Thomastown stepped it up in the last quarter to grab it second win of the Northern Football League division 2 season.
The Bears have struggled at times in second halves this season, but were able to find another gear in the last quarter against Diamond Creek on Saturday.
The Bears kicked five goals to one in the final quarter, to get the 11.10 (76)-6.10 (46) win.
Bears coach Ben Chapman said playing out the whole game was very pleasing, especially after the previous week’s loss to Banyule when they gave a 23-point half time lead.
“It was really nice to get the win,” he said. “It was a real scrap and conditions were terrible. There was a lot of contested footy and it was hard to score.
“We did well to turn it into a bit of a scrap and to restrict Diamond Creek to just six goals was really pleasing. We were able to open the game up.”
Matthew Vasilevski , Sashe Spiroski, James Rizzolio, Dylan Chapman, Joshua Lohse Tonna and Lane Tucker were the best for the Bears.
The Bears are 2-3 after five rounds, with Chapman saying they could easily have had a better record.
“We’ve been playing some good footy,” he said. “We’ve had more good patches of good footy than bad.
“We’ve had lapses that have really hurt us … lapses of 15 to 20 minutes and it’s cost us two games.”
Chapman said if they could reduce those lapses or at least reduce the opposition scoring during those times, it would help turn the margins in their favour.
“The results aren’t the way we wanted, but we are on the right track,” he said.
“We’ve got nine new guys in the senior team and it will naturally take time.
“The longer the season goes on, the better we should be as a collective.”
The Bears have a bye this weekend, with Chapman saying the first part of the season had been a good learning curve.
Epping wasn’t able to match it with Lower Plenty, losing 15.18 (108)-8.11 (59).
