Young moved another step closer to the top five after a nailbiting win over Albury at Alfred Oval on Sunday.
Matt Murray scored an intercept try to give Young a 16-10 half-time lead as they just held on to defeat Albury.
There was little between the two teams all day but the ‘Pickers managed to hold on for a 28-26 win.
A try to Aaron Slater put Young six points clear with 15 minutes remaining before Mitch Seaton gave the Thunder a chance to equalise when he scored on the last play of the game.
However, captain-coach Ben Jeffery missed the conversion attempt from 15 metres in to hand Young their fourth victory in a row.
After getting out to a 22-10 lead shortly after half-time, ‘Pickers captain-coach Neil Thorman was relieved his team got away with another win in a scrappy encounter.
“We are fortunate enough that we can score tries when we want to as we just couldn’t put the game to bed,” Thorman said.
“We couldn’t finish it off.
“I thought 12 points would have been a nice enough buffer, but it obviously wasn’t. We let them back in with a couple of passing errors, but we are jumping up the ladder a little bit and I am pleased we have got four in a row.”
Young face another tough test when they tackle Temora at Nixon Park next week.
Thorman is looking to work on the team’s discipline after Woolford was given his marching orders twice and Hayden Cowled once for arguing with referee Toby Popple.
Albury are out to stay in the top five against Brothers.
In other results Young’s Reserve Grade team defeated Albury in a close 14-12 win, the Cherryettes went down 12-20, the Under 18s won 38-4, and the Under 16s lost by two points in 12-14.
