Sitting fourth and fifth leading in, respectively, both sides viewed the round five clash as a massive opportunity to claim maximum points and stay in touch with the top three sides but as Quinn said, "it wasn't to be".

Leanne Kennewell's goal gave the hosts a 1-nil lead before Bec Bosianek jammed an equaliser for Bathurst City in the third quarter, and both sides fought tooth and nail to score a match-winner after that but were unable too.

"We had a few other chances and we just couldn't put them away to get back in front, so yes, it is disappointing not to get the win in that respect ... we didn't stick to our structure and we weren't as clinical as we should've been as a result, if we'd done that I think we win that game," Kennewell said.

"I thought we probably dominated a bit more once it was 1-all and the penalty corner count would definitely show that, we had our chances and Ex-Services had a couple too so of course it's disappointing not to put those away. It wasn't the ideal result, no, and I definitely think we could've won that game," Quinn said.

Despite that and considering their respective positions - Ex-Services are continuing to rebuild while Bathurst City have been hit hard by injury this year - both Kennewell and Quinn found plenty of positives, and naturally being able to identify what went wrong is the first step to rectifying it.

"Bathurst City stayed with us and that's a credit to them, at the very least we were in the contest for the entire game," Kennewell said.

"We were competitive and in a lot of respects I think we still kicked some goals [on Saturday], without getting the win. We were missing one or two key players and it was just a few minor mistakes that gave them a bit too much possession and territory.

"Once we break everything down a bit more, get back to training and work hard on making sure we stick to those structures, I think we'll be alright."

"But I thought the girls did a really great job handling playing out of position because we had two key players in Kelly Baker and Anna Cartwright missing so we basically had to re-form our structure," Quinn explained.

"There's positives too because we wanted to go for the full 60 minutes and I think we did that. In other games we've had periods where we've lapsed and we didn't do that against Ex-Services."

Ex-Services and Bathurst City, both on six competition points now, actually drop to sixth and seventh on the ladder respectively, thanks to Confederates and Souths both securing victories on the weekend.

Confederates' win was a convincing one over the hapless Lithgow Zig Zag.

Despite still battling a toe injury Eva Reith-Snare produced a magical performance to lead the 5-nil victory with a hat-trick, while Heidi Townsend and Sally Uttley both found the back of the net as well, the win lifting the young red and blues into the top four for the first time this season.

They're just one victory adrift of third-placed Bathurst St Pats, who were taken down by the still-undefeated Lithgow Panthers (2-nil) on Saturday.