EXPERIENCE - according to Orange Wanderers coach Pete Shea that was the difference between his men and Souths on Saturday as the Bathurst outfit posted a 6-2 win.

While Wanderers went into the match sitting above Souths on the men’s Premier League Hockey ladder and were the better side in the first 15 minutes at Bob Roach Field, the two blues were able to respond.

Once Souths settled and adjusted their style of play to counter Wanderers’ tactics, they were clearly the stronger side.

“It was a good game, it was played pretty quickly. The difference is that they have a bit more experience than we do and they controlled the ball a bit better at critical times,” Shea said.

“That allowed them to score some goals when we were trying to control the game, which was a bit difficult for us.

“There were times that we did some really good things, but we do lack that experience and a little bit of composure.”

It was Wanderers who started Saturday’s match the stronger of the two sides and in the fourth minute off their third penalty corner of the match, they laid the ball off to Keiran Gentles on the right and his effort found the mark.

But from the restart Souths carried the ball straight into Wanderers’ circle and earned a penalty corner of their own. Jack Bright’s first attempt was blocked by a diving Troy Kelly, but Adam Campbell cleaned up the deflection to make it 1-all.

A sharp John Rudge save - getting his glove to a Matt Johnson attempt - stopped Wanderers from going ahead 10 minutes later and two minutes after that, it was Souths who had the lead.

Chris Stafford powered the ball into the top right corner of the net, his goal coming after a period of well-controlled play from the visitors.

Though Wanderers were able to draw level at 2-all when Johnson scored from a penalty corner, two minutes later a brilliant individual effort from Chris Hanrahan gave the two blues a 3-2 lead.

Those passages of play highlighted the difference in experience Shea spoke of.

“We were in the game with those goals and we were playing particularly well for those first 15 minutes, we were quite dominant, but again that lack of experience in defence and as a team to try and control those moments after the goals are scored cost us today,” he said.

“We have got a young team, we have got four 17-year-olds playing for us and they don’t have anyone by the looks of it under 25. That is a big difference, that is eight more years experience per player.”

Things remained tense when the combatants returned to the field, it was Souths who were dictating terms.

The continual pressure finally led to a fourth goal - Campbell scoring on the near post after being picked out by a Jono Cole pass - and from there Souths went on with the task.

Campbell had his hat-trick with eight minutes left before Bryce Hitchcock sealed the win with a sixth goal 54 seconds from full-time.

“They were happy to fall everyone behind the ball and try and work it out quickly, but once we started to show some patience, we started to control the ball better and started to utilise the space they were creating for us,” Souths coach Dale Campbell said.

“That shows the skill of the guys to be able to do that at the end of the day - read what is happening and be able to adjust our game to nullify what they were doing out there.”

BATHURST SOUTHS 6 (Adam Campbell, Chris Hanrahan, Chris Stafford, Bryce Hitchcock) def ORANGE WANDERERS 2 (Keiran Gentles, Matt Johnson).