NORMALLY, you'd be forgiven for thinking a player arriving at half-time and only featuring in the second stanza of a women's Premier League Hockey game wouldn't have too big an influence on the result.
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But if that player happens to be Bathurst Souths' star Sarah Watterson, think again.
With Souths trailing Orange Ex-Services 4-1 at half-time Watterson, who works on Saturday mornings, took to Orange Hockey Complex after the break and promptly banged in a second half hat-trick to flip the game on its head, eradicating the entire deficit to snatch an unlikely 4-4 draw.
"She didn't finish work until 1pm, so we were stoked to get her at half-time. It did make a difference," Souths coach Adrian Cox said.
"Not having her at the start, who knows what could've happened in that first half if she happened to be here.
"We haven't had the same team two games in a row yet and we had a few girls out today so we'll take that draw. There's not going to be a lot of teams who come to Orange and get a draw against Ex-Services."
Shian Duboc opened the scoring for Ex-Services in just the second minute after she cleaned up the scraps of a previously failed attacking raid - one of countless the blue and golds had in the opening 35 minutes.
Ex-Services continually produced opportunities in the first half and continually failed to convert, although their enterprising play had a blowout looking likely.
It didn't look any less likely when Duboc slotted her second in the 19th minute, although Jess Watterson got one back for Souths nine minutes later.
Even so, Ex-Services continued to enjoy the run of play, penetrating Souths' circle seemingly at will. Those chances led to goals to Tarlee Roberts and Madie Smith in the 30th and 33rd minutes respectively, to give the hosts a 4-1 half-time lead.
Enter Sarah Watterson.
She scored her first in the 37th minute and her second in the 42nd minute, both on the back of some swift counter-attacking.
With the score at 4-3 a very different-looking Souths side - to the first half that is - took control of the match, giving themselves every opportunity to not just equalise but also take the lead.
Ex-Services goalkeeper Erin Horan kept them out though, producing a number of strong saves.
Until the 67th minute anyway, when Watterson completed her hat-trick.
The game finished in a flurry of excitement as Ex-Services had a couple of opportunities that missed by a whisker in the final seconds, but ultimately were forced to take a draw.
"We were strong in the first half and inconsistent in the second. Basically, we panicked," Ex-Services stalwart Mel Hope said.
"We thought we had the win and we let it go. They had better structure in the second half and they pushed us off the ball."
BATHURST SOUTHS 4 (Sarah Watterson 3, Jess Watterson) drew ORANGE EX-SERVICES 4 (Shian Duboc 2, Maddie Smith, Tarlee Roberts)
