You guessed it.. confidence.

That's all it took for the green and golds to turn an 0-3 start into a fourth-placed finish this winter and they'll aim to continue their hot streak when they travel to enemy territory to take on the blue and whites in a do-or-die contest.

The round four regular season meeting between the two sides saw CYMS go down 4-0 to Pat's but according to Smith, lots has changed since that day at the Orange Hockey centre.

"We didn't execute at all that day," Smith said.

"They took their chances and we didn't and that was what decided the outcome on the day.

"But our confidence has grown a lot since then and we're putting away more of those chances when they come and hopefully we can continue to do that."

It might take a bit more than heads-up attack to topple St Pat's as the hosts will be an odds on favourite to win the match, despite CYMS featuring in last year's postseason.

And that's not because Pete Shea's side isn't handy, it's because of the large player turnover its experienced in 2020, combined with the 4-0 cloud from round four hovering over their heads.

"They have some very good players," Smith said.

"They're a very good team and they link up very well. They're a little bit of an underdog at the moment because they finished 3^rd but they're probably better than where they finished.

"It's a tough challenge to come up against them."

But after the way things started this season, CYMS will take what they can get and when Smith was asked if she thought her side was a chance of playing meaningful hockey in September, her answer was simple.

"Honestly, no," she said.

"Not with the way our for and against was travelling. We were ecstatic to make it.

"It was a bit weird the way it happened but we're all really happy."