St Patrick's Dean Nicholson says losing close games is the difference

The Patties were the story of last season, returning to finals after finishing 8^th in 2019-20, by winning a number of thrilling matches.

The club had lost one of the best bats in its history in Luke Restall and hadn't snared any profile signings in the off-season, but managed to finish second after the regular season, pushing through to the preliminary final.

St Pat's then landed one of the best recruits in former Victorian Premier Cricket club best and fairest Liam Scammell as co-coach, but again finds itself as the story of the season, sitting ninth with only three wins.

"We've lost a lot of the close games," Nicholson replied when quizzed on why the club has tumbled.

The Patties have had six close games in the 13 rounds for a solitary win over Wodonga Raiders.

"In the first T20s we played (grand finalists) North Albury and Lavington, they got the runs with about an over to spare, we got done on the weekend (against East Albury) with an over to spare, we lost to Corowa in the last over, East Albury got us in the Super Over, so there's lots of games that if they go our way and we play an extra five or ten per cent better, we sit around fourth or fifth," Nicholson admitted.

"It could be as simple in the bigger moments we rose to the occasion, whereas this time we haven't."

The Patties' top four last season - Neil Smith, Matt Crawshaw, Mitch O'Brien and Nicholson - all finished in the top 16 run-scorers, but Smith is the highest at 16^th.

The club has also conceded the most runs (1301).

"We probably haven't taken as many wickets as we'd like (65, compared to leader North Albury's 93), instead of trying to put pressure on sides, we haven't been able to do that as much," the skipper explained.

"We've got plenty of time to turn it around, it's not panic stations yet, it's just a matter of little tweaks here and there."

The Patties sit a win outside the top six with nine rounds left.

IN OTHER NEWS:

They face the top three in the first month back.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: