The Sharks effectively ended the finals hopes of the Crows and replaced Young inside the top four with the big win.

Wagga United went down to 10 men at the half hour mark of the contest when defender Jayden Beattie was red carded when he brought down Jamie Rankin just outside the box.

Already down 1-0, the Crows rallied hard until half-time but the floodgates opened after the break as Lake Albert produced five second-half goals to put the result beyond doubt.

Jaiden Watson continued his good form with a second-half treble, while Justin Curran, Matthew Hof and Jamie Rankin also found the back of the net.

Lake Albert co-coach Chris Ayton acknowledged the importance of the win.

"Looking at the table, it definitely was an important one," Ayton said.

"I think our boys controlled the game pretty well right from the get go. We're working well as a unit and we're improving every week so it's happy days on that front."

"The game really opened up at the end. I think even before they went a player down, I think we were controlling the tempo of the game well and that's the most pleasing thing to see as a coach."

The win moves Lake Albert to fourth spot a week out from the halfway mark of the season, and just a week after giving up 1-0 lead to go down 3-1 to ladder leaders Hanwood.

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"We're really happy with where we are on the table," Ayton said.

"I mean, to this stage, we still haven't had our strongest team out there. Obviously that's still to come.

"But last week against Hanwood, I thought we played really good footy. 3-1 down, but more happy with the decision making and the effort. We were busted, we probably had three or four blokes out there playing 50-50, so really from our point of view it was a decent result for us. Not the scoreline so much but to see how much effort the boys put in."

Rankin, Watson and Hof all had a hand in multiple goals for the Sharks, while Ahta Chua showed some good signs for Lake Albert in his second first grade game.

The loss sees Wagga United drop to seventh spot on the ladder, and they now sit 10 points outside the top four.

Hanwood 4 d Young 0

Leeton 5 d Cootamundra 0

Henwood Park 13 d Tolland 0

Tumut 2 d South Wagga 1

Lake Albert 6 d Wagga United 0

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