Played in slow and windy conditions at Glen Willow Stadium, the Saints were out-enthused across the park by a Dragons side who were still able to keep their attack ticking along at a high tempo.

Pat's were also their own worst enemies at times as errors cost them several scoring opportunities, and they failed to come away with any points over a forgettable second half of football.

The Dragons held a 14-8 advantage at half-time, but that was as close as the Bathurst men would get for the rest of the match.

Saints captain-coach Zac Merritt said it was another game where great patches of football were overshadowed by poor ones.

"At half-time it was still close but Mudgee were clinical. They really turned up to play. They probably caught us a little off guard and we might have taken them for granted after we beat them at Orange the other week," he said.

The story of the game was the Saints being unable to take advantage of a sin-binned Dragons player during the second half.

Pat's couldn't capitalise and instead watched the hosts put on another 16 unanswered points as their fitness and enthusiasm on the ball earned them success.

"Both teams came ready to play. There's no excuses, both teams played great footy. It was late in the second half where they pulled away a bit, and we didn't capitalise on one of their players getting sent for 10," he said.

Mudgee now have their sights set on taking on the CYMS this Saturday.

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