WINGHAM needed two tries in the final six minutes to make it eight straight victories and take the competition points back down the Pacific Highway on Saturday.
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The Tigers were unimpressive in a 32-20 win over a courageous 11-man Port City Breakers who couldn't quite overcome the send-offs of Dan Dumas and Adrian Daley.
But they gave it a decent crack despite having two less men in the defensive line for 25 minutes of the contest.
Dumas was given his marching orders in the 20th minute for a swinging arm on Tigers forward Blake Fraser before Daley was also given an early shower in the 64th minute for dissent.
He had controversially also spent 10 minutes cooling his heels in the sin-bin earlier in the second half.
Breakers coach Dan Kemp was less than impressed with the decision to send Dumas off when the home side were in control and leading 12-0.
"You swing your arm in every tackle you ever make," he said.
"If they drop down into the way of the swinging arm ... I don't have a problem with a penalty because you can't make contact with the head.
"But he fell down into the swinging arm, it's not a send off. No way."
Adding to Port City's challenging task were the injuries suffered by Josh Hyde (back), Ethan Hyde (hamstring) and Tyler Hyde (shoulder) in the first 30 minutes.
Halfback Ben Hyde limped off with 15 minutes remaining with an ankle injury, leaving the Breakers with just one fit player on the bench.
But they couldn't be used as Kemp had exhausted his interchanges by the 50th minute.
Port City will take confidence out of their performance, even though they won't get the competition points.
"If that's where the competition is at, then we haven't lost any confidence," Kemp said.
"We needed an ounce of luck today.
"Having two blokes sent off makes it incredibly hard and getting the three injuries - two in the first 20 minutes - makes it hard against any team let alone one that's okay.
"We took them to a place they're not used to and they didn't enjoy it. If (Wingham) are the pointy end of the competition, then this competition is very wide open."
The turning point of the match came moments before Tigers winger Jarrad Gibson extended their lead to six points in the 74th minute.
With the hosts trailing 22-20 and coming home with a wet sail, Wingham halfback Mick Sullivan regained possession for his side with a short dropout in a heads-up play.
Sullivan admitted he felt the Breakers were surging home.
"I didn't want to give them another set and they showed they were willing, so I didn't want to leave it to chance and it worked," Sullivan said.
"Sometimes it doesn't."
The Tigers captain-coach conceded his team were below their best, but the Breakers "came to play."
"It was a scrappy game, we dropped our first two at the back so that gives you repeat sets and there were a lot of penalties in the game," he said.
"We definitely got some leg-ups, there's no doubt about that and we were a bit flat and they were on so that's why it took so long to get the ascendancy.
"We were lucky to get away with it."
Sullivan said it was pleasing to get a win at a venue they hadn't had a lot of success at in recent years.
"It's good to get the monkey off the back," he said.
"It wasn't a pretty win, but it was a win on the road. We tick another box and we've got one more trip up here."
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