Maryborough Rovers and Maldon played a closely contested match at Jubilee Oval in the Bendigo Bank Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League on Saturday.

Maldon is now in second position on the ladder with its 12.9 (81) to 9.4 (58) victory over the Magpies and this sets up a battle between the top two sides at Maldon next Sunday.

Brad Fraser won the toss for Rovers and elected to kick away from the pavilion.

It was a low scoring opening quarter but it was Maldon that opened the scoring when Matthew Kile kicked long to the goal square and David Carroll took a strong contested mark and slotted a goal.

Play was centred around the middle of the ground with both teams unable to enter their scoring zones but Rovers were able to goal midway through the term when Justin Harris centred the ball to Ray Bramley who goaled from the set shot to level the scores.