The home side was on the back foot from the early stages, with Corey Ryan scoring the Cougars’ first goal after just six minutes.

Ryan continued his impressive goal-scoring run when he added a second before half time, giving them a 2-nil lead at the break.

While impressed with their first-half performance, Culburra coach Tony Gauci said they could have led by about five or six goals if they had converted more of their chances.

Despite an improved performance in the second half, Bomaderry were unable to make a mark on the score sheet and it remained 2-nil at full time.

Culburra coach Tony Gauci said he was very happy with the result, especially as it was the first time they have beaten Bomaderry this season.

“It was good to get that monkey off the back,” Gauci said.

“They are the only team to beat us so far and they almost beat us the second time we played.

“They threw everything at us in the second half, but you’ve got to be able to put the ball in the back of the net and we were able to do that.”

While Culburra are all but guaranteed to finish first, the loss puts Bomaderry out of the top four, meaning they will need to work hard for a spot in the semis.

Their coach Doug Foley said they started sluggishly, which cost them overall.

“We let them get the jump on us and they had us on the back foot from the start,” Foley said.

“It was a bit like we’d just woken up, we needed to start a little bit better,” he added.

Foley said he still feels they are capable of making the finals, but knows it could well come down to the wire.

“That was the first time Culburra had beaten us, but I still feel we can beat them,” he said.

“I think we can beat any of the top teams, but we have to bring our best game and that didn’t happen against Culburra,” he added.

Foley said he thought their captain Daniel Frew and goalkeeper Daniel Turner were their best players, while Gauci made special mentions to Aaron Mason and Josh Bonney.

In response to comments made last week by Shoalhaven United coach Trevor Skingle, Gauci said it was fortunate he had all his players available as they did United a favour by knocking Bomaderry out of the top four.