Gippsland United were left to wonder what might have been on Saturday after a poor second half saw them squander a 1-0 lead to Collingwood City in a disappointing defeat.
While spirits were high after an early breakthrough saw the visiting team take the lead before their good work was brought undone, Collingwood City striking twice after half time to leave United 1-2 down at full time.
A windswept Kevin Bartlett reserve is always a difficult venue to perform in, and this weekend was no different.
Collingwood are an established, physical and energetic outfit and after they went behind thanks to a Sammy Gatpan strike midway through the first half, it always felt like they would soon get on top of Gippsland's younger, newly developed squad.
That proved to be the case not long after half time when back to back goals to Dean Markovski and Dimitri Kapolitsas came within minutes of one another, putting the home team in control in the blink of an eye.
Gippsland went down fighting however, and in a late flurry of desperation received little from the match official who waved off numerous free kick appeals and gave captain Nathan Lugton his marching orders via a red card for a second bookable offence.
The red card is United's third in as many weeks and hasn't helped their cause in what has been a frustrating first half of the season, where six losses from nine has landed Gippsland on the wrong end of the league table.
United's top performer on the day was goal scorer Sammy Gatpan, who never stopped running and was involved in the action more often than not.
New signing Pranay Fadnis tired towards the end of the match but was an instrumental piece in the midfield.
Nathan Lugton gave United the grunt and physicality they needed, although it was his ferocious tackling that led to his unfortunate send-off, while young Cooper Coleman threw himself at everything on the right flank in another encouraging performance.
Gippsland United now sit 10th on the State League 1 South-East table after nine rounds.
This week sees them face off with Malvern City at Baxter Park. Malvern City's top flight team has lost just twice this year and are currently fifth on the table in what will be a challenging fixture.
It was better news for the club's reserves, who reversed their recent fortunes to score a mammoth 4-1 win.
Having not won since round two, United were back in full force with a convincing performance, scoring all four of their goals in the first half after finding themselves behind early.
Jacob Wilson, Charlie Cockell, Daniel Edey and Julian Colantuono all found themselves on the scoresheet.
The reserves are currently in sixth position on the table.