Bathurst Panthers defeat Lithgow Workies in Peter McDonald Premiership clash

Panthers kept their hopes of a top two finish alive after a big 46-12 win against a Workies side only playing for pride at Tony Luchetti Sportsground.

McCoy White, Dillion Adrole and skipper Jake Betts all came away with doubles in the eight-try performance from the Panthers.

White gained a place back in the starting side due to the suspension of Brady Cheshire and made the most of the opportunity, picking up a rare brace.

The prop has found himself become a top try scoring option through the middle for the Panthers this season, bringing his tally for the season up to seven with Saturday's brace.

"I don't think I've scored two in a game before in my life," he laughed.

"Usually I'm struggling to score two in a year, so that's heaps good."

Panthers were on alert going into the match, knowing the Workies had nearly got the better of them last time they had met and that the Lithgow men were gallant in defeat last weekend to St Pat's.

Both sides brought plenty of fire right from the outset but after a strong start Panthers found themselves in a lull on either side of half-time.

The visitors were able to bounce back and put the game away in the second half to give themselves an ideal platform to build off ahead of the big clash against minor premiers Mudgee next round.

White said it's awesome to see the team clicking with finals just around the corner.

"I think we all figured it was time to get fired up coming into finals, and if we can win over Mudgee next week it'll be great to go into finals with a few wins in a row," he said.

"We've got Lawso [Blake Lawson] back now and when Buggy [Joey Bugg] we'll be looking really good.

"We started strong in this game but probably went away from our game for about 30 minutes, but we came good towards the end. Lithgow always show up down there, and they came out firing, so it was tough."

Panthers had come into the game off a 66-6 hammering of the struggling Orange CYMS.

With a stack of points to their name over the last two games Betts said it's nice to see the team's attack looking as potent as it's ever been all year.

"We talked about needing to get some points coming into these two games," he said.

"We were a fair bit behind on for and against, so that's really going to help us. We're still going to need a few things to go our way but it's nice to be playing good footy at the right time."

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