ON paper this Saturday’s women’s Premier League Hockey match against the winless Lithgow Zig Zag should present St Pat’s with no major headaches, but Saints coach Jaden Ekert knows better than to make that assumption.
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While his side is assured of a spot in this year’s finals series, relaxing against a side which is out of contention is a danger. When doing so against Parkes two weeks ago, the Saints suffered a 4-0 loss.
“You can’t take any game easy, regardless of the table and who has done what,” Ekert said.
“It all comes down to attitude. I think with what happened against Parkes was they weren’t prepared mentally and they handed it to us.
“I know Zig Zag are not as strong as some of the other sides, but they’ve still got some good players.”
Aside from Sam Tibbles, Ekert will have a full squad to chose from and those who do get the nod will be concentrating on a simple game plan. That is what led Pat’s to an 11-0 win over Zig Zag back in May.
“Every game is different, every team is different, so this week I want us to concentrate on three aspects, I want the girls to work on those basics and we will reassess at half-time,” the coach said.
“Getting the basics right is number one, ball retention and possession, not throwing it away so easily is another and three is keeping our structure, things like how we set up for hits out of our 16 and hits out of their 16.”
Saturday’s match at Bob Roach Field will commence at 1pm.