Back-to-back Wanderers wins was brought to a halt by an in-form O'Connor Knights outfit on Sunday, who downed Wagga City 3-1 in Canberra.

The Wanderers were down 2-0 at half-time but came out firing after the break.

Jacob Ochieng closed the gap with a goal five minutes into the half, before the Wanderers missed a straight forward chance only moments later.

The Wanderers believe they were hard done by later in the contest also when they missed out on a penalty.

Despite all this, Wanderers coach Dave Leonard was pleased to be challenging the third-placed Knights.

"They would be in the in-form team right at the moment, the boys played really well," Leonard said.

"It's obviously strange to say but you've got to put things into perspective and be realistic who we're playing. I'm super stoked with the boys, the boys are up and about.

"In the end, we were a little bit unlucky not to get a penalty, to be honest...but the boys are slowly starting to work the way we want them to work and you can see that, so that's really, really pleasing.

"They're becoming a little bit more consistent. They're playing more as a unit than individually, which was an issue at times."

The Wanderers lost Jake Ploenges and Josh Timothy-Nesbitt to late withdrawals due to illness. Alvaro Kelechi also missed the game.

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Leonard is certain that it was a performance that his team will take confidence out of moving forward.

"One hundred per cent they will. They were stoked," he said.

"Obviously the opposition were singing the song but the air of confidence in the group was really, really good. It's just really nice to see. It's really strange saying it, when you've come off a loss, but we've got to be realistic about where we are and who we're playing.

"The difference is they're sticking to that same game plan that we've been working on for so long now. The adjustments that we've had to continually make to get better and be able to be in the contest, and they're just working really, really hard at it and I'm just super pleased for the boys.

"They can see some positives out of it."

Leonard is also pleased the way the Wanderers are starting to click offensively.

"The fact is we're starting to score goals, which was an issue early on. And they're a quality team," he said.

"And we caused some headaches, we really created some headaches for them, which was really pleasing."

Leonard said it was an even team performance from the Wanderers.

Luke Stevens impressed before coming off after a knock late, while James Klein, Kyle Yeates, Logan Flanagan and Ochieng all enjoyed good games.

The Wanderers have the bye this week, before hosting ANU at Gissing Oval on Saturday week.

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