Both were beaten, but can take pride in the fact that they both contributed to a great afternoon of hockey with the big crowd on offer enjoying two skilful games and very competitive games that were played at great pace.

Panthers girls were still ‘dirty’ on themselves on the way they played in the major semi-final the week before when they suffered their first defeat of the season, losing the chance to host the grand final.

Parkes faced a different Panthers side than the one the previous week as they were unable to contend with home side, going down 4-1.

Panthers’ Roxsanne Van Veen opened the scoring after only four minutes when her captain Amanda Saladine made a good break and passed off to Van Veen who scored and put her side 1-0 up.

Parkes’ came back strongly to earn a short corner, but Panthers’ goalie Jess Luchetti made a good save to keep them scoreless.

Midway through the first half, Parkes made a rare sojourn into Panthers’ territory and after a scramble in the goal circle gained a penalty stroke.

The experienced Cass Hodges made no mistake with her shot to tie up the scores at 1-all.

Panthers continued to threaten Parkes through Saladine, Van Veen and Abby Wilson and looked to have broken the deadlock when Saladine had a one-on-one confrontation with goalie Amy Thornberry, only to push it wide.

Saladine made amends a minute later when she scored a good solo goal to send Panthers 2-1 up.

She was firing on all cyclinders and later latched on to a Abby Wilson pass, and made no mistake to go 3-1 up prior to the two teams going into the dugouts for half-time.

The Panthers were dominant and it was only a matter of time before they added to their score.

This time it was Cheryl Van Veen who made a great diving shot that put Panthers up 4-1 with the score standing until full-time.

Parkes’ played well, but ran into a more determined side on the day.

Parkes’ best were Bec Cowling (Players’ Player) who was excellent defensively once again, Denise Gersbach, Syann Allen and Niamh Dixon. 

While unhappy to bow out of the 2014 competition, United coach Aaron Huppatz was pleased with his side’s season overall.

“After we finished second in the regular season I had hoped we would make the grand final,” Huppatz said.

“I think we would have given it a real shake next week. 

“I was really happy with the amount of running every player did, however, Lithgow played a superior style of hockey. 

“It was an intense game and we just ran out of legs as fatigue set in. 

“The whole squad has contributed to our third placed finish this year. 

“It is an outstanding effort and while we are disappointed to lose this match, we know we have something great to build on heading to the 2015 season,” he said.