It’s a familiar story for Bathurst City when they travel to play a Confederates team still in the finals race for women’s Premier League Hockey.

City are looking to improve from their 1-all draw against Ex Services last round – which gited the Orange team their first points of the season – and that’s no easy task against a Feds lineup capable of bringing down big sides.

With key personnel still away for City it adds to the difficulty.

“We have Lisa Quinn, Jess Gardener, Kelsey Willott and Maddie Tattersall away,” City coach Nick Klower said.

“It’s a young side at the moment and I can’t complain about how they’re going. For how they’ve gone, being thrown in the deep end and being put in the positions of our injured players, they’ve done really well.

“I’ve got five under 18s players that are filling in roles of senior players so they’ve been killing it. We’re not getting the results we’ve wanted but there’s been nothing to be worried about.

“The girls worked hard to try and cement that number one spot. Things have changed now, obviously, but the attitude going into every game is that we can secure a win and be a threat at the top of the table for the rest of the year.”

Confederates are three wins outside of the top four which makes their finals hopes slim to say the least, but far from impossible with five rounds to go.

City’s gap from third (26 points) back to fifth has been reduced to six points courtesy of Souths’ win over Lithgow Zig Zag last weekend.

Given their past performances against top teams Klower said a meeting with Confederates must be treated with caution.

“Feds have played some really good games this year. They got a draw against CYMS which was impressive,” he said.

“We’re at that time of year where the back-end teams like Feds, Zig Zag and Ex Services are starting to cause upsets. We’re very conscious of what they’re capable of.”

City and Feds play the first of the women’s fixtures in Orange, starting 1.55pm.