An outstanding four-goal haul from Ethan Willetts fired Newtown into the Dubbo and District Football Association's first grade top two on Sunday.
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Newtown produced one of its best performances of the season at Lady Cutler 4, downing RSL 78s 6-1 and moving past them on the ladder in the process.
Willetts was the star of the show with four goals - two of those coming via leaping efforts to head the ball into the net past an onrushing keeper - and coach Josh Archer had nothing but praise for the striker.
"He just had the ball on a strong. No-one could take it off him," Archer said.
"For two he out-leapt the keeper who was at full stretch to header it in, which is pretty phenomenal."
Sunday's result has Newtown in second, ahead of RSL 78s on goal difference, while Archer's side is now just five points off leaders Wellington.
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In a round full of eye-catching results, Newtown's strong win was matched by Dubbo FC's huge 5-3 win over Wellington.
With four rounds of the regular season remaining, the Bulls are six points off the all-important fourth spot.
Westside is fourth but suffered a 5-2 loss to Orana Spurs on Sunday while in the round's other match Macquarie United scored a 10-1 win over the battling South Dubbo Wanderers.
For Archer and Newtown, the top two is where they want to stay so they have the advantage of playing in the major semi-final and getting a second bite at the cherry in the post-season.
It won't be easy given the next two matches are against Wellington and the Bulls - who started the season on -10 points with Orana Spurs - but matches like that are ones Archer has been savouring this season.
"It's bloody unreal and the best comp I've played in for six years," Archer said.
"Hopefully we can keep our spot and keep going the way we are and keep the momentum into the finals. If we do that we'll be looking good.
"It's about playing intelligent football, winning games, then going home and showing up the next week to keep the momentum going."
The win over RSL 78s provided a huge confidence boost for Newtown and showed what the side is capable of when the majority of players are fit and healthy.
Scoring goals hasn't been an issue for Newtown and only Wellington has found the back more often in 2021.
Willetts was the main man in the latest victory but there's plenty of faith in each of the Newtown attackers.
"We have a few really good strikers and every time they're in on goal you're pretty confident they're going to score," Archer said.
"Jake Settree is one of them but he's playing on one leg and then Ethan Hyde pulled his hammy early on in the game so so it was good to have Ethan put the ball in the back of the net."
Archer added the performance on Sunday, against an RSL side which beat the Bulls just one week prior, was undoubtedly one of the side's best this season.
"It was up there with the one against Wellington earlier in the year. We beat Wello 5-1 and that was an all-round team performance.
"We lost to RSL 1-0 the first time we played them and that was a bit devastating but then we came around and played like that (on Sunday). They've been our best two performances and if we can do that into the finals we're looking pretty handy."
Newtown travels to Wellington for next weekend's match of the round while RSL 78s meet Orana Spurs, Westside takes on Macquarie United, and Dubbo FC plays Wanderers.
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