The sides finished one and two on the women's ladder at the end of the regular season, but had their grand final qualifier postponed until Monday night.

Having finished top of the table, the Panthers would have felt a little aggrieved as they were forced to travel to Bathurst for the clash, rather than host the match. But that didn't matter as they came away with a 3-2 victory.

Lithgow's head coach Mick Millar was unable to attend the game due to COVID restrictions but was delighted by the result.

"We're proud of our girls with all the adversity that they've been coming up against to get the win and we look forward to playing the grand final in a couple weeks time and hopefully it is in Lithgow," he said.

United coach Nic Milne knew it was going to be a hard fought game.

"We had a couple who couldn't make it - one from Dubbo and one boarding at Kinross - but we knew that was going to happen if we were playing during the week and we accommodated for that as we had to play the cards we were dealt," he said.

"I thought the girls played quite well with the scenario we were in."

The Orange side found themselves down 3-1 heading into the final quarter and scored with five minutes to go. But that was as close as they would get.

"They didn't give up, they never gave up and didn't throw the game away," Milne added.

"They stuck in there for the last 60 minutes and it showed in the final quarter where we attacked for quite a bit of it."

Because Lithgow men won their grand final qualifier, both grand finals were due to be played in Lithgow regardless, but with COVID restrictions still very much in place around the state, things could change at any moment.

READ MORE:

Milne and the United side were set to take on CYMS this week in an elimination game to decide who will meet Panthers in the title match, but due to a seven day COVID-lockdown in the Orange region all preliminary finals have been postponed.

PLH will have a meeting on Thursday night with delegates to make decisions on how to proceed.

Milne was hopeful for his side to perform in the local derby and have another crack at Panthers.

"The local derby is always tough and can just come down to who is on form on the day. It could go either way," he said.

"Everyone was disappointed with the Lithgow result because they all played well and they thought they deserved to win.

"They will all get up again and will want to have a second crack against Panthers in the grand final.

"There's not much I'll need to say to get them up because they know this could be their last shot."

We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: