The Weston Bears were forced to work hard but finally prevailed 3-2 at home on Friday night against quality opponent Edgeworth Eagles.
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Cooper Buswell collected man of the match honour for the second week in a row, but this week instead of being provider it was he who scored a brace.
The Weston Bears looked to get on the front foot early on Friday night at home to Edgeworth with a period of sustained offensive output leading to a flurry of corners inside the opening three minutes.
The final such instance saw Mitch Dobson go close, but his strike was high of the target and pressure finally eased on the Edgeworth defence in the form of a goal kick.T
The travelling Eagles scored when their first opportunity of note came in the 12th minute with a free kick from 35 yards delivered by Tom Curran.
Under heavy pressure from Jordan Lennon, Bears keeper Gerard Roebuck failed to deal with the lofted ball and Jacob Pepper was on hand to slot it home unmarked from seven yards.
The visitors' lead had been a bolt from the blue, and a few minutes later another defensive hiccup from the Bears very nearly compounded their own woes.
A miskick from Jacob Dundas allowed Josh Rose to latch on to a pass inside the box in the 15th minute; the veteran fullback was able to round Roebuck but was denied on the goal line by a superb desperation block from Weston skipper Chris Hurley.
The tempo of the match would hit something of a lull for the following quarter-hour, before a Roebuck slip-up nearly allowed Edgeworth in again.
A question of offside surrounded Tom Curran's positioning, but the linesman's flag stayed down and he was able to distribute the ball out wide to the overlapping Lennon; Lennon's cross looked to be a fairly regulation catch for Roebuck, but an unconvincing parry into the path of Sascha Montefiore saw the Bears gloveman called upon to deny the follow-up header from close range in the 31st minute.
Liam Wilson had a 38th minute penalty shout turned down after showing some silky skills to elude Tyson Jackson and then Nick Curran en route to the box; after he had prodded the ball past both, they opted to screen his run and were perhaps a touch fortunate to escape consequence.
The referee would send the sides to the sheds without any added time, reflective of the relative lack of notable events to merit breaks in play during the opening half of football.
The Bears emerged from the break with renewed vigour, Cooper Buswell latching on to a clever pass from Cooper Sargent and forcing a decent close range one on one stop from Nate Cavaliere just 30 seconds after resumption.
Buswell would release Connor Evans two minutes later, the latter cutting the ball back for Yuta Konagaya to try his luck across goal from 12 yards.
The Japanese import drew another quality save from Cavaliere, who was proving to be the difference.
But the now-dominant Bears were not about to be denied; a superbly placed Dobson long ball landed right at the feet of substitute Dieuseul Kandundaho, who controlled it perfectly and found Buswell inside the box with a pinpoint pass.
Buswell made no mistake, calmly converting from inside the box to hand the hosts a well-deserved equaliser in the 52nd minute.
Whatever wisdom gaffer Kew Jaliens had imparted in the home dressing room seemed to have worked some absolute magic.
Three minutes later, another raking long ball from Dobson released Hurley, whose ambitious 30-yard lob from out wide - that may or may not have been an attempted cross - nudged the crossbar and rebounded into the path of a well-positioned Buswell.
His close-range finish was at that point academic, and the Bears' surge of momentum was now reflected on the scoreboard with the Geordie-striped charges capturing a 2-1 lead.
Football is a cruel mistress, though, and the Bears' lead would prove short-lived.
In the 60th minute, Evans was ponderous in the middle of the mark and his hesitation saw him dispossessed by Nick Curran.
The Eagles midfielder played a searching through ball to Montefiore, whose skilled ball control left Joey O'Connor in two minds and allowed him to skip ahead of his marker to slot the ball home across the face of goal and past Roebuck.
The Bears would feel frustrated to have conceded two goals from relatively simple errors, but such is the game we all know and love. T
hey would look to dust themselves off quickly, and a short corner routine from Konagaya and Evans saw the former make his way into the box in the 65th minute, having his effort blocked by a mass of bodies before the latter collected the scraps and delivered a cross that missed the head of the surging Dobson at the back post by a whisker.
An injury to Sargent in the 72nd minute saw him replaced by Nelson King, on his debut for the Bears top-flight outfit.
He would be welcomed into the fray by Jackson, whose scything two-footed lunge from behind saw him swiftly dismissed by the referee in the 76th minute, altering the complexion of the contest once more.
A 78th minute Aaron Niyonkuru cross found the head of Buswell, who went within a coat of paint of his hat trick, watching on as his effort deflected off the underside of the crossbar but somehow not over the goal line.
The Eagles had a couple of half chances over the following minutes, but with the numerical disadvantage were struggling to generate anything clear-cut.
It didn't take the Bears too much longer to find a third though, as an 86th minute counterattack from an Eagles corner was started and finished by Dundas.
After collecting the ball just outside his own box, Dundas laid the ball off to Buswell, whose looping long ball released Kandundaho on the far side of the field.
Kandundaho's cross into the six-yard box found Dundas perfectly positioned to head home from point-blank range after a lung-busting run.
Buswell's race was run shortly afterwards with cramp, in what was a second consecutive man of the match performance - surely this time leading to a justified inclusion in the NNSWF Team of the Week - and Kayden Soper was given the opportunity to make his debut in a late cameo.
With five minutes of stoppage time added on, the Bears were forced to survive a few nervy moments late in the piece, and accrued a few cautions that may come back to haunt them further along in the campaign, but ultimately they were able to preserve their lead and come away with a crucial victory after a highly entertaining second half.
A third straight home game awaits for Weston, who will host Newcastle Olympic next Saturday evening as they look to continue their ascent up the ladder.
Two pleasing wins against traditionally strong opponents has given the Bears cause for optimism, but Olympic have long been a bogey side for the coalfields outfit, who have not secured a victory against their forthcoming opponents since 2019 and only two since 2014.
