By half-time the Saints were ahead 2-0 and showed minimal signs of letting up, rounding out 4-1 winners over Macleay Valley Rangers in the third derby of the year.

Saints now lead 2-1 in the derby count.

Evan Clarke, Cedric Blodorn, Nick Wright and Dan Baker were the goal-scorers for Kempsey.

"It was a good game, we played how we wanted to, we didn't let them dictate at all like last time," co-coach Dan Baker told the Argus.

The victory meant Kempsey went into equal third with Northern Storm after Port United, who were previously ahead of them, lost 4-1 to Coffs Coast Tigers. The Storm suffered a large 5-0 defeat to Coffs United in their fixture.

"We were stoked, we really wanted to win plus it was obviously good for the season, one being it was Rangers and secondly it pushed us into the top four," Baker said.

Saints will now travel North to play Sawtell Scorpions who they previously defeated 6-0 in round three.

Baker said it was important to focus solely on the job at hand with Sawtell.

"Hopefully we play with the same style [as the weekend], having beaten them earlier in the year we have to take that out of our mind, they're a different side to when we played them, we're not taking anything for granted," he added.

Rangers, already missing key players Chad Applegate, Troy Ward and Tristan Smith saw Sean Brucesmith go down during the derby, adding to their unfortunate injury toll.

The sixth placed side will now look to bounce back as they take on Coffs United at Optus Park.

In reserve grade, Saints and Rangers battled out for a 1-1 draw.

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