St Pat's locks in a women's Central West Premier League Hockey finals spot

St Pat's posted a 2-0 win over Parkes in Parkes on Saturday in the penultimate round of the women's Central West Premier League Hockey competition to climb into second.

Though the Saints will need to win in the final round to stay second, the effort against Parkes means the blue and whites can not be dislodged from the top four.

It was exactly what coach Bec Clayton wanted to see.

"The girls, they really stood up today, their structure, the way they played as a team, it was just really good," she said.

"They stepped up like they needed to."

The return of Hannah Kable, who was named in the Australian Jillaroos (under 21s) squad earlier in the week, came as a huge positive for the Saints.

But it wasn't the only positive.

The decision to deploy co-captain Mish Somers in attack instead of defence paid off, while Millie Fulton finished with both a goal and a goal assist.

Fulton's goal gave the Saints a 1-0 lead in the second quarter, but Clayton admitted her side "got a little bit defensive" following that strike.

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It took a goal from Somers in the third quarter to give the Saints some more breathing room at 2-0.

"We got a breakaway and it was passed across the face of goal by Millie to Mish and she just pushed it in, beautiful finish," Clayton said.

"Mish was playing up front today. Just position-wise she knows where to be.

"Mish was an absolute gem today, Mish and Hannah got our players' players today."

Though 2-0 was how it stayed, there were certainly more chances in the final 20 minutes of the match.

The Saints were denied by some brilliant work from Parkes goalkeeper Amy Thornberry, while the hosts' young and quick line-up applied pressure too.

"We didn't finish the way we probably should've, we had the opportunities to score one or two more, but they just never gave up. As Parkes do at home, they just fought for everything," Clayton said.

"But we had plenty of shots on goal which was great, our finishing in front of goal was much better and we probably could have had a couple more, but their goalkeeper was brilliant today, she was fantastic."

While the win puts the Saints in prime position to qualify for the major semi-final, Parkes now needs to not only to beat Orange United in the last round by a big margin, but at the same time hope Souths wins well over Orange CYMS.

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