South Armidale and North Armidale both beat their higher-ranked opponents to compress the competition table even further.

Just six points separate the five sides in the northern conference with three rounds remaining. 

While South and East Armidale united off the field for charity on Saturday, South didn’t show much on it.

The last-placed Scorpions belted East 4-1 in the prostate cancer fundraiser at Doody Park.

“That’s a good win to start our move up the table,” South coach Joe Campbell said.

“We are still in last but we have a game in hand.”

After a slow start, South blew East off the park in the second half. East led 1-nil at half time, but Cody Watts and Sterling Wylie turned the game on its head in the second 45 minutes.

Watts scored twice inside the first 20 minutes of the second half to see South go up 2-1 and Wylie responded with two late strikes of his own to seal a crucial win.

“We had our chances in the first half,” Campbell said.

“In the second half we started to take our chances and it showed.” 

While East have been flying high during the second half of the NIPL season, Campbell said his men expected to win on Saturday.

“It was definitely a must win game for us,” he said.

“Realistically we should be beating teams like Easts if we want to make the semis.”

Wylie was named man of the match, while Watts also drew the plaudits of his coach.

“When he’s on, Cody is hard for any defender to mark,” Campbell said.

“Sterling had a great game.”

The other match in the northern conference saw North Armidale knock off Demon Knights 4-3 to get themselves back in the semi-final race.