After the Raiders had won only three games and had a draw (against CYMS in the first round) from their seven games, yesterday was a must win situation for the Raiders and they came through 27-12.

“Sure, it was a game that had to be won but I was confident that it could be done,” Peachey said.

“Our structure last week was good but to get there against a good side like CYMS we had to defend well and I think we did that pretty well keeping them to just two tries.

“The other element of our game plan was to shut down their attacking weapons like Luke Jenkins, and again that went in our favour.”

In a game that didn’t reach any great heights and was riddled with mistakes from both sides and lots of stoppages, there were many positives for the Raiders.

After Nyngan went down to Forbes yesterday, they are now third on the ladder behind Parkes and CYMS and seeing Darren Jackson score two tries was a sight for sore eyes.

Their spoiling tactics worked wonders over CYMS and the kicking games from Claude Gordon and Peachey were effective.

The first half honours were shared 12-all with Steve Riley and Jackson scoring the Raiders’ tries and Craig Roworth converting both. Down the other end of the park Josh Large and then Shawn Townsend crossed and gave Tim Ryan easy kicks.

Although the Raiders had much better possession and field advantage in the final 10 minutes before half time, and for most of the second stanza, the CYMS defence held firm - until Brodie Chapman crashed over 10 minutes from time for the Raiders.

Protecting their lead, Epa Navale just failed to bring down a high kick from Tim Ryan and then when the ball was worked down field from the restart Claude Gordon kicked a magnificent field goal and the home side was out to 19-12.

To cap off a dreadful day for the Fishies, Darren Toomey handed a gift ball to Jackson and the hooker was able to race 18m to score under the posts.