Your Say | Lismore City News | Lismore, New South Wales

Forsythes Business Advisors staged a stunning fightback to beat West Leagues Balance 1 for the second time this year in another nail-biting encounter on Saturday. It was a weekend of tight affairs as the Newcastle open netball championship entered its second round. Unbeaten leaders Forsythes opened the season with a two-goal victory over the back-to-back defending champions and on Saturday extended their winning run to seven outings with a 48-47 victory. The win came as Souths Lions drew with BNC Whanau 49-49, Nova Queens Wharf Thunder beat Maryville 35-28 and Junction Hotel downed West 2 59-44. The result elevated Forsythes to 27 points, three clear of second-placed Souths (24) and four ahead of West (23). Nova are fourth with 21 while Junction Hotel are fifth on 19 and BNC sixth with 18. Forsythes coach Traci Baber described the match, which ebbed and flowed, as played at "an exceptional standard and worthy of a grand final". Forsythes trailed by two at the first change then were up by four at half-time before trailing 35-34 heading into the final quarter. "We caught up but then with about three or four minutes to go we were five down," Baber said. "To be five down against a classy team like West with four or so minutes to go, you don't really think you're coming back from that." Strong defence was a recurrent theme of the match and centre Karlie Robards, goal defence Keely Mullins and goal keeper Veronica Smith all instigated turnovers in the final few minutes for Forysthes to help set up the win. When they won in the first match of the year, West were without talented and towering shooter Maddie Taylor but she was on deck Saturday. "Centre Sophie Buckley wasn't there for West but Tara Andrews played at centre and that's much of a muchness, so it was a very strong line-up and the girls are stoked," Baber said. "It's good to open it up and show that everyone can be beaten on their day. Before the game, that was the discussion - it's just about self-belief. "It was good but we can definitely get better. We still did some silly things and there's plenty to work on." Points: Forsythes 27, Souths 24, West 1 23, Nova 21, Junction Hotel 19, BNC 18, Maryville 15, West 2, 13.