A horror month saw the Blueys all-but tumble out of Illawarra Premier League title contention, with losses to Woonona, as well as Cringila and South Coast United, who are more focused on staying up than the finals equation.

But on Saturday, they hit back against Fernhill with a thumping 5-nil win, the injection of Ben Learmonth and the class of Sam Munro inspiring them when the occasion required it.

And so the Blueys are still eight points off leaders Olympic, who are five clear of second-placed Corrimal before Saturday's blockbuster top-of-the-table showdown at North Wollongong PCYC.

But for Tarrawanna, the emphatic correction has kept them in the hunt.

"I don't think we'd played that badly, we just couldn't make it happen in the final third," coach Peter Willis said. "So we had a pretty good conversation about it this week, made a few changes with shape and personnel and it came off for us.

"The league this year is unpredictable, anything can happen, but it was important we went out there and got a result to give us a bit of belief.

"A draw next week (between Olympic and Corrimal) would be handy, but we've just got to build on this and keep picking up wins."

Olympic beat Albion Park 3-nil to firm as title favourites, as Corrimal were held by Wollongong United.

Julian Minutillo came on as a substitute at half-time to score a double in 17 minutes, before Yusuke Ueda sealed it, but only after Hayden Durose saved Cameron Morgan's late penalty.

Elsewhere, Conistion stayed on the trail of the finals contenders with a 1-nil win over Cringila and Port Kembla came from a goal down to beat Woonona 2-1, while South Coast United picked up a valuable point in a 2-all draw with Bulli.

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