Canberra Strikers skipper Meredith Bone hit home a double while former Hockeyroos star Jade Georgiou also found the back of the goal during a 5-1 thrashing of Bathurst Souths at the Orange Hockey Complex.

CYMS’ NSW Country gun Rach Hoey also scored while veteran striker Deb Orrock opened the scoring in the fifth minute.

Five goals in one game is the most the green and golds have scored since returning to the PLH competition and Shea was delighted, especially after a difficult one-goal loss to defending premiers Bathurst City leading into the long weekend general bye.

Shea believes creating enough opportunities to be able to bag four or five goals a game can help keep CYMS at the pointy end of the table, and the proof is in the pudding.

CYMS now has a share of the competition lead alongside Bathurst City, a side that went down 4-2 in a rematch of last year’s grand final with Lithgow Panthers, but the resurgent Orange club sits on top of the ladder thanks to a superior differential.

“We made it our goal to get some outcomes inside the 25 today which we did, which was really good,” Shea said.

“The more you create the more goals you score, I’m happy to create lots of opportunities, we’ll get better at converting those but today was a big step for us.”

Orrock scored the game’s first goal before Bone cleaned up a goal-mouth scrap to sneak her first past the pads of two blues keeper Kate Brown to give the hosts a 2-0 lead after 16 minutes.

Both sides played it end-to-end thereafter and late in the half Souths had its best chance to edge one back, but Kim Kiel produced a great stop on the two blues’ short corner, even if it did sting the inside of her leg.

After the break, Georgiou used all the experience and guile you’d expect from a former international to score CYMS’ third goal while Bone bagged her second shortly after to rocket the green and golds out to a four-goal lead.

Nikki Tomlinson managed to peg one back, though, scoring on the hour mark to give Souths’ bench some joy, but it was short lived when Hoey hit home CYMS’ fifth winner 60 seconds later.

The hosts had three more chances to boost their percentages in the final 10 minutes too, but Souths’ defence at the death proved admirable in the face of defeat.

Souths coach Ian North said resilience is a redeeming quality in his group, but they were a class below throughout the loss to CYMS.

“We didn’t come with an A grade game today, simply. They are a quality team, play a quality game, and we didn’t,” he said.

Saturday’s brace marked Bone’s first PLH game with CYMS this season.

Shea said the Canberra-based gun would return as often as her busy schedule in the nation’s capital allowed, which he believes will benefit the young players in CYMS’ squad immensely.

“It’s good to have her come back and play, the young girls see how she goes about her business,” he said.

“For us, it’s about improving what we do and giving those kids an opportunity to play with someone who’s played at a high level.”