A "busted" Wauchope Blues slumped to their third-straight Group 3 rugby league first grade defeat on Sunday when they suffered a 28-24 loss to a fast-finishing Macleay Valley Mustangs.
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The Blues led 24-4 at the break, but simply ran out of puff to a Mustangs side who finally registered their first win of the season despite going close a number of times in previous weeks.
Injured Blues coach Beau Kettle had to watch on helplessly from the sidelines as his side self-imploded in the second half.
"We've got a lot of busted players out there at the moment," he said.
Kettle has been ruled out for the season after he suffered a neck injury in their 50-16 win over Taree City on May 28 and he hasn't returned.
Their casualty ward has continued to grow.
"Mat Bird is having to play 80 minutes week in, week out because I'm not there anymore, Bryce Roche has been playing with cracked ribs or rib cartilage damage and Nelson Young has had a couple of head knocks and hasn't been the same," Kettle said.
"We haven't got the depth this year that we had last year where we had 17 all the time and we're lucky to pull players out of reserve grade because they're also playing half-busted."
The four-point defeat continued with a theme that has run in Wauchope's previous two losses.
"Against Port City we started slow, but got back in the game and then in the Old Bar game they blew us off the park in the first half," Kettle said.
"They beat us at our own game which was keep ball, kick early, let the other team make the mistakes. We won the second half in that game, but it was too little too late. It was 26-4 in the first half."
Mustangs coach Anthony Cowan said it was a game of two halves.
"I knew that 24 points wasn't enough for Wauchope to win. We just had to fix up our one-percenters and try to change the tide, which happened in the second half," he said.
"To keep them scoreless in the second half was a massive achievement. It was a huge credit to our defence, we couldn't fault it."
Wauchope will now face Forster-Tuncurry at Lank Bain Sporting Complex on Sunday.
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