St Pat's knocked out of women's Premier League Hockey contention after narrow defeat to Lithgow Panthers

That's the takeaway St Pat's coach Jaden Ekert had following his women's Premier League Hockey side's heartbreaking 4-3 defeat at the hands of Lithgow Panthers.

The hosts sacrificed a goalkeeper to play an extra striker during the final quarter at Bob Roach Field and it helped them bring the deficit back to one with just seven minutes remaining.

Pat's were always playing catch-up hockey in the entertaining, high quality affair and that eventually took its toll as the Panthers booked a meeting with Orange CYMS in the grand final.

"It was an epic game," Ekert said.

"We had three top teams playing for two spots and something had to give. It was a great game to watch and both teams played so well."

The clubs exchanged goals in the first quarter - with Paityn Simpson scoring for Pat's - before the Panthers made the most of two more opportunities to take a 3-1 lead into the break.

Their third goal came just moments before the half-time siren and it could have been the dagger had it caused the Saints to drop their heads.

But the hosts kept their eyes fixed firmly ahead on the goal.

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They got the home crowd on their feet with a goal to Sarah Watterson early in the final term but were silenced when Panthers pushed the margin back out to two thanks to a penalty corner goal.

The extra numbers up front helped Pat's get within striking range thanks to an Ella Davis goal but the Panthers defence denied them the crucial fourth goal.

"We had so much momentum going forward but we just couldn't get that equaliser," Ekert said.

"They scrambled in defence so well. It was unbelievable. We were always chasing the ball, though. We were never behind in terms of the way we played but we were always behind on the scoreboard which made it hard."

St Pat's have had their season ended one game short of their ultimate goal but they leave the competition able to say they ticked off several other goals from their list.

Ekert said one of those was to give the younger members of the team as much exposure as possible to Premier League hockey.

"Everyone was saying to me after the game it was a grand final-type game. It really could have gone either way," he said.

"It's disheartening to not be in the grand final but we took some massive steps this year with playing a heap of younger girls. We had the likes of Macie Fulton playing, who is the younger Premier League player in history at 12 years old, and then a lot of younger girls who had been on the fringe of this grade all year.

"We really focused on bringing up our juniors and it's a luxury we have that unfortunately no other club can do. If it's there for us to do, then why not?"