ST Pat's held Bathurst City scoreless in a women's Premier League Hockey derby between the pair for the first time in almost three years on Saturday when posting a 2-0 win at Bob Roach Field.
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Not since July 2016 when downing City 3-0 had the Saints managed to keep a clean sheet against their fierce local rivals.
They had to work at it - City having three penalty corners in the contest and a good count of circle penetrations - but experienced Saints such as Lucy Weal, Mish Somers and Jodi Webb tackled well.
Saints coach Jaden Ekert also felt the fitness of his players was crucial in the victory, with both goals coming in the final quarter.
"Our fitness took over. When you come off a loss it's a confidence things ad we knew we had to win to get that back," he said.
"I said to the girls at that start of the day that I don't care how bad we play or how ugly it is, as long as we win. You can win ugly, because you know you can improve.
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"I said that we were going to be in a dog fight from the start and we were. They always seem to get up to play us, that's the good thing about them. But my girls, they were too fit and too smart."
Though they took the momentum in the third quarter, it took four minutes into the final period for the Saints to open their account thanks to Ruby Clarke.
A second goal soon followed as Kristy Ekert's initial strike was blocked by City's Maddy Tattersall - one of her string of saves for the contest - only to have the ball spill to the opposite post where Millie Fulton slapped it in.
While Bathurst City coach Lisa Quinn was happy with the way her younger players stood up and that they did not concede from any of the Saints' seven penalty corners, she was naturally disappointed with the outcome.
They fell away from their structure after half-time and that allowed the Saints to get on top in the midfield, create space and enjoy more circle penetrations.
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"We just keep letting games get away from us," Quinn said.
"We just lost our structure in that third quarter and we found it hard to come back from.
"We weren't ready to come out in that third quarter, it was their hit-off and they took off straight away. We'd made a substitution but people weren't aware that had happened and we were scrambling into place - it was just a lack of communication.
"That led to them getting a bit of roll on, us scrambling and losing our structure. It was shame, it just shows we have to keep that communication up because definitely in the first half I thought it was a very even game and anyone could have taken it."
