That was about all anyone could take from the Group 10 premier league Bathurst derby, taken out by St Pat’s 52-32 in a wretched spectacle of a match.

There were a couple of moments of brilliance with ball in hand from the Saints, and a few customary Brent Seager bellringers, but those aside, there wasn’t much to take out of the contest for either team.

St Pat’s did enough to further lock down their top three spot, while Panthers missed a chance to jump to within two points of fifth-placed Orange CYMS, who were busy losing to Lithgow Workies at the same time. Their finals chances are even slimmer courtesy of their sloppy performance.

In all, 16 tries were scored, 16 errors were made, 21 penalties awarded and one player sin-binned.

Essentially, every one-and-a-half minutes, something was going wrong for someone.

Pat’s player-coach Kurt Hancock didn’t pull any punches afterwards.

“That was a disgraceful game. Our defence was terrible,” he said.

“If we do that against the good teams in the finals, we’ll get cut to pieces. We had no discipline; every time we started to get momentum we handed it straight back to them with a silly penalty or a knock-on.”

In the end, the difference proved to be a near perfect opening 15 minutes from Pat’s and a diabolical start from Panthers which handed the blue and whites a 16-0 lead.

Six minutes into the game, a wayward Cody Robbins pass landed on the chest of St Pat’s winger Jake Bright, who ran 70 metres to score.

After getting a penalty in the next set, the Saints were on the attack again and, on the back of a Benjamin John break, Dave Howard crossed for his team’s second.

When Blake Dean failed to find touch with a relieving penalty kick, a brilliant interchange of passes started by Paletime Ale resulted in Cameron Neville going in untouched for the Saints’ third try in 13 minutes.

Desperate to spark his side, Seager flattened the otherwise impressive Luke Single from the kick-off and, soon after, John was placed on report for a high shot on Osea Sadrau as Panthers finally began to see some possession.

Again, on the back of a penalty, they were on the attack in the 20th minute when Matt Rose put Joey Bugg over the line near the posts for a badly needed Panthers try.

Another penalty put them back in the St Pat’s defensive end and they cut the lead to four points with a converted try to Blake Lawson.

Typical of the match, though, Seager gave away a penalty while in possession after the restart, leading to John scoring his team’s fourth.

Lawson found himself in the sin bin for backchat six minutes out from half-time and it proved costly as a superb one-arm flick pass from Ben Hews found Garry Reilly, who gave his team a 26-12 lead with a minute to play.

Keeping their slim hopes alive, Panthers regained possession and scored thanks to a pinpoint Rose kick into the arms of Chris Shephard.

A score of 26-18 flattered Panthers but gave them a chance – then John’s second try straight after the break all but put an end to that.

To their credit, Panthers kept finding points, but gave them up just as frequently, and their last roll of the dice came after Bugg’s second brought the score to 42-32 with 10 minutes to play.

A try to Derryn Clayton and an intercept try to Reilly – his third for the match – snuffed that out.

Both sides were on the end of numerous baffling decisions, and any purists watching the match will do well to strike most of it from their memory.

Nonetheless, there were players on both teams who performed well – John in particular, along with St Pat’s lock Brent Dennis and prop Paletime Ale.

For Panthers, the usual suspects like Seager and Jake Betts were good in a poor side, while Matt Rose and fullback Robbins tried hard, the latter pulling off a sensational try-saver on John Hanscombe centimetres out from the line.

“We showed a bit of fight to come back into the game but we played some very silly football,” defeated coach John Fearnley said.

“Pat’s are second in the competition. When you play a team like that and give away three penalties in a row or something, you’re just asking them to put points on you.”

ST PAT’S 52 (Garry Reilly 2, Benjamin John 2, Jake Bright 2, Derryn Clayton, Jacob Bell, Dave Howard, Cameron Neville tries; Gary Reilly 6 goals) defeated BATHURST PANTHERS 32 (Blake Lawson 2, Joey Bugg 2, Chris Shephard 2 tries; Blake Lawson 3 goals, Matt Rose goal)