![ON THE CHARGE: Merewether No.8 Lachy Milton hits the ball up in the Greens' 31-28 win over Maitland at Townson Oval. Picture: Stewart Hazell. ON THE CHARGE: Merewether No.8 Lachy Milton hits the ball up in the Greens' 31-28 win over Maitland at Townson Oval. Picture: Stewart Hazell.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/AVQVfAtGgzehhK8J9F6uCU/91207f11-420d-4c7c-a9f6-bdef4d8418b6.jpg/r0_109_4899_2863_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
WANDERERS coach Daniel Beckett turned off his walkie talkie and thought: "they have done us again".
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Hamilton centre Billy Clay had just thumped a 35-metre penalty into a roaring southerly that had just enough legs to drop over the crossbar and give the Hawks a 29-27 lead.
With Wanderers down to 14 men, after Hayden Cole was issued a controversial red card in the 35th minute, it appeared as though Hamilton would rule against their fierce rivals again.
A minute later, the Two Blues celebrated one of their biggest and best wins in recent seasons.
Under pressure from an aggressive chase, Hamilton made a meal of the re-start.
Strong carries by breakaways Tom Eymael and Daniel Martine took Wanderers into the Hawks' red zone. From a quick recycle, they went down the short side where prop Dave Waller held up a pass for Tim Marsh.
The flyer stepped off his right foot, brushed through an attempted tackle by Fiso Vasegote and dived over.
"When Billy Clay knocked over that penalty into the wind, I turned the walkie talkie off and thought 'they have done us'," Beckett said. "To be a man down and come back. It was a special win. Marshy has been carrying a cork, got another knock on it and wanted to come off with 20 minutes to go. I made him stay our there. For him to finish the way he did. That corner of the field is where we have run that play at training. It is nice when it comes together in the 82nd minute."
Wanderers led 13-3 after 30 minutes and 13-6 when Cole was given his marching orders on a touch judges report after a failing to use his arms in a collision with Ryan Hargood.
"As much as we know we can get better, it is very hard to play with 14 men against a very good team," Beckett said. "Hayden had to go to hospital and get stitches from a really bad head clash. That would probably suggest that the contact was incidental."
Hamilton crossed for a converted try a minute later and added a penalty to be up 16-13 at the break.
Last season's grand finalsts traded the lead throughout the second half before Marsh's heroics.
"As much as we have experienced players, it is a new group," Beckett said. "Winning breeds confidence. It was important for us - not so much for competition points - more building our belief and connections."
Angus Brown and Hargood were the Hawks' best.
Elsewhere Saturday, Southern Beaches came from 19-7 down to draw 19-all with Singleton at Calland Field.
Fullback Rob Richardson had a chance to snatch the win but, after landing an earlier conversion from the sideline, failed to convert a Deklan Ansems' try near the posts.
"We are talking a lot of talk but lacking action," disappointed Southern beaches coach Ben Kinkade said. "The first 40 minutes we sat on our heels and let them play. They out-enthused us. It took for us to get 12 points behind to start playing. We didn't deserve to win it."
At Townson Oval, Merewether held off a fast-finishing Maitland 31-28 to extend their winning start to the season to six games. The Greens led 24-0 and 24-7 ay half-time.
Maitland coach Luke Cunningham said the Blacks paid the price for not "reacting" after errors.
"Two tries came directly from our mistakes," he said. "They turned it into attack straight away and we didn't react quickly enough.
"Still we got a lot of positives out of it. They are definitely beatable."
Outside centre Tyrone Beitaki crossed for a hat-trick as University broke through for their first win thrashing Lake Macquarie 81-12 at Bernie Curran Oval.