Essendon break their drought | Thebigtip

Essendon break their drought with three point win over North Melbourne. By Sam Lienert @ foxsports

Essendon have eased the pressure on embattled coach Matthew Knights with a fighting three point AFL win over an injury-hit North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

The Bombers, who entered the game on a six-match losing streak, led for most of the night, and were 15 points in front in time-on in the third term, before the Kangaroos hit back.

They kicked the final two goals of the third quarter, then two more early in the final term to take a nine-point lead.

But the Bombers fought desperately to kick five of the next seven goals and lead by 11 points themselves early in time-on.

They then had to survive a desperate final few minutes, as the Kangaroos narrowly missed with several chances which could have helped them reel in the lead.

North's Andrew Swallow, Lachie Hansen and Todd Goldstein all missed shots at goal, while skipper Brent Harvey was caught holding the ball by Courtenay Dempsey 15m out, with a chance to narrow the gap to three points with two minutes left.

Levi Greenwood did cut the margin to three with 35 seconds left on the clock, after catching Essendon skipper Jobe Watson holding the ball.

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