THEY’RE back into second on the men’s Premier League Hockey ladder and now Souths will do everything in their power to hold onto it, starting with today’s game against Bathurst City.
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The match at Bob Roach Field today against the struggling City side is the perfect opportunity for Souths to keep some distance between themselves and Lithgow Panthers, who are below them on the ladder.
A lost for Panthers last week to their Lithgow rivals Zig Zag sees Souths go into the back half of the season in a strong position, with only St Pat’s ahead of them.
It’s a spot that the two blues occupied until Panthers beat them, but they have played solid hockey since to earn it back.
“The second, third, fourth and fifth positions are all up for grabs at the moment, as you can see in the table,” Souths coach Dale Campbell said.
“If we beat Bathurst City this week and can take something away from Pat’s next week ... then that gives us a good chance of holding onto second until the end of the season. There’s still a lot of hockey to be played between now and the end though.
“Our structure over the last few games has been very strong, apart from that game against Panthers in Parkes, and it’s allowing us to play better hockey. We need to be working on creating the hole rather than trying to force one.”
Souths come into the game off a very encouraging 6-2 win against the Orange Wanderers.
“I said to the guys last week that if that’s the worst game they play between now and the end then we can expect to be there at the pointy end of the season,” Campbell said.
Even when they weren’t at their best Souths were good enough to come away with a 5-1 win over City earlier in the season.
Patience will be the name of the game. Despite going in as heavy favourites, Campbell wants to see his team’s build up play be more controlled this time around.
“I’m hoping we get the points out of this game. Still, there’s 11 players on the other end of the field you’ve got to beat to score a goal. I’m not concerned with where City sit on the ladder, I know that they’re a team capable of scoring goals,” he said.
“Last time we played them we had too many guys trying to score a goal. Everyone was trying to bring the ball into the circle too quickly.”
Action starts at 3.20pm.