Premier League Hockey: St Pat's to play double header against Lithgow Panthers, Bathurst City

St Pat's will be testing their limits this Saturday and Sunday when they play Lithgow Panthers and Bathurst City in back-to-back women's Premier League Hockey matches at Bathurst.

Panthers will provide the biggest test of the season thus far for the Saints, though the blue and whites will go in confident after their 4-0 win over CYMS last round.

City, despite sitting last in the standings, should provide a strong challenge for Pat's given their big number of returning players.

Saints coach Ben Weal said double header fixtures have a habit of falling to one extreme or another.

If that's going to be the case this weekend then he knows the team will have to work hard to be on the right side of things.

"It's one of those weekends that can sometimes turn out really well for you or sometimes go quite badly so I hope we're on the good side of things this time," he said.

"It's obviously a tough game on Saturday against Lithgow. I think that we're a chance but we're going to have to turn up and play well. We're looking forward to the challenge.

"I think Bathurst City will be a good challenge as well because we've had some pretty big battles against them over the years. You never turn up to a local derby thinking anything is going to be easy."

City were due to play a double header of their own but their Saturday opponents Orange United deferred the game due to having players involved in under 21s state training.

Pat's and Lithgow will also be affected by the state training but they elected to still go ahead with their match.

"City will still be fresh and be tough to play but it is what it is. We have to play this game at some point and we can't really go through the rest of the year looking for a better time when it's probably not going to come around," Weal said.

"I'm really looking forward to it because I think they're going to be challenging in different ways."

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