LITHGOW Panthers are going to take some beating.

It was not exactly a secret before Saturday's women's Premier League Hockey top of the table clash with Bathurst City, but the notion was enhanced by Panthers' 3-0 victory at Bob Roach Field.

A pair of goals to captain Abby Wilson immediately after half-time blew open a game that had been almost too close to call between last year's grand final combatants.

Shortly before full-time Roxsanne Van Veen added a third for Panthers as the reigning champions re-affirmed that it will take a special performance to stop them from adding another title to their tally.

"On the right day anyone can be beaten, but we are going to have to pressure them for a full 70 minutes if we are going to beat them, not just for 40 or so," City assistant coach Phil Baker said.

"Fitness probably plays a part in that, they ran us off our feet at times today."

In the middle of the field the sides were evenly matched for most of the game, but when it came to setting up scoring opportunities, Panthers were by far the stronger.

For most of the first 20 minutes the competition's heavyweights were tentatively feeling one another out like a couple of boxers in the early rounds of a fight. But Lithgow then started to find their targets in their attacking circle.

A couple of Panthers penalty corner efforts were denied for high shots, but there was some inevitability beginning to gather when Wilson fired a reverse stick shot from a tight angle that forced a good save from City goalkeeper Maddie Tattersall.

A Panthers goal finally came within 12 seconds of play restarting as Wilson found herself in an identical spot, albeit at the other end of the field. This time there was nothing Tattersall could do about it.

Another blistering reverse shot soon followed from the Panthers skipper and while Tattersall deflected the ball away from goal, Wilson was still lurking. She pounced on the rebound, putting her team two goals up with half an hour to play.

City occasionally pressured Panthers and had a couple of penalty corners, but as time wore on the ball spent more and more time in Panthers' attacking circle.

Van Veen picked up a well-earned goal with three minutes to play, completing a clinical win.

"The first half represented our chance to try and win the game. We are up against a top side here and you only get a limited amount of opportunities and unfortunately the fact that we couldn't take them in the first half put us in a tough spot," Baker said.

"You have to hold the ball when you're 2-0 down against a side that good, but you tend to start making errors because you have to take risks.

"We had some good players today still. Lisa Quinn was very good as always, she was by far our best and her stick-work and control was first class. She'll be disappointed we couldn't score."

LITHGOW PANTHERS 3 (Abby Wilson 2, Roxsanne Van Veen) defeated BATHURST CITY 0