A lacklustre Saints side were downed 16-8 by Workies at the Sportsground, and the loss keeps them stuck in second last on the ladder.

Pat’s struggled to get any rhythm in a scrappy performance. Any promising run of play for the hosts was quickly brought to a stop by either a penalty or an error.

“It was bit like Jekyll and Hyde, I suppose,” Pat’s coach Kurt Hancock said.

“We looked promising in the first half but we fell away. That’s been the story of our season so far.

“We’re just going to have to keep working hard, stick with it and hopefully our luck will change.

“I’d say we’re probably the most penalised side in the comp at the moment, and that doesn’t help when you’re putting on back-to-back errors. I thought in that last 10 minutes of the first half the errors and the penalties crept in, then they got a sniff late in the half.

“In saying that, we were always in the game. But with the penalties and errors we ended up doing too much defence and I don’t care who you’ve got in your football side, you’re not going to hold them out when you’re doing 60 to 70 extra tackles than the other team. That takes its toll.”

Pat’s got off to a promising start in the ninth minute when Chris Shephard broke through on the left wing and found Joey Gunn in support, taking the score to 4-0.

However, the hosts struggled to get out of their own half for the next 20 minutes due to a combination of errors and penalties.

Strong try line defence from Pat’s was the only thing keeping Workies off the scoreboard but eventually the visitors found a way through.

Back-to-back offside calls against the Saints became too much pressure to handle for the hosts as Ben Picman levelled the scores at 4-all five minutes out from the break.

Six minutes into the new half Saints hooker Benjamin John was reported for a dangerous tackle.

The news got worse for the blue and white five minutes later when Corey Willmott gave Workies the lead for the first time with a converted try.

Workies had all the momentum in the second half but failed to extend their lead.

Instead, Pat’s hit back through a Tyson Medlyn try by the right corner post, but the failed conversion left the Saints two points shy of Lithgow.

Workies shut down any hopes of a Pat’s fightback three minutes out from full-time when Willmott recovered a grubber kick off the post.

Johno Van Veen’s second conversion of the day extended the margin to eight.

“We knew it was going to be tough. We’re both fighting for that fifth position at the moment,” Workies coach Chris Rhodes said.

“I thought we completed better and controlled the game a bit better.

“Hopefully it starts building us up for our run home. CYMS next week will be tough but if we can complete then anything can happen up there.”