The 16-8 victory leaves Workies in seventh position on the ladder while St Pat’s are just below in eighth.

“We knew it was going to be tough. We’re both fighting for that fifth position at the moment,” Workies coach Chris Rhodes said.

“I thought we completed better and controlled the game a bit better.

“Hopefully it starts building us up for our run home. CYMS next week will be tough but if we can complete then anything can happen up there.”

Workies were on the back foot early with St Pat’s going over in the ninth minute.

Chris Shephard broke through on the left wing and found Joey Gunn in support, taking the score to 4-0.

However, the hosts struggled to get out of their own half for the next 20 minutes due to a combination of errors and penalties.

Strong try line defence from St Pat’s was the only thing keeping Workies off the scoreboard but eventually the visitors found a way through.

Lithgow’s Ben Picman Ben Picman levelled the scores at 4-all five minutes out from the break as the Saints buckled under the pressure following back-to-back offside calls.

Six minutes into the new half Saints hooker Benjamin John was reported for a dangerous tackle.

The news got worse for St Pat’s five minutes later when Corey Willmott gave Workies the lead for the first time with a converted try.

Workies had all the momentum in the second half but failed to extend their lead.

Instead, Pat’s hit back through a Tyson Medlyn try by the right corner post, but the failed conversion left the Saints two points shy of Lithgow.

Workies shut down any hopes of a Pat’s fightback three minutes out from full-time when Willmott recovered a grubber kick off the post.

Jono Van Veen’s second conversion of the day extended the margin to eight.

St Pat’s were left to lament the series of penalties and errors stealing away any rhythm in the scrappy performance.

“We looked promising in the first half but we fell away. That’s been the story of our season so far,” St Pat’s coach Kurt Hancock said.

“We’re just going to have to keep working hard, stick with it and hopefully our luck will change.

“I’d say we’re probably the most penalised side in the comp at the moment, and that doesn’t help when you’re putting on back-to-back errors. I thought in that last 10 minutes of the first half the errors and the penalties crept in, then they got a sniff late in the half.

“In saying that, we were always in the game. But with the penalties and errors we ended up doing too much defence and I don’t care who you’ve got in your football side, you’re not going to hold them out when you’re doing 60 to 70 extra tackles than the other team. That takes its toll.”

Workies also got up in first division 20-16 but went down in League Tag 34-8.