Brothers overcame a disjointed lead up to maintain their place on top of the Group Nine ladder.
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With halfback Cameron Breust ruled out and coach Terry Westblade hospitalised during the week, it was far from an ideal preparation but they still managed to score a 20-18 win at Equex Centre on Sunday.
Albury scored more tries than their rivals, but Ed Ansell’s penalty goal proved to the be difference.
Westblade was pleased with how they came through it to bring up their eighth win from the first nine games.
“It was scratchy but I was really worried coming into the game as I hadn’t been on deck all week and hadn’t seen the boys,” Westblade said.
“They pretty much ran themselves on Thursday night, Pete (Little) took them so I didn’t know what to expect but I am really proud of them for their efforts.
“When you are leading the comp everyone is gunning for you and are bringing their A game and they are really handling it well.”
Westblade was pleased with the control shown in the first half.
Brothers had plenty of opportunities early and finally broke through when Ed Ansell scored a soft try after eight minutes.
They went further in front when Liam Carey scored from a lovely ball from Little before Albury managed to get themselves back into the contest.
Two quick tries to Joel Monaghan and Robbie Byatt got the visitors within four points with four minutes left in the half.
However a try to Brayden Sharrock with 15 seconds left handed Brothers a 18-8 lead at the interval.
Kirby then slotted a penalty to extend their lead, which proved decisive in the finish.
Etu Uaisele scored to get the Thunder within eight points with 20 left to play before being sin-binned in with eight remaining.
Albury scored on the last play of the day through Damian Scott to see the scoreline flatter the visitors.
However Thunder coach Adrian Purtell couldn’t hide his disappointment in another narrow loss.
“We’ve competed again, which is a positive, but we are not winning and that is disappointing and frustrating,” Purtell said.
“We are not learning from our mistakes and ball control wasn’t good enough in the first half and our attitude was off in certain areas.”
Purtell thought letting in a couple soft tries showed their attitude wasn’t right to start the game.
Dogged by a hamstring complaint, Purtell struggled to assert his influence on the game and looks set to miss the clash with Cootamundra on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Brothers have now set up a big clash with Junee at Laurie Daley Oval.
The Brethren are looking to make amends for their only loss for the season.
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