In hot conditions at Alec Inch Oval, Wanderers looked as if they might have run out off puff against their fast finishing rivals, but did enough to walk away with 34-18 win.

Wanderers acting coach Brendan Baillie, who returned yesterday after three weeks on the sidelines, said his side played as if they had a “hangover” from the previous Sunday’s victory against reigning premiers Town.

“It was a really scrappy game and we didn’t play anywhere near our best, but it was good to come away with a win,” Baillie said.

Meanwhile, Black Stars coach Scott Kyle was impressed with his side’s efforts.

“I’ve said it from the start that we are going to take time to build into a good footy team, and today we showed some really good signs,” he said.

“There were times we didn’t hold on to the ball when we were attacking, but that’s something we can work on.”

Wanderers got off to a perfect start yesterday when Daniel Simmons intercepted a stray pass and ran 60 metres to open his side’s account.

Matt Lord scored the easy conversion to give his team a 6-nil lead.

It appeared as if Wanderers were going to be handful for the Starries all afternoon.

But Black Stars quickly hit back.

John Tamati bobbed up for his first try of the season to keep Wanderers on their toes.

In a tit-for-tat contest, Gavin Simmons fired another shot back at Black Stars to gives his team a 10-4 lead.

Once again Tamati found the ball and powered his way across the try line.

A horrific conversion attempt from Daryl Nahow denied the Starries a chance to square the ledger, which then had a flow on affect that resulted in Black Stars dropping the bundle for the remainder of the half.

On the attack, Wanderers made several key errors going forward, but their persistence to score paid off and Trevor Chong was able to open his account for the day.