LITHGOW Panthers finished up the preliminary rounds of the Western Premier League with a good 4-0 win over Bathurst Souths.
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Both sides will play in Saturday's semi finals with the Panthers who finished second taking on first placed Bathurst St Patricks while Souths (fourth) will travel to Parkes to take on Parkes United (third).
With the preliminary round now finished, it will be a new competition between the top four teams – and the semis heralds the start of the Panthers' quest to defend their 2013 title.
In their last match of the round, the Panthers who have been struggling for form, showed patches of what they are capable of with their customary short passing game that opened up the Souths' defence on many occasions.
Senior player, Dave Marshall said: “We will have to repeat this type of hockey – not only in patches, but for the entire match if we are to beat St Patricks.
“They are flying high and will go into the semi final very confident, and rightly so.
“Our defence was first rate and to shut out Souths to nil was a good effort.
“We know we have to step up in all areas against St Patricks who have been the inform team, but in saying that we have scored several goals against them in our defeats.
“We are the defending premiers and we will be going all out to defend our title.
“It is a matter of cutting Matt Naylor's short corner chances down, he has been a real weapon for them.”
Lithgow Panthers scored three quick goals in the first half to leave Souths floundering with goals going to Brandan Horner, Jarrod Cameron and Milne.
Horner who has been quite on the goal scoring front this year was back to his best with his goal a beauty.
Panthers' will be hoping that he can come up with some of his trademark goals on Saturday.
The Panthers continued to dominate the second half with Nic Milne scoring to make the final score 4-0.
The Panthers' goals came from two from open play and two from short corners.
Milne had a great game using his speed to full advantage and covered a lot of territory both in attack and defence during the game.
Best for Panthers were Nic Milne and Trent MacDonald and Al Alderson.
Although most pundits are saying that St Patricks are 'home and hosed', the competition is still wide open with St Patricks just edging out Parkes 8-7 in their last match.
It was again St Patricks' former Australian representative Matt Naylor who finished with five goals with a number of the goals coming from his drag flicks from short corners that has netted him an avalanche of goals in the latter half of the season.
Opposition teams will have to come up with a way to negate Naylor and minimise his chances.
The Panthers have injury worries, with dangerous forward Travis Cameron battling a calf injury.
“If I do not make it to the semi final this week, hopefully I will be fit for the next week.
“I don't want to come back early, unless I am 100 percent sure that I can last the entire game and not let my team down.”