Bathurst want to bounce back from their loss to the Illawarra Hawks but it’s not going to be an easy task against the second-placed Saints.

Goldminers haven’t put three losses in a row together at any time this season and coach Andrew Osborn isn’t in the mood to see that happen on Saturday.

“Last week was such a yo-yo game. They’d get away then we’d pull them back then that would repeat. We didn’t have Majok [Deng] or Blake [Schaefer] for that game, and it was one that either side could have won,” he said.

“When I spoke to our boys prior to that game I said it’s all a mental thing. Whoever wants the game more will win it. It was about maintaining energy levels but we dropped off.

“There’s a lot of things we’ve got to fix, but hopefully we can bounce back. Having done the sums we can afford to lose two more games and make the finals, but we don’t want to be thinking too much along those lines.”

St George come into Saturday’s game at Hurstville off a crushing win over the Penrith Panthers.

Goldminers sat as high as second place in the standings but their back-to-back losses have dropped them down to sixth.

The top seven in the competition have formed a sizeable split over the bottom half.

The Saints and competition leaders Newcastle Hunters are the remaining top seven teams Goldminers must face.