THE difference between a team that holds title favouritism and an outfit hoping to avoid the men's Premier League Hockey wooden spoon was made crystal clear at Bob Roach Field on Saturday as St Pat's handed Bathurst City a 12-0 defeat.

While many City players ran hard throughout the 70 minutes, they allowed themselves to be frustrated and their lack of experience when compared to the Saints was obvious.

Many of the Saints' goals were scored by players who were unmarked or given too much space inside the circle. They led well off the ball while some crisp passing and quick transfers opened up their rivals' defence.

The defending premiers also played with better width, especially in the second half, while City were guilty of being too compact at times.

That Pat's did not back off their effort and worked until the final whistle - their 12th goal coming in the dying seconds - pleased coach John Ninness.

"I thought we played a bit better today, a bit more vision and the way we threw the ball around was good. It was probably the best game I have seen them play in a little while," he said.

"That first half we were a little congested, but the second half we gave ourselves more space and the end result was 12 goals and it possibly could have been a few more too.

"We scored a goal with a couple of seconds left which was great and that is what we have got to learn, a bit of confidence in each other and confidence to throw that pass.

"Defensively in the last three games we have had goals against us, but today we held up quite well. So I was impressed today, but it is a long season and we have still got a lot to improve on yet."

While City showed intent from the opening whistle as Blake Davis twice intercepted the ball when his rivals were playing out of defence, the class of the Saints soon told.

Brodie Cook opened scoring just over three minutes into the contest as he finished off a nice attacking move down the left wing.

Jaden Ekert scored the first of his seven goals for the match shortly after, this time from a nice play down the right.

City were not without their bright moments with goalkeeper Tom Scott making a couple of smart saves while Luke McIntosh cleared the ball off the line to deny Tobbie Muldoon from a penalty corner.

Down the other end of the field Jayden Hunt had a shot cleared off the line by Muldoon just before half-time, while Cody Sherman did pressure the Saints defenders at times as he worked hard to chase the ball.

However, the dominance of possession the Saints enjoyed was reflected on the scoreboard as they held a 5-0 lead after the opening half.

Ekert scored with 30 seconds of the opening stanza left to make it a first half hat-trick, while Tyler Willott had also found the mark.

For the second half Kris Grant took over as goalkeeper for City and it was not long before he was called into action, making a good stick save to cut off a probing Aiden Charters cross.

But when Charters got a smart deflection four minutes after play resumed, Grant had no chance of making a save.

Ekert had his fourth with 45 minutes of the match gone - tucking the ball in on the far post after Grant and Jacob Hill had blocked previous attempts - and when his penalty corner flick found the mark it made it 8-0.

He scored the next two for the Saints to put them into double figures with just over seven minutes left, but still the blue and whites kept up their intensity.

A smart counter-attack from Lachlan Menzies set up Willott for his second while Luke Thorncraft completed the rout with a 12th goal with two seconds left on the clock.

Though not able to find the mark, City did earn a penalty corner in the second half from which Isaac Darling's attempt drew a sharp save from Taylor Newton.

It was that sort of effort which saw City caretaker coach Noel Reardon able to see the positives at full-time.

"If you saw last week's game against Lithgow [Panthers], they played 100 per cent better today," he said.

"We are playing against the best team in the competition in terms of attack and the best team in defence as you can see from what happened. But the guys held their own and with a few extra subs it would have been better.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game, but the guys worked hard and they've come off with respect."

ST PAT'S 12 (Jaden Ekert 7, Tyler Willott 2, Aiden Charters, Brodie Cook, Luke Thorncraft) defeated BATHURST CITY 0