It was soon clear why he stressed that aspect of play as it was the Saints’ larger share of possession which ultimately led to a 7-1 victory at Bob Roach Field.

“Job done. They passed the ball a bit better, our possession was good, but we are still not hitting the circle and taking our shots at goals as much as we should,” Conroy said.

“But apart from that, I was really happy with how they passed the ball around today, I think they just stood off our players a bit today. We had plenty of room, we used that to possess the ball and they we used each other to make use of that possession.”

Jodi Webb finished with a pair of goals for the Saints, as did Ella Menzies, while Georgie Adams, Kristy Ekert and Sam Tibbles joined them on the scoresheet.

But it was Feds who had the first chance of the match when they earned a penalty corner after 45 seconds. 

They were unable to score off that play – a good Sophie Conroy tackle shutting them down.

When Pat’s created their first chance they did find reward via Webb and as Menzies and Tibbles both scored in quick succession, it was 3-0 after six minutes.

Feds co-coach Fiona Reith said a less than perfect warm up was behind the slow start.

“The girls thought they had longer in the warm up and that seemed to shake them a bit, their preparation wasn’t good,” she said.

“Then the pace of the game was really quick, it probably took that full first half for them to recover.”

Some fine blocks from Feds goalkeeper Lilli Campbell kept her side in the contest before Menzies scored a fourth for Pat’s with 12 seconds of the half remaining.

Just as they had done in the first half, Feds were immediately on the attack in the second. This time it took 20 seconds for them to earn a penalty corner.

They did not find the mark off that set play, but when earning another chance five minutes later, Eva Reith-Snare took it.

Adams restored Pat’s four-goal advantage off her side’s fourth penalty corner of the match, before Ekert and Webb both found the mark to make it 7-1.

Feds had two late chances via penalty corners – taking their tally to six for the match - but Pat’s goalkeeper Tracey Gunning was up to the task as she blocked both.