Bathurst Panthers beat Lithgow Workies in error-ridden Carrington Park clash

Instead, the clash at Carrington Park was a game packed with errors, penalties and missed opportunities at both ends of the park.

Panthers looked like they were ready to limp their way to a scrappy 24-10 win inside the last 10 minutes but a couple of late tries from an enthused Workies team kept the hosts on their toes until the full-time whistle.

Rhythm was non-existent in the game.

Panthers flew out to a 12-0 lead in a short space of time and threatened to go on with the job but the errors began to pile up from that moment onwards.

Similarly, on several occasions where Lithgow had full sets of six near the Panthers' try line they'd also find ways to deny themselves points.

Workies five-eighth Dylan Miles had a great game in defeat, picking up a hat trick.

Panthers player-coach Jake Betts was having mixed feelings about the result.

"It doesn't feel like a win. We were very, very ordinary," he said.

"In patches, like at the start of the game, we did what we wanted to do by rolling through the middle. We then went away from it, fell in a hole, dropped the ball and kept inviting pressure on ourselves.

"When we come up against the teams at the top of the table - and that's no disrespect to Lithgow, who really stuck it to us today - they're going to make us pay. We need to be a lot better."

It's not the sort of performance Panthers were after ahead of their game against one of the competition's front runners, Mudgee Dragons, next round.

"We'll get back to training and continue working on ourselves and not worry about the opposition because that's not what the problem is, it's internal," he said.

"Once we sort ourselves out we know that we're a good footy team. We're just not playing like one at the moment."

Lithgow coach Jack Sullivan said it was disappointing to bring some of their better football when time was almost up.

"Each week we've been getting better but we need to get rid of the silly errors. You can see that when we do that we look alright," he said.

"We came into this off a tough game last week against Mudgee, and Panthers are a good side, but that first half had a lot of mistakes for both sides.

"We've got a young pack and there were still a lot of positives. Eli Morris and Dylan Miles played really well. Tallan Egan was also great."

Panthers' best football of the day came inside the first 12 minutes, when they scored that many points.

Jesse Limon pounced on a loose Lithgow pass to run 90 metres downfield and score his side's first try, then Dave Sellers burst through from close range to extend the lead.

Panthers began inviting pressure on themselves with a pair of errors inside their own 20m but Lithgow weren't able to punish them.

The hosts then had the chance to gain momentum when Sullivan was put on report and sent to the sin bin in the 26th minute.

However, Panthers botched two straight chances near the Lithgow try line in the time they had the player advantage, one of those being a dropped ball and the other being a forward pass.

Instead, it was Lithgow who scored three minutes before the break as Kyle Willmott got on the end of short ball near the Panthers' line to make it 12-4 at half-time.

Panthers began the second half in much the same way as they began the match, scoring quickly.

This time the try came through McCoy White underneath the uprights.

On the 50 minute mark the margin extended to 20 when Limon was the beneficiary of a crafty step from his centre Dillion Adrole, which put the Panthers winger into space.

Workies struck back immediately through Myles when he weaved through several defenders to score next to the posts.

Over the next 20 minutes the game continued to go end-to-end without any change to the score.

Lithgow turned towards the bomb as a fifth tackle option to try and undo the Panthers but fullback Josh Rivett had a great performance under the high ball.

Workies threatened to make a late comeback when Myles scored in similar fashion to his first try, utilising some great footwork to find space near the uprights.

He then latched onto the end of a Cooper Egan grubber to bring the gap back to two.

Unfortunately for Lithgow the full-time siren sounded before Panthers would get back for the kick-off.

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