Premier League Hockey: Bathurst City look to build on promising draws with upset over St Pat's

The team will be approaching the upcoming Bathurst derby against the high flying Saints with a 'nothing to lose' attitude, although they won't be using that mentality as a reason to take any steps backwards with their development.

Their coach Mal Willott has been very pleased by the way they pushed Souths (nil-all) and Orange United (1-all) in recent draws.

"Our last two games have been draws and the week before was against the second team in the competition, so our heads definitely aren't down and we've got nothing to lose," he said.

"The girls are starting to play better with every week. Some of these girls are still very young and it's their first year of premier league so the more they play the better they get."

Taking down Pat's will be a tall order for a City side still chasing their first victory of the season.

Pat's dispatched Orange Ex-Services 7-1 last round to stake their claim on third place in the finals race.

Last time City and Pat's came together, way back in round one, the Saints came away 2-0 winners.

Bathurst City's standard of hockey in las Saturday's derby with Souths was some of the best they've shown in 2021 and Willott would love to see more of it.

"We have no pressure on us. We always come off smiling, happy to be playing in the premier league. Pat's will be playing to stay inside the top four," he said.

"We want to start a lot better than what we did in our last game against Pat's. If we can instead start like we did in our game last Saturday then we'd be very happy."

City and Pat's come together at Bob Roach Field this Saturday from 3.20pm.

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