With three minutes left in Sunday's Canberra Raiders Cup First Grade clash, the Goulburn Bulldogs were up 34-32 over the Gungahlin Bulls.
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The crowd at the Goulburn Workers Arena was on tenterhooks as the home side clung to a lead in the face of a surging Bulls outfit.
Both teams had spent the second half of the match trading tries, as the Bulldogs looked to break the game open but just couldn't put the nail in Gungahlin's coffin.
When the countdown clock crossed the two-minute mark, the Bulls made their way towards Goulburn's tryline. Near the end of the set, Gungahlin captain Tre Holten-Williams put in a short kick toward the left wing.
The perfectly-weighted punt was caught mid-air by the Bulls' number two, who crossed the tryline as he landed to give the visitors the lead with less than two minutes left.
Most of that time elapsed during the conversion, and a dejected Tyson Greenwood lead the Bulldogs off the field following their 38-34 loss.
"It's disappointing, I thought we were well and truly better than the scoreboard showed," Greenwood said.
"We've just got to get that one-for-one mentality out of our heads. We score a good try, then we make an error and they score and we score - we've got to be better than that.
"Good teams don't go one-for-one, they score, capitalise, complete, and roll through."
Sunday's loss marked the Bulldogs' second loss in as many matches. The first came against competition favourites, the Queanbeyan Blues, in round three, 38-20.
That match featured a similar pattern, in which Goulburn held a lead but lost control late as errors crept in.
The key issue that needs addressing for the Bulldogs, as far as Greenwood is concerned, is tidying up their defence.
"It's free-running footy, the contact wasn't massive, the wrestle wasn't great," he said.
"It was a forward's dream really. We capitalised on that, our forwards did a good jobs and our backs could just walk over the tryline, so we did everything right with the ball. We just need to be better in defence."
But Greenwood hastened to add that plenty of positives came out of Sunday's match as well, particularly the performances of winger Steve Cummins - who scored four tries - and centre Isaac Walker.
"Scoring a try and Stevie, they go hand in hand," he said.
"He'd be the shortest-paying winger in the comp. But hats off to our halfbacks and all the boys running good lines, because Steve's just finishing those.
"I thought Isaac Walker was tremendous today, he always got that pass right for Stevie and took the heat off him as well. Steve's scoring a lot of tries, but there's a lot of guys helping him out."
Having played the two top-ranked teams back to back in recent matches, the Bulldogs have an easier assignment this weekend when they take on the last-ranked Belconnen United Sharks.
The Sharks have lost all four of their matches to date, and Goulburn will go in to the clash a heavy favourite.
The Goulburn City Bulldogs will take on the Belconnen United Sharks in three grades this Saturday, May 22.
The day will begin with the Ladies League Tag at noon, followed by Reserve Grade at 1.20pm and First Grade at 3pm.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs' women's tackle side will play the Queanbeyan Blues in the Katrina Fanning Shield at Raiders Belconnen from 12.30pm, and the Bulldogs' Under 19s team will play Harden Boorowa at McLean Oval from 11.30am.
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