BATHURST City coach Nick Klower has labelled his team’s next two women’s Premier League Hockey matches as the most crucial of the regular season.
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The first leg of those games will be a meeting against CYMS this Saturday.
Klower rates the matches against CYMS and Lithgow Panthers as important not only because of the quality of their opponents but because the Bathurst team is still down on numbers.
“We’ve got a couple of big weeks ahead of us with CYMS this week and Panthers in Lithgow. They’re the two biggest weeks of the season so far for the girls,” he said.
“Everyone will step up this weekend knowing that it’s such a big game.
“The last couple of weeks haven’t gone our way but with the players we’ve had out and the young players coming in for them they’ve really stepped up so we’re full of confidence for the next few weeks.”
City have suffered a rare event they won’t like: Three winless regular season matches in a row.
The competition’s two other Orange clubs proved a tricky hurdle for the understaffed City, who had a 1-all draw and 1-0 loss respectively to those teams over the past fortnight.
City’s young players have fought hard over the course of those games and could consider themselves unfortunate not to come away with more points.
The consequence of those results is that City now fourth and only six points clear of a chasing Souths.
With the additional minutes for the club’s younger players over the past month Klower said it’s been exciting to see the group learn from the experience.
“This will give us a benchmark not only for where our depth is at this season but for where the club is at for the next few years as well,” he said.
“We’re playing again with a younger side but it’s a great chance to see how we hold up against the top teams.
“We’re behind Pat’s, CYMS and Panthers now so these next two games will give us a really good idea of where we’re at.”
City took down CYMS in Orange earlier this season.
Klower said City will be fielding a far different lineup from that 1-0 success while he expects CYMS to be just as strong as ever in their trip east.
“It’s a similar format to what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“What they’re coming up against now will be nothing like what they played earlier in the season.
“That could potentially work in our favour.”
Bathurst City and CYMS meet on Bob Roach Field at 1.50pm.
