ST PAT’S go into today’s women’s Premier League Hockey match against Ex-Services knowing that even a win won’t do them any good if Lithgow Zig Zag beat Confederates as they are expected to do.

Paying the price for a sluggish start to a season, the Saints look certain to miss out on this year’s finals. It will be an empty feeling for the defending premiers should things unfold the way they are expected to.

But it isn’t all negative according to women’s assistant coach Brad Fulton as his team prepares for the Orange-based Ex-Services match.

“Of course there have been some positives, there are a group of young girls that have come in this year that have been outstanding,” he said.

“With some of the older ones that will still be there for a while, Kath Messer coming in who will be around for a while too, things don’t look too bad.

“There is a great little batch coming through from the under 11s through to 15s. We have juniors coming out our backside and in a few years we’ll have nearly enough for a couple of Premier League sides.

“Unfortunately we’ve had some retirements and the age bracket from sort of 18 to 21 or 22 is a bit thin on the ground. The girls leave after school to go to uni or whatever and we miss them for a while.

“We can’t really change what happened though in the first half of the year and our situation proves that you can’t just show up mid-season and hope to be near the top.”

Ex-Services have had a similar slide this season to the Saints.

Though not as successful as the 2013 champions, they have been a fixture in the top five over recent years. This season they have only managed four wins.

Fulton said it was a good illustration of the differences between men’s and women’s hockey.

“It is a strange game and girls are a bit susceptible to an age thing. They generally debut in Premier League three or four years earlier than the boys, but often end up finishing about three or four years earlier too,” he said.

“You might get a good era where a big, young group come through together, but then you will get a handful of them all retire around the same time and it can leave a big gap in a side.

“When a couple of blokes retire, you throw a few 18-year-olds in there and they’re up to it straight away. When you’re bringing 14-year-olds into Premier League with the women, they can take a bit longer to find their feet.

“That could be what’s happened to Ex-Services.”

In their last match two weeks ago, a late comeback against Parkes couldn’t help the blue and whites salvage a draw, losing 3-2.

More hockey like what they showed in the second half will go a long way to producing a better result when they face Ex-Services.

“To be honest, that first half against Parkes was a coach’s error. I sent them out with the wrong tactics and I couldn’t fix it until half-time. That was my fault,” Fulton said.

“We used the wrong system. After half-time we looked a lot better, but it took too long to get it going. Hopefully I don’t make that mistake this week.

“All we can do is play our best and hope Confederates pull off a big upset and that things go our way next week as well. It is a shame because I think we have such a good little team here.”

Pat’s play Ex-Services from 1.10pm this afternoon.