PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams has brushed off concerns about his side’s inability to prevent goal surges after another last quarter fadeout against West Coast at Subiaco.

The Power led by 68 points midway through the final term before the home side rattled on seven unanswered goals to cut the final margin to just 24 points, sparking memories of last week’s capitulation to Brisbane.

But Williams said he’s happy to take the win and focus on where Port Adelaide is heading.

“Obviously we’re delighted to finally get a win on the board (and) we won by four goals in Perth against the West Coast,” Williams said.

“So just understand we’ll wrap this as a win we really savour. I thought there were some great efforts, a huge work ethic and work rate which didn’t get the scoreboard ticking over as well as it should.

“When we got to the last quarter we played some brilliant football for 10 minutes. Looking back, the pride of West Coast to not give in, that was just brilliant.

“Obviously we had two players (Troy Chaplin – concussion – and Adam Thomson – shoulder) that were injured that we couldn’t rotate and they just kept going at it. Our guys were pretty tired in the end.”

Williams said scoring surges are part of the modern game.

“Today’s footy is pretty difficult to shut down and a lot of teams are finding that opposition teams are getting big runs in particular quarters,” he said.

“Free kicks from stoppages kill you. All of a sudden goals can be scored within 10 seconds of each other. The mindset changes very quickly - you feel that you’re in the game and (suddenly) you’re trying to hold the game. “

Williams said the win has provided an emotional release for his team, which had come under scrutiny after opening the season with four straight losses.

“It’s been an emotional four weeks,” Williams said.

“There’s a lot of emotional energy that goes with it as well. So we’ll try and freshen up this week with a lot of anxiety off everyone’s back, including myself, and look forward to playing St Kilda.

“We thought we were the best 0-4 team ever. We’re probably not going to talk ourselves down as other people would.”  

“We are where we are and we’ve got a pretty big game against St Kilda.”

Small forward Brett Ebert returned to form with four goals on Sunday, all in a 10-minute patch straddling the last change.

“I think Brett Ebert as someone who’s been kicked around a bit, I thought he played a major role in us winning today,” Williams said.

“He mucked up a few things early but in the end he probably had four goal assists as well as the four goals he kicked himself, so it was a massive effort for him, for someone who was pretty low during the week.”