After being reduced to ten men when Caylum Barber was issued a second yellow card in the second half, the hosts conceded two late goals after leaving themselves exposed defensively pressing for an equaliser.

The loss means the Wanderers will fall seven points behind fourth-placed ANU on the National Premier League Canberra Two standings, should they beat bottom side Brindabella as expected on Sunday.

They play ANU in Canberra next week and must win to be a realistic chance of a top for berth.

The Wanderers have played the competition's top two teams the past fortnight but with just six games left in the season, crunch time has arrived.

Wagga City began well when American import Frank Macias scored in the opening five minutes, before the Eagles responded with two goals.

The Wanderers levelled scores at 2-all at the break through an own goal when the visitors failed to deal with a Jake Ploenges cross into the box.

But after retaking the lead with a finish off a corner midway through the second half, the Eagles then took advantage of the ten-man Wanderers to seal the result.

"I thought we played fairly well with ten men and pressed for the equaliser, but by doing that we conceded off the break twice," assistant coach Andrew Douglas said.

"To their credit they buried those chances, I don't think 5-2 was reflective of the game.

"There's no point losing by one, we still had our chances in that time but we just couldn't bury them. I don't think we're too far off the mark and the boys on the park can do the job, that's the most frustrating thing."

"I said to the boys you probably have to take each game as a final from here on, we wouldn't want to be dropping too many points."

The Wanderers women lost 6-2 to second-placed Canberra United Academy.

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