But Mudgee Dragons' Jack Littlejohn and Nathan Orr had different ideas, as the former put up a towering bomb on the last play of the game, before the latter reached high to beat St Pat's fullback Lee McClintock to the ball and score the winning try.

It was a heartbreaking loss for St Pat's, who had lead the game from the eighth minute and had looked the better team for large portions of the match.

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St Pat's coach Zac Merritt said it was a tough way to lose.

"The boys put a massive effort in tonight and to lose like that in the last 10 seconds, it definitely hurts considering the hard work they put into the game," he said.

"The boys really dug in. They know what it's all about. We've been working hard during the pre-season and there's no excuses for us."

Regardless of the loss, Merritt said there's still plenty of positives to take out of the game.

"There's plenty of positives but I did chip them on our errors. We make too many errors," he said.

"But there's still plenty of positives. We were probably the better squad tonight. Unfortunately I sent a message out tonight and said it's won and lost in 10 minutes and they got us in the last 10 seconds."

St Pat's opened its account eight minutes into the match when hooker Mitch Squire sent a kick across to his right side winger Jacob Ciccocioppo, who reached high for the ball and planted it down. Tyler Colley added the extras to give St Pat's a 6-0 lead.

It took Mudgee almost 20 minutes to respond when halfback Harry Siejka sent a kick into the corner that St Pat's player fumbled into the waiting hands of Dragons fullback Jayden Brown, who scored untouched. Siejka missed the conversion and the scores remained unchanged up until the break, with St Pat's taking a 6-4 lead into the sheds.

St Pat's would extend its lead when Squire beat a number of Mudgee defenders to score 10 minutes in the second half and with Colley scoring the conversion, St Pat's were up 12-4.

Mudgee would bide its time and it took until 15 minutes left for Casey Burgess to crash over under the posts from dummy half and with an easy kick for Siejka, the visitors trailed by two points before the Dragons would snatch victory from the hands of defeat in the last play of the game.

Mudgee captain Jack Littlejohn admitted the better team lost.

"With all the injuries St Pat's have got, I think we sort of came over here maybe expecting to win a little bit. They gave it to us all game," he said.

"To be fair, they were the better team. It's a pretty bad way for them to lose but saying that, we fought to the death and Orr seems to do things like that all the time, seems to get up there and come down with the ball.

"We definitely didn't play our best but to fight like that, it shows the resilience in the club and my team."

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