South Coast Wolves kept dreams of an unlikely finals' berth alive with an assured 1-0 win over Sydney United on Sunday.
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A Joey Lavalle goal just after half-time saw the hosts takeanother three valuable points at home.
It sees the South Coast's unbeaten run in the league extend to five and moves them into eighth on the ladder.
They trail Sydney Olympic and Sutherland Sharks by six points, but remain a mathematical chance of reaching the coveted fifth spot with five games remaining.
And coach Nahuel Arrarte is not ruling out his side's chances.
"We keep building to win games and as long as we keep doing that and collecting points nothing is impossible," he said.
"The boys have aspirations to win, week by week and it is important that we keep doing that.
"Our next challenge is Blacktown Spartans so we don't want to think too far ahead of ourselves or get too far ahead."
Arrarte was forced into a reshuffle less than five minutes into Sunday's match when skipper Matt Bailey was injured.
The quick-fire substitution, however, didn't stunt the host's early momentum.
Before scoring the winner, Lavalle was in the thick of the action and had two chances to get the scoring under way.
Just after the half-hour mark, he was on the end of a looped cross from Sam Matthews but headed his attempt straight at the keeper.
Less than five minutes later, his chipped attempt grazed the crossbar following a stellar ball from Ricky Zucco.
He'd eventually be rewarded for his endeavours five minutes after half-time.
The diminutive attacker latched on to a floated ball from Chris Nathaniel to cooly edge the ball past charging United keeper Anthony Costa.
A goal to the good, the Wolves all-but added to their lead when Ricky Zucco's corner narrowly missed finding its way into the net. Zucco's offering proved to be the last of the clear chances.
"We didn't get many chances but we executed really well," Arrarte added.
"We were very happy with the finish and we are working on things in training and these things are starting to pay off.
"The boys dug deep, we lost Matt Bailey very early on and Muzza [Jordan Murray] came on and different people are stepping up week in, week out."