THERE are few jobs harder in this year’s men’s Premier League Hockey competition than padding up as goalkeeper for Bathurst City, but even in the face of weekly barrages, young custodian Tom Scott has been improving.

In their second year of Premier League Hockey, City have conceded 116 goals from 13 games and have often lost by double-figure margins.

But what that statistic does not show is the amount of saves that Scott, and his fellow Bathurst City custodian Kris Grant, are pulling off each week.

That figure of 116 could easily be double.

Grant was blooded in Premier League last season and has returned a number of best on field performances for City since that time.

He is one of, if not the most, vocal members of the squad and constantly tries to motivate his team-mates.

Scott, who linked with City for the first time this season, is a slightly different style of goalkeeper. He endured a tough initiation against the best hockey players in the Central West, but has undoubtedly improved since then.

Even on Saturday as City suffered an 11-0 defeat at the hands of last year’s runners-up Lithgow Panthers, Scott had a solid game.

“Tom should be happy with that, he’s had a hell of a game,” Bathurst City assistant coach Shane Jackman, himself a goalkeeper, said.

“Most of the time he would stop the first shot, but it was the second shot that would go in, they’d get a deflection. ’Keepers hate deflections, most of the time you can do nothing about them.

“He didn’t have a bad day at all, it is just those shots that come after his first save that hurt us. Those little patches in defence when we don’t keep our intensity up.”

Panthers boast one of the best penalty corner exponents in the competition in Ron Charlton and though he finished the match with a brace, Scott held out a number of his salvos.

Scott made two top blocks in the first half from the set play and just over two minutes into the second stanza, he once again saved a powerful Charlton strike.

At one stage in the first half Scott even made a top double-save after his initial block saw the ball deflect straight back to a Panthers stick.

Even as the clock ticked down and it was evident City was going to be well beaten, Scott continued to do everything he could to hold his rivals out.

With 12 minutes left he made a full length diving stick save to cut off a cross intended for Joss Luka, who was standing unmarked inside the circle.

Scott’s next challenge will come in the form of Bathurst rivals St Pat’s this Saturday.