South Rovers' Brad McCosh means business as he guards the ball in Saturday's clash with Nirranda. 20714LP16 Picture: LEANNE PICKETT
THE prize for conquering one of the toughest road trips in district league football for South Rovers is keeping its finals hopes alive for another week.
The long journey to Nirranda proved to be a fruitful one for South Rovers, coming home with a 43-point win and is now just one game from the top five.
And while it remains in the hunt for a finals berth, Lions coach Brett Evans acknowledged his team has another big test this week when it takes on Allansford.
"We need to win and we know it will be tough because Allansford are a very good team," Evans said.
"If we are good enough to win then we will keep the candle burning.
"We should get Mark Evans and Andrew Uzkuraitis back for the game so they will be big inclusions for us."
Evans will be hoping his team can duplicate the start it produced on Saturday against Nirranda which led to a 30-point half-time lead and laid the foundation for victory.
Evans highlighted the work of Brad McCosh and Andrew Rylance in the centre as well as full-back Darren Kelly on Blues star Klint Wagstaff.
"Scott Nicholson kicked four goals and presented nicely in his 100th game for the club so it was a good day for him," Evans said.
The loss was a costly one for the Blues who are now two wins from the top five, a gap which will be difficult to make up with just four games remaining. The Blues travel into town this week to the Reid Oval to meet the improving East Warrnambool in a game they simply can't afford to lose.
They will need to discover more routes to goal after having just three goalkickers on Saturday with Rick Spokes contributing more than half the score with four of the team's seven goals .
abrady@standard.fairfax.com.au