SOUTHS might not have clawed back any ground in their bid to crack the women's Premier League Hockey top four on Saturday, but coach Chris Stafford could not fault his players.
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Stafford even went as far as to label the 4-2 loss against Lithgow Panthers in Lithgow the best of Souths' 2019 campaign to date.
The two blues typically scrambled well in defence, looked threatening on the counter against the hosts and created plenty of attacking chances.
Though Panthers were good enough to absorb the pressure and take the competition points on offer, it was still a performance which shows Souths can seriously test the teams above it on the ladder.
"It was actually 3-2 for a fair chunk of it, it was the best we've played all year to be honest. We just moved the ball around really well today," Stafford said.
"I thought we probably created the better of the chances, to be honest I didn't think we'd get that many chances.
"We had a lot of short corners, but they are a strong defensive unit and we just couldn't get there today. It was always close the whole game, we just played really well.
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"We knew they were always going to come out hard after what happened with them being stripped points for fielding an unregistered player ... but I felt we played really well as a unit today, we countered really well."
Stafford was forced into a positional shuffle after the first quarter with forward Meg Booth leaving the field after being struck in the head.
He switched Ali Stanford to centre half and Charlize Fitzpatrick to right half. Though that duo were not in their preferred roles, the coach was delighted with how they adjusted.
"They ended up sharing our players' player award today, they both had blinders," he said.
Sophie McCauley scored both of Souths goals - one of them from a penalty corner - to make it four in the past fortnight.
