Mudgee Dragons beat St Pat's in Peter McDonald Premiership action at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex

Instead, it inspired the Dragons to find another level and score a try on each occasion.

Those two tries would prove to be pivotal moments for the visiting Group 10 minor premiers in a 28-16 win at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex.

Mudgee showed why they're one of the title favourites this season by recovering from a six-point deficit and putting the game away with a strong final 20 minutes of play.

The result knocks the Saints down to third spot on the ladder and pits them in a winner-takes-all contest away to Orange Hawks in the last round, where the winner is guaranteed to play a qualifying final.

The victory could come at a significant cost for the Dragons.

They'll be sweating on the judiciary result from Clay Priest's high shot on Nick Booth, which saw the Dragons lock sent off in the 76^th minute.

Still, it's a result from the Dragons that sends a message to the competition that they're ready and willing to play out the regular season at 100 per cent, despite having top spot locked up.

Dragons captain Jack Beasley, who played a major role in setting up several tries in the win, said once his team got through a physical and scrappy opening half they found their stride.

"It's easy to get lost in all of that, especially here. They love a bit a bash-fest. That's something we can work on - keeping a cool head - but it's nice to get the win though," he said.

"It seems to be the pattern at the moment where we start a bit clunky and we drop a bit of ball, but we've got a good base that we can always get back to.

"We know we're a team that can score points so it's just about holding the ball."

Jackson Brien was one of the standouts in defeat for the Saints, and finished off a double chip-and-chase effort to score the try of the day.

That try had the home players and fans excited, as it pushed the score out to 16-10 in the Saints' favour, but they'd be the last points Pat's would score.

"That try was probably more luck than anything, really," Brien laughed.

"Mudgee are the top side so they're obviously never going to go away but we stuck it to them for about 70 minutes. We threw away a bit of possession in that first half. We didn't complete many sets.

"We've got no trouble moving the ball around at the moment, we just need to hold onto the thing.

"We've had a few injuries lately and a few reserve grade guys backing up, so it's been a big effort from them, and we're starting to get a few more boys back next week. If we can beat Hawks in that game we'll finish second."

The first half was one that both teams would like to forget in a hurry.

Each brought great defensive energy to the table but with the ball in hand they were found wanting, with incompletions and penalties racking up quickly.

Jak Colgate scored in the 13^th minute to put the hosts up 4-0, and it looked as if Pat's were going to hold the Dragons to a scoreless half when fullback Jackson Littlejohn was sin binned for intentionally slowing the play the ball seven minute before the break.

However, the Dragons were able to bring the ball right down the other end a find a try on the left edge through David West to make it 4-all at the break.

The offence began to flow for both sides in a much more electric second half of footy.

Pat's and Dragons traded early converted tries through Noah Griffiths and Lleyton Lothian respectively before Brien's effort put the hosts in a strong position.

But Dragons began to gather momentum and soon converted that into Littlejohn and Pacey Stockton tries to jump out to a 22-16 lead inside the last 10 minutes.

Priest's send-off and subsequent penalty inside Mudgee territory gave the Saints a great opportunity to level proceedings, but the set resulted in an error.

Just as they did in the first half when they lost a player, Mudgee then brought the ball down the other end of the field and scored, this time through Jayden Brown with 30 seconds to go.

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