The hosts overcame some poor handling and a 13-3 penalty count to register their third win of the season and exact some revenge for an 18-6 loss in Cowra earlier in the competition.

The result keeps them within two points of fifth-placed St Pat’s, who they play this weekend in the second local derby of the year.

Goal-line defence proved crucial for Todd Barrow’s side, and the coach was a relieved man after the full-time siren.

“We spoke about our defence at training and how much it had been letting us down,” he said.

“It was a scrappy old game and to concede that many penalties but only let in three tries was a big effort and all the boys deserve a lot of credit for that.”

The scoreline did not reflect the closeness of the game, and a flashpoint came with 13 minutes to go when it appeared Cowra had scored to make it 20-14 in Panthers’ favour with a kick to come.

A bomb had been spilled, and it appeared to come off a Panthers player into a Magpies chaser, Aiden Craig, who collected the ball and went across the stripe.

It was ruled to have been dropped by a Cowra player in the contest for the ball, however, and moments later Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill ran the length of the field to effectively wrap up the game for the home team.

Earlier, Panthers started in much the same fashion as they had in last week’s loss to Blayney, scoring twice in the opening 15 minutes through Blake Lawson and Chris Shephard.

Both tries came on the back of big sets in which Panthers marched 80 metres downfield.

After 20 minutes they led 14-0 as Joey Bugg swooped on a loose ball following a Jeremy Gordon bomb, and it was only a couple of difficult missed conversions from Gordon that prevented the scoreline from being bigger.

Cowra gathered themselves, however, and on the half-hour mark, following two penalties, Blake Tidswell crossed to open his team’s account.

Five minutes later his brother and former Bathurst Bulldog Hayden gave a nice one-arm offload to Mitchell Browne, and the Magpies went to the sheds only trailing 14-10.

The second half started with a glut of mistakes from both teams.

Panthers finally got their first penalty after 53 minutes, having soaked up some pressure on their own line, and not long afterwards they scored what was the definition of an opportunist’s try.

Gordon kicked on the last tackle for Lawson to regather, he managed to squeeze out a pass, and some quick hands saw the movement continue.

Another desperate kick was produced, and ricocheted off a Cowra leg straight into the lap of Bugg, who scooted across to score and make it 20-10.

Gibbs-O’Neill’s long-range effort followed to give Panthers a big lead, though it wasn’t all great news as Bugg was pushed to the ground as he tried to support his fullback, suffering a shoulder injury which forced him from the field.

Cowra pulled back one try late through lock Toi Sepuloni, their best player throughout the day along with fullback Toby Nobes and Caley Mok, but it was cancelled out on full-time by a big charge from Greg Behan.

Gordon was again superb for Panthers, as was Bugg prior to his injury, while Behan was impressive.

Gibbs-O’Neill delivered his best performance for the club, defusing several dangerous situations at the back, making a couple of vital tackles and generally looking the man most likely whenever he was near the ball.

BATHURST PANTHERS 30 (Joey Bugg 2, Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, Blake Lawson, Chris Shephard, Greg Behan tries; Jeremy Gordon 3 goals) defeated COWRA MAGPIES 16 (Mitchell Browne, Blake Tidswell, Toi Sepuloni tries; Caley Mok 2 goals)