Confederates' hearts were broken by a post-siren Pip Mannix special as CYMS cemented their place atop the Premier League Hockey table after Saturday's thrilling 1-nil derby in Orange.
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After being on the other end of a final-minute goal last week against Ex-Services, Confederates took it right up to the competition heavyweights for the whole 60 minutes despite missing two of their best players in India Draper and Eva Reith-Snare to state duty.
Their challenge was made even harder in the third quarter when skipper Ellen Warner twisted as she fell trying to defend a CYMS ball into the circle hobbled off in a bad way, but if anything losing their captain strengthened Confederate's resolve.
No matter how many times CYMS went forward - and they went forward many, many times - they were repelled as goalkeeper Kathryn Cox played a blinder, as did Bree Lippiatt and the rest of the Feds' defence.
Even when Emily Gould was green carded with just minutes left and the red and blues were down a player they repelled, but a penalty on the siren meant CYMS had one final shot to score.
They did.
Using a corner structure they'd used three times in a row, the ball was pinged in to skipper Jade Georgiou, who flicked it wide to Pip Mannix, with the young gun's shot somehow, miraculously, finding its way past Cox's right foot and into the back of the net.
VIDEO: Pip Mannix gives CYMS the win after the siren ...
CYMS skipper Jade Georgiou said the side hadn't decided to change anything in the dying seconds, while also praising Mannix's efforts.
"We were running the same play and wondering if we persist with it or change it and the girls were saying 'nup, it's on' so we just went with what we've seen and were lucky to execute it.
"Pip's an exceptional player and such a good kid," Georgiou said.
"She's working hard and wants to be the best she can be and is one of those people you want on your side."
Georgiou said despite appalling conditions - "sleet in your eyeballs" - she was impressed with her side's desire to keep going.
"It was a really good effort by the girls, I felt like we controlled the game and had a lot of possession so credit to their keeper and defence, they played exceptional, but it was good to see us dig deep and go right to the end, it was a good effort," she said.
"That's the challenge of being top of the table, everyone's out to play their best game against us and we've got a really young squad so we're trying to embed that level of skill in each game."
It was second Orange derby in a row which was an absolute thriller after India Draper's final minutes goal last week, and Georgiou said the games always rise to the occasion.
"Local derbies are always scrappy and we always find it difficult to play clinical hockey in local derbies so for us we were disappointed we didn't score more considering how many shots we had but we're happy to come away with the points," she said.
Confederates defender Meg Said said it was a "tough" game, but the girls were proud for pulling together despite missing big names.
"We really held it to them, we put a lot of effort in and worked with each other, talked to each other, and we gave it our all," she said.
"You can't fall apart and we support each other and we filled in any holes that we needed to."
She lauded the games of Cox saving anything which came her way, as well as Sally Atley's efforts along the near side to the dugouts, but said the score didn't reflect how close the game was.
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