FOUR minutes and 20 seconds - that is all the time Lithgow Panthers needed to take the win of Saturday's women's Premier League Hockey match against Bathurst St Pat's.
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Until then St Pats side held a one-goal lead and looked as if they would leapfrog Panthers into first place on the ladder. After those final four minutes and 20 seconds, Pat's walked off Bob Roach Field with a 2-1 loss.
Panthers coach Dave Marshall knew his side was lucky to come away with the win, saying: "Put it this way, we got away with four points and we'll take it."
"It was a funny game, I thought we were in control but then we were down 1-0. But Pats always lift, they've been a top four side ever since I've been coaching," he said.
"I said to the girls at three-quarter-time 'Look I think we can win, we are just getting trapped into hitting the ball too long'. We were trying to hit the ball 50-60 metres and our structure went out the window.
"Generally there wasn't a lot of attacking chances, in that first quarter I thought we had the most chances. It was just a game played between the five and the 25. The defence from both sides was really good."
Panthers and Pat's both went into Saturday's contest undefeated and the battle to retain that status was a good one.
For Pat's Paige Hay and Carly Hagney combined well in the midfield, Amy Glenn produced some beautiful long balls out of defence, while at the back Lucy Weal, Mish Somers and Jodie Webb all tackled strongly.
Circle penetrations were few and shots even harder to come by, Panthers having the sole penalty corner of the first half while Saints striker Esther Hotham had the only on-target shot in the opening quarter.
It was six minutes into the second half that the Saints struck as Hotham blasted into the bottom left corner of the goal from a penalty corner.
It was a 1-0 advantage the Saints held heading into the final quarter and in that final quarter Panthers came at them.
Webb made a top save to deny Chelsea Marshall from a penalty corner play and it looked to be a crucial moment as the clock ticked down.
But when Millie Leard found and unmarked Erin Burns on the far post with 4:20 left on the clock Panthers were level at 1-all.
Then with 1:14 left Panthers scored the winner. Leard again came up with the assist and this time Marshall provided the finish on the right post.
"I think we were the best team for the whole game save those few minutes. It was just disappointing, we sort of all pushed forward when we didn't need to push forward and left an unmarked player in the circle there," Weal said.
"Almost the whole match I thought we were the better side and generally the way we played, I thought we played a better style of hockey.
"We defended really well and they coughed up a lot of ball due to pressure. We also knew in attack against them there was going to be limited options ... I can't really fault the effort save for those final minutes."
