IT took a smart Ali Stanford deflection with a tick under five minutes left for Souths to salvage a 2-all draw against Confederates in their women's Premier League Hockey clash on Saturday.
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While Souths had scored first in the match at Bob Roach Field, as the clocked ticked down it was Feds who led 2-1 and looked the more composed of the two sides.
The visitors were solid in defence, penetrated through the midfield with sharp passes, and frustrated Souths into taking poor options.
But as the match ticked inside the final five minutes, Souths drew its fourth penalty corner of the match. A Sophie McCauley drag-flick sent the ball towards the left post where Stanford slapped it into the goal.
Souths coach Chris Stafford admitted his side was not at its best, but was happy to come away with a share of the spoils. It keeps them locked with Feds on 10 competition points.
"I think we panicked today. We didn't warm up well, made too big a deal of it and then the girls tried to over compensate I think, that's what it looked like from the sideline," he said.
"We were pretty flat before the game ... but there's really no excuses when you are going in to play Premier League.
"Obviously that leaves us level with them, but to not play well and still come away with two points in Premier League Hockey I think is pretty good."
The first quarter saw Souths create the better of the chances and it was from their second penalty corner they took the lead.
Working the ball to the right, Souths then shifted play back to the left where Sam Porter's shot hit the pads of custodian Kathryn Cox but deflected off into the goal.
In the second quarter Feds wrestled back momentum as India Draper put things back on level terms, while skipper Ellen Warner fired some brilliant long balls out of defence to her midfield.
Feds continued to press in the third period, earning four penalty corners. However, Souths goalkeeper Kate Brown made some sharp blocks - including a stick save off an Eva Reith-Snare drag flick - to keep it locked at 1-all.
It was two minutes into the final period that Feds took the lead as Warner fired low and hard into the right corner of goal from a penalty corner.
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But Souths' experienced players rallied and Stanford's touch salvaged a draw.
"I don't think Feds played too bad, they rolled through the middle of us which is a concern for us, but the fact we could salvage a draw when it was us this week who played bad, that's good," Stafford said.
"But as I've said before, these three games we wanted to try and get some points out of them and we've got six points in two weeks."
Feds coach Fiona Reith felt her side was a little unlucky not to take the win and outright fourth place, but was happy with how they responded to Souths' pressure.
With Draper and Reith-Snare showing fatigue late in the contest as they backed up from New South Wales representative training, the coach said her side " just ran out of legs there at the end".
"We probably were a little unlucky, but that's okay, we've just got to roll with the punches," she said.
"In the first quarter Souths were rushing us and we panicked a bit, they are probably a bit more physical than us, we've got a couple of young girls who haven't realised that's on the game yet.
"But we told them to keep their composure, calm down, slow it down and that's where we got our best passages of play. We strung our passes together really well."
