HOCKEY

BATHURST City may not have got the competition points on offer in their men's Premier League Hockey match against Parkes on Saturday, yet the 5-4 result could still go down as a defining moment for the club.

In their last three outings before making the trip to Parkes, City had conceded 28 goals and managed to score just one in reply.

While there were periods in those games where City had matched - and even outplayed - their rivals, they ultimately had nothing to show for their efforts.

But on Saturday City managed to play better for longer and rather than having one or two members of their squad impress, the entire team worked well as a unit.

"It was great, it was really good today - we were actually winning at one stage," City's Mal Willott said.

"We were in the game the whole game which was really good, that is what we want to do and haven't been able to.

"Everyone lifted, we stuck to our game plan. We backed everyone up, we ran hard when we should've and we did a lot more defending in the right spots."

Despite being stripped of four competition points for fielding an unregistered player, Parkes went into the match sitting 10 points ahead of City on the ladder. With a home turf advantage and full side, they were expected to easily account for the Bathurst side.

Parkes looked on track to do so when they opened scoring, but this time around City were able to respond.

Willott found the mark off a penalty corner play to level the scores and another City strike followed to make it 2-1.

Though Parkes hit back before the break to led 3-2 at half-time, once more the visitors rallied.

City scored the first two goals of the second half to push ahead 4-3 and the see-sawing nature of the match continued as Parkes were able to level things up again.

With five and a half minutes remaining Parkes scored what was to prove the match winner, but they had some nervous moments as the clock ticked down.

"We had two good chances after they scored that fifth goal. We had a short corner, but unfortunately that didn't work how we had planned," Willott said.

"It was a bit disappointing not to win, we were so close to that win we want. But the main thing for us is that we keep improving and we did that.

"We played 10 times better than what we have been ... we got four goals and probably could have got another two or three. Even the umpire said how good it was and that we pushed them all the way, there wasn't anyone who had a bad game."

PARKES 5 defeated BATHURST CITY 4 (Mal Willott, Jack Miller, Isaac Darling, Jayden Hunt)