Playing their 2018 season opener at Bob Roach Field on Saturday, a goal from St Pat’s premier league debutant Ryan Neale six minutes from full-time saw the contest end at 4-all.

Though the two fierce rivals have had some close contests over the last decade, it was the first time they had been forced to share the points since a 1-all deadlock on July 19, 2008.

Early on in the contest a draw looked a very unlikely scenario as the Saints shot out to a 3-0 lead. But Souths fought back and led with nine minutes to go before Neale rescued his side.

St Pat’s skipper Darcy Davis was happy with way his side competed against a strong Souths line-up in their first outing of the year.

“I’m so proud of all the boys, they stuck to our game plan and we got a really good result in the end,” he said.

“It was good competition against Souths, they had a good line up. But I’m proud of our team, the way we played and the way we just focused on our strategy.

“I wasn’t worried when they took the lead, that’s hockey, you can be up and down. I knew we just had to stick to the game plan regardless of the score and the boys did that.

“It’s only our first game of the season, so it was about putting practice into play and we’ll go from here. We’ve been going hard at training for a couple of months, it’s been a bit of a wait, but it was good to get into it.”

READ MORE: Souths coach Ray Winwood-Smith is happy with draw.

Just as the score indicated, their was little between the two sides on Saturday.

Souths earned seven penalty corners across the match compared to the Saints’ six and both goalkeepers – John Rudge and Taylor Newton – made some quality blocks throughout the game.

There were successful counter-attacks and some quality finishes while Neale was not the only debutant to have an impact with both Jye Bunt and Liam Cole good additions to Souths’ defence.

But in the third minute Souths’ defence had no answers to Jaden Ekert’s penalty corner drag-flick, his effort finding the mark to give Pat’s the lead.

The Saints were tested soon after as Souths earned three penalty corners in quick succession, but they defended well from the set play.

At the 17 minute mark Ekert powered in another shot – this time from the field – to double the Saints lead and when Brent Naylor connected with a Davis cross soon after, it was 3-0.

However, in the 10 minutes remaining before the break Souths fought their way back into the contest. Firstly Jono Cole tucked the ball away on the left post after a quick counter, then Daniel Carter converted a penalty stroke.

He was sent to the spot after the ball struck a St Pat’s defender during a penalty corner play.

Early in the second half both sides had chances to add to their tally – Bunt clearing a shot off the line for Souths while down the other end Newton made a sliding save to deny Carter.

But with 28 minutes left on the clock it was all square when Cole, while off balance, on a tight angle and on his reverse stick, somehow managed to slot home.

As the clock ticked down the battle to take the lead was intense, Rudge making a diving stick save when Tyler Willot tried to tuck away a cross while Souths struck the post.

It took a Carter penalty corner effort to break the stalemate with nine minutes remaining, but there was more drama to come.

Naylor attacked along the baseline, Rudge scrambled to block the ball and it spilled on to the stick of Neale. He fired home to make it 4-all.