PARKES United has long been out of contention for a place in this year's men's Premier League Hockey competition, but on Saturday at Bob Roach Field they proved they are still capable of springing an upset.

Parkes beat a Souths outfit who had amassed three times as many competition points as them over 11 rounds 4-1 as they showed the value of capitalising on their opportunities.

The visitors had just two penalty corners across the 70-minute contest and scored from both, while Souths had 11 attempts from the set play but could not find the mark once.

While Parkes goalkeeper Cooper Byrnes had a superb game, Souths coach Dale Campbell knows his side could have done better.

"We did have our chances there today, but those short corners we kept hitting straight to their 'keeper, well not straight too him, but close enough that he kept kicking them away. We didn't hit the corners [of the goal]," Campbell said.

"When you have 11 short corners and can't capitalise on at least one of them it is not real good."

As well as suffering their fourth defeat of the season, the result meant Souths lost second place on the ladder to Lithgow Panthers.

Panthers beat Dubbo 6-0 on Saturday afternoon to draw level with Souths on 30 competition points, but Lithgow's superior for and against record has them in front.

"When you are playing for second spot in the competition that sort of effort can hurt you a bit, you could find yourself playing for fourth instead of the top two," Campbell said of the loss.

"We only really lifted our intensity and really started working hard there in the last five minutes, and by then the game was gone."

In the first half of the contest Parkes defied their lowly position on the ladder as the team running second last played with better structure and their passing and trapping was much crisper than Souths'.

Both sides had early chances without being able to capitalise - Souths blowing the best of them when the ball struck Jono Cole's foot in a two-on-one situation - but Parkes looked the most threatening.

It was a quick counter attack that saw Parkes finally open scoring with 17 minutes of play gone. Andrew Bourke forced the turnover, played a nice one-two with Brad Gardiner and slotted home into an open goal to make it 1-0.

Five minutes later Parkes doubled their lead when a Gardiner drag flick from a penalty corner play flew into the top left corner.

A nice piece of individual skill from Adam Campbell got Souths on the board before the break as he beat several defenders then Byrnes at the near post, but it was to be the two blues' only joy.

Souths did better with their circle penetrations in the second half as they drew 10 penalty corners - including four in five minutes - but they could not find a way past Byrnes.

Down the other end Souths custodian John Rudge produced a fine one-on-one glove save to deny Cooper Weakman, but Graeme Thompson scored from a penalty corner before Pete Amor made it 4-1 with a field goal seven minutes from time.

PARKES 4 (Andrew Bourke, Graeme Thompson, Brad Gardiner, Peter Amor) defeated SOUTHS 1 (Adam Campbell)