HOCKEY
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BOUNCING back from a 10-2 loss is a tough ask in itself for Orange Wanderers.
But, making it all the more difficult, the Orange side has to do it against the reigning men’s Premier League Hockey champions Lithgow Panthers, in Lithgow.
“(Bathurst) St Pat’s gave us a hockey lesson last weekend, and playing Panthers (today) makes it a pretty tough two weeks,” Wanderers coach Pete Shea said.
“But I don’t think Lithgow have been setting the world on fire recently, so you never know.
“It’d be a great way for us to bounce back to grab a win, but to even have a chance of doing that we need to keep ourselves in the contest longer.
“Last weekend we were out of the contest virtually straight away, so if we can stay in it we’ll have a much better chance.”
Wanderers opened the season well with victories over Parkes United and Dubbo in rounds one and two respectively, but last weekend’s thumping took the gloss of the side’s strong start.
Surprisingly, Shea suggested his side’s performance against St Pat’s wasn’t as ordinary as the scoreline suggests.
“At the moment we’re on the cusp of figuring out how to play the way the (top) sides do, it’s just little things we need to improve on,” Shea said.
“Our defence is our midfield was loose last weekend, and it snowballed into our deep defence.
“When your deep defence is under a lot of pressure that’s when you concede goals like we did.
“So we just need to make sure we tighten up through the middle, and keep pressure on through that area.”
Wanderers take on Panthers in Lithgow, from 1.30pm.