HOCKEY
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SOUTHS coach Dale Campbell was happy to maintain second position on the men's Premier League Hockey for another week with a 3-0 win over Bathurst City on Saturday, but he knew it was not the slickest of performances from his men.
Heading into the contest on the back of one of their better attacking displays in recent times - disposing of Orange Wanderers 6-2 - Souths had every reason to feel confident.
But the underdog City side made them work harder than they had expected at Bob Roach Field and it took two goals in quick succession from Adam Campbell in the final 12 minutes to seal the win.
Though Souths never really looked like they might suffer a surprise defeat, Campbell admitted to some nerves.
"Hockey is one of those games when you can attack and attack and attack and don't score but they get the ball into your circle and score a goal. That was always in the back of my mind," the coach said.
"But to the credit of our defence, we didn't conceded a penalty corner and they only had one shot."
It was actually City who created the first chance of the match and took that shot after 12 minutes as Tim Miller tried to sneak in a deflection off a Blake Davis ball.
It was an effort which required saving by Souths goalkeeper John Rudge, but after that his defenders shut down City before they could work into a position to shoot.
Down the other end of the field there were no shortage of chances for the two blues, Souths proving especially effective in creating a free man on the far post.
But all too often promising plays went unfulfilled due to a combination of scrambling City defence and rushed passes.
When Souths did get a shot on target - Dylan Smith firing in from a penalty corner in the 17th minute - City goalkeeper Scott Jackman came up with a nice save.
But Souths' second penalty corner finally gave them some reward as Jono Cole deflected in a Chris Hanrahan ball.
That made it 1-0 and though Souths continued to pressure, it was how the score remained deep into the second half.
Miller, Luke McIntosh and Andy Stevenson all made some good tackles in defence as City continued to frustrate their more fancied rivals.
It took a nice individual effort from Campbell to make it 2-0 then just over a minute later, he had his second when deflecting in a pass from Hanrahan.
It was enough to earn Souths the points on offer.
"The City boys, they did a job in trying to frustrate us and to a degree it worked," coach Campbell said.
"I thought in the first half we made some good circle penetrations, but we were trying to be too fancy in scoring a goal. We missed some realistically easy opportunities.
"The game is about scoring goals against the opposition and in the first half we didn't do that successfully.
"In the second half we tried to settle down a bit, but unfortunately when you get guys out there playing hockey, they see the other end and they want to get there as quick as they can.
"To their credit my boys did show some patience at times, but the City boys defended well, ran hard, attacked the ball and were happy to get in and have a go."
SOUTHS 3 (Adam Campbell 2, Jono Cole) defeated BATHURST CITY 0