Goals to Jess Hotham and Molly Bright saw Souths avenge their extra time semi-final loss to the Cougars last year with the Bathurst side victorious on this occasion 3-1.

Cougars player Sally Gosper says the run of losses is bad for the side not just because they are losing touch with the top five, but because the defeats will be disheartening for the side’s younger players.

“It is disappointing because we have some young players and we just need a bit more experience,” Gosper said.

“It’s hard when you’ve had four losses but we just have to put it behind us and look at the games we haven’t played yet.”

Souths got out to an early lead when Tamsin Lee got the away side off the mark in the eighth minute.

Gosper got that goal back seven minutes later following a short corner but the attacking set piece would soon become the Cougars’ Achilles heel.

The home side were competing until just after half-time but they started bleeding short corners soon after the break.

Souths kept on mounting pressure with more and more short corners and they eventually got the go ahead goal when Hotham struck in the 58th minute.

Bright followed that up with another just one minute later and Orange were out of the game in a flash.

“It was another loss but we were definitely in it for the first 40 minutes,” Gosper said.

St Pat’s continued the good weekend for Bathurst sides over their Orange counterparts with the second-placed side handing Ex-Services their first defeat of the season.

Ex-Services went down 4-1 as Amelia Burke slotted a double.

The result hasn’t displaced Ex-Services from the top of the ladder but St Pat’s are now tied on 18 points and sit just three goals back on goal difference.

In other games, Parkes Tigers edged out Kinross-CYMS 3-2 with Bathurst City overcoming Lithgow Panthers 1-nil while Dubbo and Lithgow Zig Zag played out a 1-all draw.