Just as their clash looked headed for the same result as Waratahs and Services, who had earlier in the day played out a 2-all draw, Souths were awarded a penalty corner.

About 10 seconds on the clock at the time, by the time the ball was injected the siren had gone.

Souths made no mistake to snatch the win 3-2 and break a 2-all deadlock that had existed since the first half.

Powerless to stop a draw slipping through her sides fingers, Tudors coach Helen Willis was understandably a little bit frustrated watching on from the sidelines, but was pleased with her sides effort.

“We played pretty well the whole game,” Willis said.

She thought they had the better of the play in the first half but missed a few opportunities.

“We had two corners and none against us,” she said.

“Our defensive patterns were working well and our midfield was holding well.”

Meanwhile in attack the movement from the defensive line to the midfield gave the strikers a lot of ball to work with. 

READ MORE: 

Willis noted that the strikers also worked hard back in defence and gave a lot of double team tackling opportunities.

The second half was a bit tighter.

“Neither side was able to dominate,” Willis said,

“There was a lot of hustle and bustle on the field.”

Tessa Mitchell was her team-mates’ vote as the player of the match and had a blinder, Willis said.

She said it was also good to have Dakotah Barnett-Suey back after missing the last few games through hockey and other commitments, and also made mention of Erin Startin in goals. 

Making her first grade debut she acquitted herself well.

Earlier Nicole Reid Smith completed a second half fight-back for Waratahs.

Lori Edgar and Sarah Dicker put Services up 2-nil at half-time but Waratahs erased that through Hayley Lennon and then Reid Smith with around five minutes remaining.

Missing most of their midfield, Waratahs coach Josh Worpel wasn’t too disappointed with the result.

“I thought structurally we played very well,” he said.

“We had some second graders filling in in key roles.”

His only real complaint was their finishing.

“We probably should have scored a lot more goals. We had a lot of short corners that we didn’t put away,” Worpel said.

He said Abigail Doolan was “awesome” for them.

“She got through a mountain of work and Bella Cameron was good at outside half for us,” he said.

The initial frustration of leading until five minutes to go subsided, Services coach Kimmy McLean was happy to get the draw.

“I thought we did really well and were probably the more dominant side in the first half,” she said.

Recognising Waratahs’ strength in the middle they were conscious of controlling their midfield and played a bit of a different structure, which McLean said helped.

“The second half they wanted it a bit more and we were a bit slack in a few areas,” she said.

She said Michelle Collins had a great game in goals for them. She had to make a lot of saves.

The defenders also got through a lot of work in the second half.