The Warriors were able to keep their opponents goalless in the fourth quarter to inflict Horsham their first loss of the 2019 Wimmera Football League season and put a dampener on a night in which the home side was celebrating three premiership anniversaries.

Warriors coach Damian Joiner said he was surprised the game was deemed an upset.

"We go into every game with confidence and had such a positive feeling before the game," he said.

"I took a little bit of adjusting get prepared for the times of the night game but the feeling among the group was re-assuring - everyone was on the same page and had the same beliefs we were going to go out there and get the points, which we did."

The Warriors managed to snag a goal just before three-quarter time to go into the break to take the lead.

"The message at three-quarter time was the same as the whole game," Joiner said.

"We were matching them and had a lot of the ball ourselves. We were scoring, but only points which didn't allow us to have a bigger margin. We just spoke about keeping our work rate up - we knew Horsham weren't going to lay down.

"We were prepared to go the full four quarters and credit to the boys, we did it and got the chocolates in the end."

Familiar faces Jay Moody, Charles Nield, Thomas Taurau and Cameron Kimber were named Stawell's best, while Jamie Bach was named in the best for the first time this season.

The Warriors were lead by an even spread of goalkickers, with David Andrivon and Cody Driscoll the only players with multiple goals, booting two each.

"All 21 players who put on the jumper impressed me in the game," Joiner said.

"Everyone played their role and had an impact on the game in some way.

"Some individual standouts were Jay Moody, Jackson Dark and Jackson Taurau in the back line. They halted a lot of Horsham attacks and pivotal in getting us that rebound and giving us the chance to hit the scoreboard."

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Horsham co-coach Deek Roberts said the loss was disappointing against a good side.

"We didn't play the game we wanted to play. We'll take plenty out of the game," he said.

"We were right in it up until the last few minutes which is pleasing in a loss but we identified we need to work on a number of areas of our game - which is what you do at this time of year."

Roberts said his team had enough of the ball to put a score on the board.

"We didn't use the ball as well as we are capable of," he said.

"A positive to come out was our first games Jayden Scott had a great game and showed signs he will be a senior player for years to come.

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"I thought our backline played well considering how many entries they had. We managed to stop goals and set up. We just need to be cleaner by foot and by hand and we should be ok."

Roberts said going into the last quarter, the plan was to continue to take the game on.

"We needed to get the ball in fast to our forwards, which we probably did," he said.

"It might have cost us defensively in the end and tried to take them on too much. We also weren't good enough on manning them up on turnover. They used the football beautifully and we were up against a well-structured team.

"It's good at this stage of the season to see where we're at and what we need to work on."

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