Bathurst City had to play catch up before edging ahead 3-2 in Saturday’s women’s Premier League Hockey derby game against Souths at Bob Roach Field.

Souths held a 2-1 lead at one point but weren’t able to consolidate as City fought back to take their sixth win of the season.

“Coming back like that is a really hard thing, mentally, to try and get one back and then one to get in front. It was a very tough match and Souths played very well, especially in that middle section of the match where they were up,” City captain Kelly Baker said.

“We have a few injuries throughout the team, so we had to swap and play people in different positions, but everyone played very well.

“Maddy Tatt [Tattersall] our goalkeeper had an unreal game. She was the one who definitely kept us in there. Lisa [Quinn] had a great game today, she held the centre very well. Casey [Bayliss] played well in the last part of the game where she got chucked into defence. She’s normally a striker, but she held her game there.”

City were racking up penalty corners early on and seven minutes in, they found the match’s opening goal.

Baker fired in a shot that was kept out by goalkeeper Haylea Rogers, but the ball wound up with an open Bayliss in front of goal. Bayliss made no mistake from close range.

Moments later Bayliss was almost able to link up with Grace Schumacher inside the Souths circle but the pass didn’t find its mark.

Souths’ opening goal came against the run of play, but it spurred them into action.

A long pass into the City circle was met with Sarah Watterson’s stick and deflected into the goal to level the game back up at the 20-minute mark.

Souths’ second goal came just seven minutes later off a run of possession. 

Tahlia Cranston’s shot from a penalty corner was stopped, but after a scrap in front of goal Ali Stanford was able to clean up and take the two blues to the lead for the first time.

When the second half got underway, a trailing Bathurst City found their groove.

Mish Somers was given a five-minute sit on the sidelines for a dangerous tackle, but Souths were able to survive being a player down.

They didn’t hold out City for much longer when she returned to the field.

City coach Quinn had a hand in both of her side’s second half goals, the first of them coming in the 50th minute.

Quinn outran a defender down the right wing before taking the ball into the circle and firing a pass across to Tirah Jarvis whose finish was on target.

Before the hour mark arrived Quinn beat several Souths defenders before handing the ball off to Bec Bosianek inside the circle.

Bosianek cut inside her marker then pulled the trigger on a shot into the bottom left corner of the Souths goal.

Souths had a pair of late penalty corners but were unable to make them count.

BATHURST CITY 3 (Casey Bayliss, Tirah Jarvis, Bec Bosianek) defeated SOUTHS 2 (Sarah Watterson, Ali Stanford)