If you’re going to fail, make sure you do it in a game which doesn’t really matter on the outlook of the season.

The finals-bound Magpies capitulated with the willow in their last home and away match against Beechworth at the Wangaratta Showgrounds on Saturday.

After knocking over the Wanderers for 180, the Magpies limped to 9/171 all out.

With their position assured in the post-season, the Magpies perhaps weren’t at their best, bowling loose and allowing the Beechworth top order, namely Campbell Fendyk (28 off 54) and Will Prebble (59 off 76), to score with relative freedom.

The score had already surged to triple figures inside 20 overs until Fraser Ellis found the breakthrough, with Fendyk scooping one out to Akhil Kumar at mid-off.

Ellis would strike again in his next over, removing Prebble caught at point, to pump the brakes on the Wanderers’ innings.

Harkaran Mann (2/34 off eight overs) and Chris Clement (3/18 off 7.2 overs) would work their way into the innings, but it would Fraser who spearheaded the attack, finishing with 4/32 from his nine overs.

Ultimately, the Wanderers would set a fairly decent total of 180 all out, which

Import Akhil Kumar only managed two overs, citing back soreness – skipper Cooper Matheson said he decided to pull Kumar from the attack to help him be right for the finals.

“He’s [Kumar] got a bit of a back issue at the moment, so we put him on ice a bit,” he said.

“The majority of our bowlers bowled pretty well throughout the day, but it was probably the most bad balls we’ve bowled in a game, I reckon.

We’d bowl five good balls an over then one bad one every over where they’d be scoring off us.

“Beechy rotated the strike very well early which was hard to get under control.

“It was a real battle early with the ball, we probably bowled a little bit two sides of the wicket, made it easy for them to score.

“Fraser Ellis bowled for the first time this year and he was straight on the spot, and he ended up taking four and showing the bows how bowling the same line and length and being patient with the ball worked wonders for us.”

The run chase started well for Matheson and his opening partner Tyler Nanson, laying a base.

Nanson struggled to rotate the strike, eventually bowled out for two off 20 deliveries.

At the other end, Matheson was smashing the ball to all parts with impunity, racing to 63 off 58, but it was chaos at the other end.

Besides Harkaran Mann batting at three (30 off 50) and Jack Davies at six (29 off 63), there was no other innings of note through the middle order, with five batters dismissed for less than 10 runs.

Fraser Ellis (16 off 18) tried to salvage the chase, but was ultimately dismissed, the final wicket to fall as 11th listed player Jarryd Wallace was unable to bat.

“We were pretty disappointing with the bat, we bat right down to the end so not being able to chase 180 is pretty poor,” Matheson said.

“We only ended up having 10 batters because J-Wal [Jarryd Wallace] had to leave.

“We couldn’t move on the ladder, and it would’ve been a nice one to win going into finals but we’re not too stressed about it.

“The Showies is always an unreal surface to bat on, so that’s one thing we’ll improve on going into next week and put our best efforts on the track.”

For Beechworth, Jon Carson led the way with his 3/40, with Henry Scalzo (2/17 off seven) and Richard Worcester (2/41 off eight) chiming in.

The Magpies take on Yarrawonga Mulwala in their semi-final clash.