Aggies overcame a week of off-field distractions and a first half deficit to score an important win over Albury in the scheme of their season.

The two teams were locked on 23 points heading into the clash at Beres Ellwood Oval on Saturday, but the 38-19 win gives the university side some breathing space.

They are now four points clear of fifth-placed Griffith and five ahead of Albury with four rounds left before finals.

Mitchell was thrilled with how they dug deep to bring up their fifth win of the season.

“As far as being a coach it is probably one of the more special wins I’ve ever had,” Mitchell said.

“Just the week that we’ve had with some of our players and lot of guys out, the guys stepped up and played really good footy.

“A fair bit of ticker got us over the line more so than footballing ability.”

Trailing 19-10 at the break, Ag College were able to re-engerise themselves in the second half.

It ensured another important win at home.

“We were much better in the second half,” Mitchell said.

“It has been a pretty ordinary week so it showed a lot of character.”

Ag College scored a 57-12 win over Griffith before the two general byes.

However with a large contingent of representative they’ve had little time together since then.

Mitchell thought it showed in the first half.

“We’ve only trained for an hour (on Friday night) and it is really the only training we’ve had for two weeks so we were a bit rusty,” he said.

“In our defence and attack we lacked a bit of direction and struggled to get back into the standard we wanted to play.

“We weren’t doing much wrong, but probably weren’t playing the game quick enough and our ruck defence wasn’t that great but we didn’t have to tell the boys much apart from ‘you just have to get your heads in the game’.”

Mitchell thought more defensive pressure helped create more opportunities to score in the second half and his side were able to take advantage.

They held the Steamers scoreless in the stanza while crossing for four tries of their own.

Duncan Woods was strong up front, getting through plenty of work with the ball and helped lift his team.

Gerard McTaggart’s control at the ruck also stood out in the second half.