Lavington survived a huge scare by coming from behind to beat North Albury in a Bunton Park thriller.
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The Hoppers, inspired by Tim Broomhead's six-goal haul, led by three points at three-quarter-time in Corey Lambert and Clint Gilson's first game in charge.
But the pair, having taken over from Luke Norman in the week, will have to wait for their first win as co-coaches after the Panthers showed greater nous in the dying moments to win by 13.10 (88) to 11.7 (73).
"Credit to North Albury," relieved Lavington coach Adam Schneider said.
"They had a win last week and they came out and competed extremely hard, moved the ball well and it was a good, ugly game of footy, if that makes sense.
"I was proud that we fought it out to the end because they gave us a god run for our money.
"We knew it was going to be a ruthless challenge until the end of the game and it came down to who was prepared to go longer and our boys, probably the last five minutes of the game, managed to hang in there and fight our way through it.
"Sometimes you've just got to scrap a win and we did that."
Lavington hit the scoreboard first but Flynn Gardiner's goal was a reward for North Albury's positive start and the class of Broomhead then started to shine.
The former Collingwood man, playing in the Hoppers' forward line, kicked three before quarter-time and just didn't look like missing.
Schneider called for a response and he got it, with Myles Aalbers providing a fine marking target inside 50 after the break and booting two majors as the Panthers effected a 19-point swing in wet conditions.
The ball resembled a bar of soap at times but Broomhead had it under his spell again in the third term, kicking three more goals as the home crowd sensed the upset could be on.
Lambert fired his players up at the final break and the intensity from both sides lifted with the game on the line.
The local rivals traded blows, Ben Ashley-Cooper capping a fine individual display with a goal at one end before Jack King's snap at the other reduced the margin to three points in a tense finale.
Lavington's ball use was better when it mattered, though, and they kicked the last two goals to seal the deal.
"I'm proud of the players," Lambert said.
"'Gilly' and I are introducing a few slight changes to the game plan and they stuck to that task in terms of their game plan and really tried to execute.
"I thought, at times, it made us extremely competitive and gave us a chance to win the game.
"We've been guilty of dropping away late in games but today we played the game right out.
"There's nothing like a win to build confidence and even during the week, the players were a lot more positive.
"The energy level at training was right up, their spirit, their intensity and their purpose about what we were doing was fantastic and it showed again today."
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