Confederates continued their resurgence at Lithgow on Saturday afternoon, scoring a 3-2 victory over Zig Zag to push into the women’s Premier League Hockey top four.
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It was an important victory too, in the eyes of Feds coach Fiona Reith, because it was a massive indicator of the side’s development.
“Those are the kinds of games we’d lose in previous years, so it’s nice to see we can grind them out,” Reith said.
“The best sides find a way to win, in whatever game they’re in, and we found a way to win on the weekend even though we had a lot more opportunities than we finished.
“That’s probably the most pleasing aspect for me.”
The Orange side came from behind to secure the victory too after Zig Zag scored in the opening exchanges.
“It was literally in the first minute, but we fought back and scored about 10 minutes in,” Reith said.
Confederates pushed ahead not long after but Zig Zag kept coming, banging in an equaliser to make it 2-2 before Eva Reith-Snare smashed home the match-winner in the later stages of the second half.
“I actually thought we were up 2-1 when Eva scored, so I was thinking ‘you beauty, put it to bed at 3-1’ but then one of the girls mentioned it was 3-2, so Lithgow obviously scored one I didn’t see,” Reith laughed.
“Lithgow has been a bit of a nemesis for us, there’s a bit of friendly rivalry there, because we’ve often been battling with them for the wooden spoon.
“We knew they’d come out hard and they did.”
Feds’ big three – Eva Reith-Snare, Rach Divall and Ellen Van Hoek – took control of the game and were the Orange side’s best.
Divall scored one of Feds’ goals and Millah Allcorn the other.
“Those three were very good, I’m not sure how the umpires voted in terms of best and fairest but Eva, Rach and Ellen really took control and led from the front,” Reith said.
“We did have plenty of opportunities that we just couldn’t finish, but we can work on that and at times the girls’ passing was just breathtaking really. It was a really good performance.”
Staying grounded and not getting carried away becomes Feds’ challenge now they’ve proved they’re a finals hope. Reith said that shouldn’t be too big a problem.
“I said at the start of the year finishing in the top five is our goal and that won’t change,” she explained.
“We’ll just take it week by week, we’ve got (second-placed) Bathurst St Pat’s in Orange next weekend so that’ll be a really good challenge for us.”
CONFEDERATES 3 (Eva Reith-Snare, Rach Divall, Millah Allcorn) def LITHGOW ZIG ZAG 2 (K Wilkins, N Unsworth)
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
