It was an even first half with Panthers and Pat's moving the ball around and keeping vocal.

Heading into second half the pressure was on for a spot in the grand final. Both sides had several shots but not on target.

With a yellow card handed to Panthers for a dangerous tackle it was fortunate for the blues when captain Shane Conroy found the back of the net.

It wasn't long before Panthers hit back with a soft goal from Tom Piggott due to a mistake on behalf of goalie Taylor Newton, bringing the score to 1-1.

With five minutes to go Panthers vice captain Trent MacDonald hit one in the goal, but Pat's weren't giving up with Conroy bagging another one.

The match looked to head into extra time with a score of 2-2 and not much left on the clock until Bathurst's Tyler Willott scored with one minute to go.

St Pat's held out Panthers for the last 30 seconds and went back to the sheds with a 3-2 victory.

Lithgow Panthers vice captain Trent MacDonald said the last minute of the match was unlucky and a painful experience.

"Pat's got in the circle so that hurt, I guess it doesn't matter too much because we've got next week to give it another shot," he said.

MacDonald said his team didn't step up as much as they should've and there was room for improvement.

"We were lacking in the centre of the field and they [St Pat's] hurt us there.

"Pat's have some good players so they went quite well through the centre which we knew they would, we tried to nullify that but it didn't happen because we didn't mark up so it's our fault," he said.

The minor semi was played between Parkes United and Orange Wanderers and MacDonald was hopeful for a match against Parkes next week.

"I backed Parkes. Our side just has to regroup next week and see what happens," he said.

MacDonald said stand out players of the match were Panthers goalie Logan Hunter and Shaun McSorley.

For Bathurst's premier league coach Niel Howard it was all smiles as the full time buzzer went off.

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"We've made the semi so we're through to the grand final, we knew it was going to be a tight match, anyone could have won that game," he said.

Howard said despite a quiet first half his side turned up the pressure heading into the last 30 minutes.

"We changed a few things up at half time and I think our fitness helped us at the end.

"I thought we controlled the ball well most of the game, our younger guys up front in particular," he said.

He said he was a bit uneasy about having a week off but planned keep Pat's training hard.

"We've now got the week off from playing but Panthers don't.. so I think it's a bad thing we have that week off because we always play terrible after a week off but hopefully all will be good," he said.

Howard said standout players for Pat's were Fletcher Norris and Blake Davis.

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