As has been the case all year, the Panthers went into the side without a couple of their stars in Gavin McKenzie and their main goal scorer Brandan Horner, but still had enough experience and fire power to take the game 3-2 and advance to the grand final.

The grand final will see another showdown between the competition's two powerhouses – Bathurst St Patricks who have gone through the season undefeated and the defending champions Lithgow Panthers.

Bathurst Souths gave themselves a real show to make it an all Bathurst grand final, but their campaign came to a shuttering halt when Ron Charlton delivered the killer blow in the 'golden goal' extra time to make it 3-2 and give his side a chance of defending their title.

Panthers led early, with Nic Milne passing off to Michael Charlton who slammed the ball home to give his side a 1-0 lead after only six minutes.

It was a quality final with both sides playing some excellent hockey. Play fluctuated up and down the field with both side earning short corners with the defence proving hard to crack.

Ten minutes into the second half, Souths locked up the score with a well rehearsed penalty corner with Jono Cole finishing the move off to make it 1-all.

With 12 minutes to go Travis Cameron showed some of his 'old magic' to again put his side in front at 2-1.

With a number of calls that had the Panthers' camp perplexed, Souths again worked an excellent penalty corner with Jono Cole again the goal scorer with the visitors scoring with only one minute and 20 seconds left on the clock.

With the fulltime score at 2-all, extra time was called and after a brief period of play, the Panthers thought that they had scored the winning goal after the Souths' goalie stopped the first penalty corner strike and Taylor Dolbel dived in and flicked the ball over the goalie to what looked a top goal.

Everyone went up as one, but the umpire ruled no goal due to an obstruction with the players left dumbfounded as it looked a clear cut goal.

The Panthers never let the set back worry them and again worked hard for a penalty corner.

This time there was no taking the goal away from the Panthers as Ron Charlton smashed the ball to the back of the goals for a 3-2 win and a place in the grand final.

Ron Charlton was again brilliant organising the play from the back with the experience of Trent MacDonald, Nathan Mitchell, Travis Cameron, Nic Milne and goalie Mitch Britton again evident.

Others to stand out were Ryan Bannerman and Shaun McSorley who were strong at the back with the entire side contributing to the win.

A disappointed Souths' coach Dale Campbell was proud of his side's efforts saying That was probably the best 70 minutes of hockey we've played all year, we put a full game together.

“When you do that and you still lose, of course it is a bit hard to take, but you just have to take your hat off and say 'well done' to the other team.

“It was a really good game of hockey, very entertaining and close and in the end I do thing that the Panthers deserved the win.”