Rovers’ first victorya confidence builder

Port Hedland Rovers got their first win of the North Pilbara Football League season, while Karratha Falcons failed to take flight at the Hedland home ground during the fourth round.

Club politics took a toll on the Falcons after low numbers forced the league team to fill holes with players from its reserves team, as well as the under-17 team.

Despite a good effort, the patchwork team’s lack of cohesiveness and communication led to its demise.

In a scrappy first half, James Foster-Reed was the sole scoreboard contributor for the Falcons as a few wobbly kicks led to easy goals being missed by the Rovers.

The Falcons seemed to gain a bit of wind in the final quarter, but it was too late to gain any traction before the final siren went.

Barley Horsman dominated the goals for Rovers, however, with his four game goals inching him higher on the top 10 goalkickers of the league list.

Rovers coach Nat Fielding said the win had lifted the team’s confidence.

“It was a bit of a relief to get our first win on the board and now we’re just looking to move forward with that confidence ... to the next three games against the top guys,” he said.

“They took the great second half from last week and put it into this week’s entire game and put into place what we’ve been training all season so far.”

The win puts four points on the ladder for Rovers, while Falcons still sit scoreless on the bottom.

Next week, Rovers travel down to Karratha to take on one of the hardest games of the season so far, battling reigning champions the Karratha Kats.

The Falcons will again try to get a score on the board in their home game against Wickham Wolves, while South Hedland Swans will host Dampier Sharks.