FOR the second year running St Pat's have gotten the better of Souths in their first meeting of a women's Premier League Hockey season, the Saints winning Saturday's Bathurst derby 3-1 at Bob Roach Field.

Though the Saints have struggled since winning the 2013 premiership as a host of experienced players retired, they have still be able to lift for their clashes with traditional rivals Souths.

Last year Pat's opened their campaign with a 2-1 win over a Souths outfit which went on to make the finals.

This time around the first meeting between the pair came in round three and after being locked at 1-all after the opening half, the blue and whites again found a way to win.

It added to their impressive 6-0 victory over Dubbo a fortnight earlier and Saints captain Kristy Ekert is keen to build on that momentum.

"It's nice to win back-to-back, we are going well. Our short passing and our wanting to back each other up is the key at the moment," she said.

On an afternoon where the mercury nudged 27 degrees there were signs of fatigue from both teams, but as Ekert pointed out, the fitness of the younger Saints players showed.

"It was really hot out there and the legs got a bit heavy there at the end, but our young girls are really fit," she said.

"Jim [Muldoon] is really happy with our fitness and if we were to lose, there is no way we could blame it on our fitness."

In what was in the main an evenly contested match, the Saints had more of the ball in attacking position.

While Souths duo Amelia Burke and Tahni Isedale shut down a number of raids with strong tackling and good anticipation, Pat's looked the most likely side to find an opening goal.

It came in the seventh minute as Erin Cobcroft finished off an attacking move down the right wing, but a reply from Souths was not long in coming.

From their first real chance of the match - a 14th minute penalty corner - Souths found the mark. The ball was laid off from the top of the circle to Tahlia Cranston on the left and she slotted her attempt into the net.

In the final 40 seconds before half-time Pat's came close to snatching back to lead, but Souths goalkeeper Haylea Rogers made a double save to deny Cobcroft then blocked another attempt from Ekert.

The second half saw Souths begin the stronger of the two sides as Ali Stanford lifted her work rate and aggression on the left side of the field.

It was an attacking movement down that flank which came close to giving the two blues the lead when Cranston threaded a pass through Pat's defence to Ash Corby inside the circle.

However, former premiership goalkeeper Tracey Gunning came up with a sharp save to deny Corby and two minutes later she was celebrating as the Saints pulled ahead.

It was Georgina Adams who made it 2-1 as she fired home from the Saints' second penalty corner of the match, before a player returning to the blue and whites scored what was to be the sealer.

Cait Hadley worked her way into the circle and fired towards goal where Amy Glenn was waiting, her deflection leaving Rogers with no chance of making a save.

That third Saints goal came with 18 minutes remaining and while it was no means game over at that stage, Souths were unable to further add to their tally.

Sophie Clarke made a good block to off a Souths' penalty corner strike and Gunning turned away a threatening Cranston attempt to see the final score read 3-1 in favour of the Saints.

The next task for Ekert and her team-mates will be playing Confederates in Orange on Wednesday night.

"Let's hope we can keep the ball rolling, that would be nice," she said.

ST PAT'S 3 (Amy Glenn, Erin Cobcroft, Georgina Adams) defeated SOUTHS 1 (Tahlia Cranston)