Pat’s come to the match at the Sportsground coming off a scoreless loss to the Oberon Tigers and have to take on a team desperate to hold onto their spot in the top five.

However, there's still the chance, mathematically, Pat's can nab that top five spot for themselves.

A lot has to go the blue and white’s way for that to happen – including the Cowra not winning any of their remaining three games – but the Saints’ remaining matches are all against teams also outside the top five.

The simple fact is this: Saints’ quest for that top five spot will come to a crashing halt this Sunday should the Magpies once again best them this year.

Pat’s produced a poor second half of football against Cowra at Sid Kallas Oval in a 24-6 defeat back in May.

Saints manager Daniel Finn said his side need to buck their trend of slow starts after half-time.

“In the last game against Cowra it was even-stevens but after half-time we didn’t come out, and they just skipped away from us,” he said.

“The one thing Hank [Kurt Hancock, coach] has stressed prior to the games, and during half-time, is how important it is to keep that positivity up. It’s about converting that into points.

“You can’t question their effort on the field. A lot of it comes back to keeping that intensity up at training as well, and how that sets them up for game day.”

Pat’s have shown glimpses of strong football in an otherwise disappointing season, which has netted them just two wins from 12 matches.

Finn said the Saints need to find that spark in attack once again.

“It’s going to require a big turnaround from what we saw against Oberon,” he said.

“I thought we defended well. The difference was that we didn’t throw everything at them with the ball, but they threw everything at us.”

The job has been made harder for Pat’s this Sunday due to suspensions and injuries.

Forwards Greg Behan (three weeks) and McCoy White (one week) won’t be available after copping suspensions for separate incidents in the loss to Tigers at Oberon Sports Ground.

Centre Tyson Medlyn is expected to be out with a knee injury.

Those are big shoes to fill for Pat’s but the team will feel they have the depth to fill the void with the likes of Riley Cheshire, Rhys Frame, Mick Godfrey and Harrison Jones on standby.

Pat’s and Magpies meet in premier league from 2.15pm.