Premier League Hockey: Change of structure helps St Pat's to 7-1 win over Ex-Services

Their performances played a critical role in seeing the Saints post a 7-1 win over Ex-Services in their women's Premier League Hockey Indigenous round clash at Bob Roach Field, each finishing with a double.

"Sensational," St Pat's coach Ben Weal said when describing the effort of the two young guns.

"They really combined brilliant too. Lilly's first goal was fantastic. Lilly had the ball, gave it to Millie, she ran it down and gave it back. Their speed really stretched them.

"They were desperate in front of goal today too. There was a goal that Lilly got off a corner, that just came from desperation. That's a big thing in this league because if you're not desperate, then they clear it out."

The pace and composure of both Kable and Fulton was a definite highlight, but their attacking exploits were aided by the structure of the entire Saints line-up.

They used their width well, weren't afraid to look back for an option or switch play and offered the ball carrier plenty of support.

Weal revealed it was a change in tactics to what the Saints had adopted over the first six rounds of the competition.

He hopes it will help the blue and whites climb the ladder and pressure for a spot in the major semi-final.

"For us it was a must win game to try and stay in touch, so yeah, very, very happy. I'm very happy with the way we played out there today," he said.

"We changed our structure. We had been playing a more conventional style this year, because we had a few different personnel we thought we'd go back to what is more familiar to people.

"But we spoke through the week about changing it, we had a bit of a whiteboard session at training and said this is what we are going to do and we pretty much did it out there."

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Pat's and Exies went into the match on equal competition points, but it did not take long for the hosts to stamp their authority on the contest.

Fulton struck the first blow in the sixth minute as her pace got her in behind the defence, the young striker then dragging the goalkeeper and coming up with a quality finish.

Her second goal, which came three minutes into the second quarter, was almost a carbon copy finish of her first but she was not the only attacking threat that Exies had to worry about as they worked to stay in the contest

Leanne Kennewell cleared the ball off the line to deny Mish Somers from a penalty corner while goalkeeper Anna Kukla made a double save off Kable and a sharp glove block to hold out Carly Hagney.

That was followed by Macey Fulton hitting the post as she showed the same blistering pace of her sister to stretch Exies defence then work into the circle.

Kable struck four minutes out from half-time as she combined with Millie Fulton to make it 3-0 then in the third quarter showed the desperation Weal mentioned on a penalty corner play after the Saints' initial flick was saved.

Three more Saints goals came in the final period - Maddy Boyce scoring with a power reverse from a penalty corner, Somers also blasted in from the set play while Lauren Nobes scored her first at Premier League level.

Exies bagged a late consolation with a cracking Chloe Barrett goal with 1:58 left on the clock after she pulled off an intercept.

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