Until Saturday Orange Wanderers hadn't won a game in the 2019 men's Premier League Hockey season but now, incredibly, they're one upset victory away from a home grand final.
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Wanderers snapped their winless streak with an incredible 2-1 boilover against Parkes United in Saturday's minor semi-final, Australian Country under-21 rep Bailey Ferguson nailing a short corner in golden goal extra-time to secure that triumph.
They'll now roll over the Lithgow to face the Panthers in the preliminary final, with a victory all that's necessary to score a landmark decider appearance on home turf.
It wasn't a bad time to win our first game for the year, that's for sure.
- Wanderers coach Mark Pengilly
For context, the men's Premier League Hockey competition was a four-team race so all the sides were locked into a finals berth from the start of the year and the grand final is being played alongside the women's as a double header this year.
Because Orange CYMS won the women's major semi-final on Saturday afternoon those deciders are at Orange, which almost suggests the stars are aligning for Wanderers to make a serious run for the decider, and then the title.
"It wasn't a bad time to win our first game for the year, that's for sure," Wanderers coach Mark Pengilly said.
"We'd been close with a couple of draws leading into the finals which I think had given the guys a little bit of confidence they could match with the top teams. We did get a touch-up last time we went over to Parkes as well, so it was nice to be able to redeem ourselves from that.
"The grand final being in Orange is definitely a massive drawcard and we will take plenty of confidence down to Lithgow, because the last time we played down there we performed well and came away with a 3-all draw, that was only a few weeks ago."
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Ferguson's set-piece strike not long into extra-time sent the Wanderers into raptures, and it brought to an end to a thrilling sudden-death final that had been sent to golden goal after a tense fourth quarter.
After three scoreless, end-to-end quarters Wanderers finally broke the deadlock with nine minutes left on the clock through Keegan Brooke, and looked set to hang on for a gritty, one-nil win.
Parkes had other ideas though and drew level just 44 seconds out from full-time, sending the clash into overtime.
"They scored from a short corner and obviously we were hopeful of keeping that one out but they do have a good set-piece," Pengilly explained.
"There wasn't really any nerves though, the boys were quite confident going into extra-time because we'd played really well throughout the game.
"We did have a small period where we got a bit panicked and went away from structures, but we regained our composure nicely.
"That was actually a really pleasing aspect of the game too. We're still a very young side and it's easy to buckle under the pressure of that kind of situation but they did the opposite which was great."
In the other men's final Bathurst St Pat's took down Panthers 3-2 with a Shane Conroy double the highlight, the Saints won straight through to the decider as a result.
- ORANGE WANDERERS 2 (Keegan Brooke, Bailey Ferguson) def PARKES UNITED 1
- BATHURST ST PAT'S 3 (Shane Conroy 2, Tyler Willett) def LITHGOW PANTHERS 2 (Trent McDonald, Tom Piggott)
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