FOR the opening 20 minutes of Saturday’s men’s Premier League Hockey fixture Orange Wanderers were brilliant, shooting out to a 2-0 lead and looking likely to cruise to an upset victory over competition leaders Lithgow Panthers.
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Pity about the other 50 minutes.
Wanderers went away from their game plan, as player-coach Matt Johnson put it, after Luke Skelton and Nick Sharp put them two up, conceding five unanswered goals to lose 5-2.
The loss has them eight points adrift of the top four, in sixth, and on the brink of falling out of finals contention with four regular season games remaining.
“Lithgow rallied well after we put ourselves two goals up but we just went away from our game plan, didn’t keep it short and started trying to play the long ball against them which played into their hands,” Johnson said.
“Two-nil up against the competition leaders after 20 minutes, everyone would take that. I don’t know, we just didn’t close the game out.
“They put a couple of short corners away and scored two drag-flicks in the space of a couple of minutes which was pretty soft from us.”
In a way, Johnson said, there is somewhat of a positive to take out of the precarious position Wanderers find themselves in – the simplicity of their new task.
“We need to win all four of remaining games to give ourselves a chance at playing in the finals, so it’s a simple equation at the very least,’ he said.
“Even then, I’m not sure we’d be guaranteed a spot. It’d be disappointing to miss out on the finals, from a coach’s perspective, so we’ll really need to take the bull by the horns in these last few games. Take them on, play some enterprising hockey and get the job done.
“It’s all about belief I think.”
Skelton’s 13th minute goal put Wanderers in front before Nick Sharp clobbered one home in the 19th to extend Orange’s lead for two.
That’s about where the positives finished though.
Tom Piggott scored in the 26th minute for Lithgow and Dave Marshall’s goal on half-time drew Panthers level. The score remained 2-2 at half-time.
Brandon Horner scored in the 39th and 44th minutes – from those drag-flicks – to give Panthers a 4-2 lead with 25 to go and Jordan Savage iced Lithgow’s cake in the 67th minute, sealing the comprehensive win.
LITHGOW PANTHERS 5 (Brandon Horner 2, Jordan Savage, Dave Marshall, Tom Piggott) def ORANGE WANDERERS 2 (Luke Skelton, Nick Sharp)