pete Wilson and Lincoln Smith playing in the centres as backs Will Niewenhuise and James Bradley joined the growing mid-season injury list.
They were then reduced to 12 men when prop Jayden Butterfield was sinbinned for a professional foul with 16 minutes to go.
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In the end it was three tries each and Brock Lamb's kicking proved the difference with the halfback landing three from three conversions and two penalty goals.
"The second half we sort of lost our way a little bit, but in saying that we had a lot of disruptions and it was just a matter of trying to get the win," Pickers coach Matt Lantry said.
"We lost Will Niewenhuise through a HIA, so we moved James Bradley from centre to wing and then we lost James with a little hamstring strain.
"You don't normally lose two wingers in one game, so we had Pete Wilson and Lincoln Smith playing at centre, Gary Anderson had to go to a wing. It was a bit of a makeshift team.
"We had plenty of blokes playing out of position and we were down to 12 men for 10 minutes, it was more about gritting your teeth and getting the job done. That was what I was most happy with."
The Pickers were reduced to 12 men when Jayden Butterfield was sent for 10 minutes for tackling a player from a quick tap restart aftter a penalty. Lantry said the penalty was inside the 10-metre line which should have prevented a quick tap start.
"They got a penalty against us and they took a quick tap inside 10 metres. It's a questionable decision and Butts (Jayden Butterfield) makes the tackle which is a professional foul and he goes to the sinbin from 16 minutes to go to six minutes left.
"If he didn't make the tackle they would have scored so it was one we had to give away.
"In the end the boys just found a way to win."
Lantry said the Rosellas were a vastly better team than the one they defeated 24-0 in round two at the Maitland Sportsground.
"They've got a lot of players back from in and around the Knights," he said. "No wonder they beat Cessnock and on the way they played yesterday they will trouble some teams between now and the end of the year."
Lantry said apart from a dropped ball on the first kick return which resulted in a try, the Pickers should have led 14-0 at the break.
"We were really good in the first half. We made an error on the first kick of the game and they came through and toed it ahead to score and lead 6-0 after two minutes," he said.
"Take that try out of the equation and it's a 14-0 lead at half-time."
Lantry said he was hopeful that Bradley, the competition's leading try scorer with 10 tries, will only miss a week and that Niewenhuise will have scans this week and may be available.
The Pickers are missing fullback Dan Langbridge, winger Perry Le Brocque, backrowers Pat Mata'utia (available next week from suspension) and Faitotoa Faitotoa, utility Harrison Spruce, with Sam Anderson and Reid Alchin returning to the side on Saturday.
"The wins earlier in the season are coming back to help us now. We've got an injury list as long as your arm and it's helping us at the moment that we got off to such a good start across the first six or seven weeks.
"It has give us a bit of breathing space, we've still got a three-point margin at this stage. I know Souths have got a game in hand so it may be cut to one.
"We've just got to keep winning, keep finding a way and at the moment they are not going to be pretty winds, they are going to be tough, gritty wins."
Lantry said Chad O'Donnell and Gary Anderson were very good for the Pickers as well as the starting middle of Sam Anderson, James Taylor and Jayden Butterfield.
"We had them on the rack at 14-6 just through the momentum we had through the middle. Probably half-time came at a bad time for us because we had some momentum and Wests were quite fatigued," Lantry said.
"I thought Dan Ticehurst, he played his first game for us back from the Knights, did a great job. He played 50 minutes straight in the front-row which was a great effort."
The Pickers won reserve grade in a 13-12 thriller with a field goal separating the two teams. The under-19s went down 36-6. Maitland's Ladies League Tag won on forfeit by Kotara and the A-grade men had the weekend off.
