IT’S a far cry from Jackie Moon and the Tropics’ elation having secured fourth place after winning the Flint Michigan Megabowl, but Orange Ex-Services coach Mitch Kennewell said his side is content knowing it will finish fourth after the women’s Premier League Hockey regular season.

The blue and golds produced one of their worst performances of the season on Saturday, losing 5-1 in their round 17 clash against Lithgow Panthers, in Lithgow.

Ex-Services had an outside chance of climbing into the top three prior but Saturday’s loss combined with third-placed Bathurst Souths’ 21-nil win over Lithgow Zig Zag ruled the slim hope out completely.

As a result, Ex-Services can’t move up or down from fourth.

“We’re pretty happy with that,” Kennewell said.

“It means we get a home semi-final, and I think the girls would have been happy just getting to the finals ... but to get one at home is even better.”

Kennewell labelled Saturday’s performance “a shocker”, and said his side fell into the trap of letting the 2014 champions dictate the tempo of the game as Lithgow star Abby Wilson claimed a four-goal individual haul in her team’s win.

“The side we were three weeks ago would’ve beaten us yesterday by more than that,” Kennewell laughed.

“It was a pretty tough day at the office, but I think it was probably good to get that one out of the way and get our heads out of the clouds a bit.

“We just let them dictate terms and the pace of the game, and tried to play at their speed rather than just play our own game.”

Lithgow got on the board early in the clash, and Kennewell said his side was left playing catch-up hockey for the remainder of the game - which they didn’t do well.

“I think we tried a little bit too hard to get them back quickly,” he explained.

“Rather than just grinding away and working toward it we tried too hard to score, and tried to thread to needle with passes and that type of thing. We turned the ball over a lot.

“Tiff Atkinson also got split by a stick, she’s okay just a couple of stitches, so with Ellen (Van Hoek) out as well we had a stand in fullback, so the communication and defence fell off a bit.

“They ended up being unmarked in the circle a couple of times, which didn’t help. But the girls never stopped trying, so the effort was definitely there.”

LITHGOW PANTHERS 5 (Abby Wilson 4, Andy Gillard 1) def ORANGE EX-SERVICES 1 (Chloe Barrett)