LAUNCESTON9.7 (61)

DEVONPORT withstood a second-half fightback by Launceston and held on to win an important State League game at Windsor Park on Saturday by 19 points.

The 12.8 (80) to 9.7 (61) victory was the Magpies’ third for the season over the Blues and earned them a vital four points to keep their TSL finals hopes alive for season 2015.

The Magpies dominated out of the centre clearances in the opening quarter’, kicking with a four to five-goal breeze to the city end.

With Kade Pitchford, Tyler Gavralas, Aaron McNab and Nick Pearce providing plenty of targets up forward they kicked six goals to Launceston’s one to lead by 34 points at quarter time – an opening burst that proved decisive in the final result.

The Blues struggled to exert any scoreboard pressure in the second term with the wind failing to hit targets with the last kick going inside 50 and missing opportunities in front of goals.

They managed only two behinds for the quarter and 1.3 for the first half while Devonport banged on 7.5.

Launceston played the better football in the second half kicking eight goals to Devonport’s five to fight their way back into the contest.

They finished with five goals to three in the final quarter and looked to be on the charge but ultimately paid for the price for giving Devonport too much of a head start and were unable to bridge the gap.

Brennan Savage was one of the Blues best finishing with three goals and Jordan Harris kicked two.

Tom Claridge battled hard in defence on McNab and Scott Stephens and Jake Rice were other good players.

‘‘You can’t give sides that much of a head start and maybe we could have chocked the backline a bit more in the first quarter to make it a bit more of a scrap,’’ Blues coach Scott Stephens said.

‘‘We had our opportunities in the second quarter to get ourselves back in the game – we had some good ball movement but just lacked polish going forward and missed opportunities for goal which become quite deflating.

‘‘We probably could have gone in at half-time maybe a couple of kicks down because our second half was much better and the competitive side of the boys’ game I was pleased with - they continued to run and take the game on and defended a lot better but unfortunately the damage was done early.’’

McNab finished with four goals and his height and strength in the air troubled the Blues defence all day.

Kade Pitchford kicked three and was good in the first half with Phil Crowden strong in defence.

‘‘When the game was there to be won in the first half we did enough,’’ Devonport coach Mitch Thorp said.

‘‘I think we were about 40 points up at quarter time and that’s all you can ask.

‘‘We’ve got some injured players and some who came back who were fairly sore so I thought it was a really good effort regardless of how well they played in the second half.’’