The win came in the league's annual Indigenous round clash and after Fulton had welcomed all sides to Bathurst as part of the opening ceremony.

"It's always good to be able to represent our culture here and good to see everyone getting involved in it, so it's really special to me," Fulton, who is a proud Kamilaroi woman, said.

"It makes me feel proud to be Aboriginal and see everyone represent our culture in such a good way. It feels really nice.

"I always want to do well in Indigenous round, especially because it's on our home ground as well. It makes our team drive each other and whenever I'm representing my culture I feel like I want to do well."

Macey Fulton and her sister Millie certainly worked hard, as did their fellow Saints in a contest was was locked at nil-all for 34 minutes.

Just as the likes of the Fulton sisters and Paige Hay helped to drive a fast-paced contest for the Saints, Rach Divall and Charlotte Heath did likewise for United.

The Orange outfit had the first chance of the match as a Jade Williams effort trickled underneath goalkeeper Lili Rae Campbell, but the Saints survived that and the scramble which followed.

Pat's had it's chances too with Jodie Webb firing in an on target attempt and Amy Vanderhel steering another just wide.

It took a penalty corner play four minutes into the second half - Pat's third crack at the set piece - for the opening goal to come.

Mish Somers blasted the ball from the top of the circle and Paige Hay got a brilliant deflecting touch on it to make it 1-0.

Both Millie Fulton and Lorin Nobes had chances to double that advantage as the quarter unfolded, but United goalkeeper Kathryn Cox came up with good blocks to keep her side in the hunt.

It wasn't until six minutes from time that the Saints could breathe a little easier after Vanderhel scored.

It remained at 2-0 until full-time, Pat's defender Kathleen Godfrey coming up with some excellent challenges in the closing minutes to prevent United any hope of a comeback.

Saints coach Bec Clayton was relieved her side came away with the win that lifted them into second on the ladder.

"We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities and they gave themselves plenty of opportunities too, I definitely can't fault the effort of the girls today," she said.

"Early on we were congesting in the middle and they were congesting, so there was no space to do anything. But when we started to play with a bit of width and a little bit of depth, it certainly opened up the field of play a bit more."

Though United was not able to get the upset result it was hoping for, there were still a lot of positives the Orange side could draw from the contest.

United only conceded once from seven Saints short corners and both Amy Hampton and Phoebe Poole came up with excellent tackles inside the circle.

United also played the match at a good tempo throughout, something it will need to do to force its way into semi-final contention

"It was a quite fast-paced game and we played really well, the score definitely didn't reflect the game," United captain Ellen Warner said.

"We had good possession, we were passing the ball around beautifully, we just couldn't get the ball in the net.

"Yeah we still hope to make the finals, every game is a new game and when we play hard, when we play together, we play well.

"So we've just got to keep working hard for each other, we'll work on getting those finishing touches at training."

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