THEY were wet, cold and disappointed.
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St Pat’s were left to rue missed opportunities on Saturday when drawing 3-all with Orange Wanderers in their men’s Premier League Hockey match in Orange.
From 15 prior meetings the Saints had taken full points against the Wanderers on all but two occasions – they were draws as well – and the Niel Howard coached outfit certainly had enough attacking possession to add another win to their tally.
But as the mercury dipped and the rain bucketed down, the Saints could not take advantage of their circle penetrations or host of penalty corner plays.
“I said to the boys after the game I was disappointed with the result and it was disappointing not just for the result, but how the result came about,” Howard said.
“We could’ve quite easily been 6-2 or 6-1 up at half-time, then the amount of opportunities we created in the second half, it still could have been 6-3.
“We had three degrees, blowing a gale, it nearly rained the whole time and it even hailed at one stage. The boys were saying they were having trouble holding onto their sticks.”
The first half had looked promising for the visitors as Brent Naylor bagged a double – one of which came via a penalty stroke after Blake Davis was taken out in the circle – while Jaden Ekert found the mark as well.
It saw the blue and whites with a 3-1 lead when the half-time whistle sounded and they were playing the sort of hockey that made it look like more goals would flow.
However, it was not to be the case. Wanderers held them scoreless and equalised with 10 minutes to go.
“The last five minutes in the first half we really started throwing the ball around well and generated two goals from it,” Howard said.
“But in the second half the weather set in and a few guys started to slip over. We took a few bad options and turned the ball over and they just scored.
“One fella ran nearly 70 metres with the ball,we had guys chasing him but they slipped over as they went to stop.”