Heading into the match full of confidence after recent performances, United were made to pay for a slow start to the match in which numerous passes missed their mark as they put pressure on the Lithgow defence early. 

It did not take long for Zig Zag to make an impact on the scoreboard as a United midfield turnover led to a breakaway chance which was converted at the back post to have Zig Zag 1-0 up after just six minutes.

Things got worse for United as Josh Kearney took a knock to his knee and played no further part in the match. 

Zig Zag doubled their lead soon after as a drag flick from a penalty corner was converted to have Zig Zag at 2-0 after 15 minutes.

United however started to work their way into the match with Brad Gardiner getting the best of the chances as he tackled a Zig Zag defender and made his way in to the circle, only for his tomahawk shot to miss the goal. 

The game continued to be marred by missed traps and passes as both teams struggled with the bouncy turf. 

Zig Zag again made United pay for a sloppy turnover as a stray pass coming out of defence was picked up by a Zig Zag player who made his way into the circle and managed to drag keeper Nick Kelly the wrong way to create space for a pass.

This allowed for a tap in goal and a 3-0 lead with four minutes remaining in the half.

United continued to press forward and showed more urgency in the final minutes before the main break and were rewarded with a short corner on the stroke of half time.

After a short corner variation, Parkes went into the break 3-1 as Gardiner found Andrew Bourke at the near post for a neat deflection.

The second half started the same as the first ended with United pushing forward and creating chances with regularity, only for the final pass to go wide of the mark. 

Again Zig Zag made United pay as they converted their first chance of the half after having been under pressure for the first 6 minutes to take a 4-1 lead. 

United soon converted however, as Bourke picked off a Zig Zag pass on the defensive 25 and managed to run the length of the field.

He showed good pace and skill to control the ball before finding Gardiner at the back post for a tap in and 4-2 score line after 13 minutes gone.

United continued to press forward in search  of goals but as with other forays into attack, they were let down by the final touch. 

United did however get back to 4-3 as a Ben Hawken overhead pass released Gardiner into the attacking 25 where he showed great skill to drag the keeper and then fire a shot into the bottom corner .

With nine minutes remaining the game was evenly poised. 

Both sides created chances in the final minutes but the score line did not change despite a Regan Hotham chance in the dying moments of the game which just missed the goal.

“We definitely let ourselves down with the slow start today and it showed as we played a pretty good second half,” defender Dan Wilson said. 

“You can't start a game like that and still expect to win even though we nearly pulled it out there at the end.

“But it was a great effort to get ourselves back into the game. 

“The next two weeks we travel again so we need to make sure we turn up ready to go from the opening whistle,” Wilson stressed.

“We did pretty well considering we were down to one sub after 10 minutes so to finish the game full of running and creating the better chances shows that we are starting to see the benefits of training with good numbers where we can work on full field drills. 

“We just made too many basic errors throughout the game with passes missing their mark at key moments.”

Zig Zag 4 defeated Parkes United 3 (Brad Gardiner 2, Andrew Bourke)

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In the women’s Premier League, Parkes defeated Lithgow Zig Zag 2-0. 

Goalscorers for  Parkes were Louise Hawken and Sami Afele.