The Panthers ace scored a quick-fire hat-trick at the back end of Saturday’s round seven clash in Orange, smashing the Wanderers’ hope of winning their first premier league match for the season.  

Panthers coach Trent MacDonald said he was extremely proud of his team’s efforts given eight senior players were out. 

“Yeah, we played really well. We took a lot of young guys away to Orange. They really stood up and played awesome.”

A few Panthers played their first full game. 

“Lachi Wilson, Lachi Roach, Tom Luchetti, they were a couple of the young guys playing.” 

MacDonald said he wan’t too concerned about the team’s chances, despite being down a point the majority of the game. 

“I knew we were all right because we had plenty of opportunities in the first half, we just couldn’t find the back of the net.  

“A few older guys at the back played really well, everyone kept calm and got the job done.”

Wanderers’ Caiden Reddan scored in just the eighth minute to give the Orange outfit an early 1-0 lead, a margin that maintained through half time, until midway through the second period.

That’s when Dolbel struck, and struck again, then for good measure struck once more.

He scored the equaliser in the 55^th minute and then found the back of the net again in the 57^th to put his side in front 2-1 with 13 minutes to go.

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Although Wanderers created chances to return to level pegging they couldn’t finish, and Dolbel drove one last goal in in the 66^th minute, completing his hat-trick and securing Lithgow’s come-from-behind victory.

MacDonald said the victory was an achievement given the tough conditions.

“Their [Orange’s] turf is very difficult to play on, it takes a lot of time to get used to.

“They came out of the second half and didn’t panic. They started to put the ball away which was pleasing.”

Panthers meet St Pat’s at home on Saturday, June 30, at 2.40pm.