Despite playing away from home, Lithgow Zig Zag showed St Pat’s men’s Premier League Hockey side who’s boss in a dominant 5-3 victory in Bathurst.
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A week after a frustrating 3-all draw with Orange Wanderers, the Saints lost to Lithgow Zig Zag at Bob Roach Field.
The points came when Jaden Ekert slotted a penalty corner effort into the bottom left corner, but it was 37 minutes before they managed to add to that tally again.
Lithgow’s Luke Sheppeard recognises how strong the St Pats team was and how important this win was for Lithgow.
“I think we only won our first game against them two years ago, so they are definitely a good team,” Sheppeard said.
“We've had a bit of a losing streak the last three games, so we knew we had to concentrate on coming out here today with a strong start.
“There was a lot of positive talk too, which is something we've lacked the last couple of weeks.
The speed of Australian representative Lachlan Sharp served Lithgow well, but Saints coach Niel Howard thinks his presence was not the decisive factor.
“He didn’t dominate the game. You could tell he was an influence, but he didn’t determine the game,” he said.
“We scrambled well, we sort of held our game plan and created opportunities, but we’re just not executing those opportunities.
Aside from Ekert’s seventh-minute goal, it was Zig Zag who found the most reward in attack.
Eli Shirt put his side on level terms in the 13th minute, Sharp scored from a penalty corner three minutes later then Luke Sheppeard slotted home another to make it 3-1 at the break and just three minutes after play resumed Sheppeard had his second – converting from a penalty corner play – to further extend Zig Zag’s lead.
After having shots saved by the goalkeeper, cleared off the line and other moments when a final touch had gone begging, St Pat’s finally found the mark again with 24 minutes remaining.
But three minutes later Zig Zag hit back as Sharp’s explosive speed and pin-point passing set up Corey Oldfield.
While Darcy Davis managed to score off Pat’s fifth penalty corner play of the match to make it 5-3, from there Zig Zag held on for a morale boosting win.
Luke Sheppeard credits Lithgow’s win to knowing and working on the team’s weak points.
“Our short corners were good today. It's been a major downfall for us for the last.
“I don't know how many years, but we’ve been concentrating on that at training and it was great to see it come off.”
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