BATHURST Panthers’ 2015 Group 10 premier league campaign was at a slightly low ebb the first time they met the Mudgee Dragons this season.

Against an understrength Dragons team, they lifted themselves to a morale boosting victory at Carrington Park. Tomorrow they will need a similar sort of effort at Glen Willow as they try to keep their finals hopes alive.

Mudgee themselves are safe as far as the top five goes and currently sit second on for-and-against. However the mid-season loss of devastating centre Corin Smith, their best attacking player, can give some hope to the Bathurst team.

Smith has been given a spot in the Newton squad in the NSW Cup competition.

Still, his absence didn’t seem to hurt Mudgee too much last week as they picked up a valuable away win over Blayney despite a late comeback from the Bears.

“Having beaten them once this year and having a reasonable record against them in the last few years, I think we can go over there with a decent amount of confidence, although we know they were missing a handful of players last time,” Panthers manager Danny Dwyer said.

“I think with the situation we’re in, we know that we aren’t going to be able to go over there and just out-defend them and win that way. We’re going to have to take some risks and throw it around, look to score a lot of points.

“That’s one thing we haven’t really struggled with this season, putting points on the board, so that’s what we have to focus on.”

Injuries haven’t done Panthers any favours, with captain-coach Todd Barrow likely to miss the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle, while centre Jay McClintock will also miss the match with a shoulder complaint.

Thankfully Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill has recovered from his own shoulder injury, which he picked up against St Pat’s last week in the same incident that saw McClintock sidelined.

But on the downside, barnstorming prop Greg Behan is unavailable, and Panthers lose considerable size by having to throw Jed Betts into the front row.

“Sandon has to have a shoulder reconstruction at the end of the year, but he’s okay to play for the time being. It is pretty important that he’s back for us, his last three weeks have been very good,” Dwyer said.

“That’s the standard we know he can play at, he’s at his most effective when he is sweeping around the back line as an extra five-eighth.”

At a glance, last Sunday’s local derby loss to St Pat’s by eight points was just another chapter in a season-long novel about missed opportunities and blown leads.

The wash-up has seen the team assess the effort for what it was – a gutsy performance that could have been a lot worse.

“We certainly made a lot of mistakes and didn’t defend well when we turned the ball over,” Dwyer said.

“But I don’t think any club would expect to have just one player on the bench for the last 45 minutes of a game and still be in the match with a few minutes to go.

“It took a lot of reshuffling and putting players in makeshift roles to stay in the game, so they could be pretty happy with what they did. But we gave Pat’s too many chances and they hurt us.

“Knowing that we went that close with three players missing and with all the mistakes we made, I think if we can play our best against the Dragons there is no doubt we can beat them.”

The two sides meet at the Glen Willow Sporting Complex from 2.30pm tomorrow.

BATHURST PANTHERS: 1 Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill, 2 Chris Shephard, 3 Blake Lawson, 4 Bradyn Cassidy, 5 Liam Brodrick, 6 Jeremy Gordon, 7 Joey Bugg, 8 Brent Seager, 9 Trent Hotham, 10 Jed Betts, 11 Max Wolfson, 12 Jarrod Seager, 13 Jake Betts, 14 Ben Gunn, 15 Tyson Chapple, 16 Aaron Bell, 17 Rhys Potter.