The two sides walked away as if they'd had the opposite result, with the Zig Zag scoring their first goal for the season and aside from a three-minute stretch where they conceded two goals at the end of the third quarter, drew level with one of the competition heavyweights.

On the other hand, aside from a few brilliant runs down the right side from Sarah Jackson, who also ended up with a goal, and several crucial sets in the circle from skipper Jade Georgiou, CYMS looked flat and coach Pete Shea said "it was almost a loss in the way we played today".

"We didn't do many good quality things, the opposition allowed us to win, they played reasonably well but we didn't play and execute very well at all today," he said.

Despite having the ball in their attacking half nearly the entire game, the green and golds never looked really looked in the frame to score.

In fact, after their ninth minute opener to Madie Smith over a half of hockey passed with CYMS simply unable to have shots on target, which said as much about how flat the hosts were as it did about the tenacity of the Zig Zag defence.

Shea said the side would need to do a "bit of soul searching" to limit their dependency on Jade Georgiou, who scored the side's second goal and sparked the three-minute resurgence in the third quarter.

"I think Jade turns our games around and I think she turned that game around," Shea said.

"In that third quarter she did that for us which is good for her but not good for us that we have to rely on her to do that so that's our biggest issue, we're relying on her and Madie to get us out of games."

Shea said the side's lack of effort was disappointing.

"We're not sure what to do in a lot of the times and instead of working and running and doing the effort we're standing back and waiting for things to happen and we need to be more proactive, hopefully we'll sort out a few of those things," he said.

On the flip-side, Zig Zag centre-half Courtney Pearson, who scored the side's only goal said it was a "good reward" to finally have a goal in their column for the year.

"They're a young team and it's nice to get some reward but it might have my name next to it but it was a team effort," Pearson said.

"We're improving each week and it's nice to see the girls improving each week. Nice to have a bit of consistency and get a good game out of it."

The side's defence was a highlight of the game, as Zig Zag repelled a dozen CYMS corners, several of which were stopped by goalkeeper Jana Winnard right on the line, and Pearson said "communication" was the biggest factor in keeping their opponents tied up.

She said the side was still hungry for a win, but was realistically looking for development in players such as Tamika Bostock and Rachael Barnsley, both of whom Pearson singled out for efforts on Saturday.

"A win's always great but at the moment it's about development and building a structure and everyone's learning their role and playing as a team," Pearson said.

"It's a real good team to be playing with."