The Roos fought back from a points deficit to tie the score at 12 - 12 at Victoria Park's No. 2 Oval on Saturday, but a late penalty proved fatal as the clock wound down and gave Orange's Keegan Harding the opportunity to attempt a penalty goal with ten seconds to spare.

The ball sailed between the posts and City claimed their second win in two years, continuing the marked improvement that's shone through in the club's efforts recently.

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The visitor's first grade side demonstrated the depth of their improvements throughout the game's first half, applying pressure and pace and creating opportunities early.

One such effort saw them put up the first points of the game, sending Sia Neman hurtling through the Roos' defensive line to put the first five points of the game after a gruelling, 15 minute battle.

The conversion attempt by Harding went wide and it wasn't long before the Roos brought the scores back to equal after an attack led by Jake Styles ended with first grade debutant Charlie Kempston pouncing on a grubber and grounding it out wide.

A successful conversion by Styles bounced the Roos into the lead, but there was no sign of a momentum shift as both teams were forced into a gruelling back and forth battle late in the first half.

Orange's Steven Widders didn't waste his moment in the spotlight; plucking the ball out of the air and slipping past two defenders to bring Orange back into the lead with another try just before half-time.

While both sides re-entered the game breathing heavily, neither took a backwards step in the second half, clashing again and again as Dubbo fought to regain the lead.

A line-break from Tim Beach in the second half helped Dubbo alleviate some of the pressure from the Lions, and a second attempt saw Beach set up Kempston for another wide and fast-moving try, drawing the scores equal.

"It was real good to get that one," Kempston said after the match.

"It was a good first hit out for me with the boys, real good, I enjoyed it heaps."

The two sides traded ends several times throughout the game's back half, but the Roos seemed to have the momentum as Jayden Blake advanced with the ball in hand, but a penalty awarded during the following ruck proved decisive.

Harding made good on a failed attempt at the posts from earlier, taking the time to line up a penalty goal from the sidelines with 10 seconds to go on the clock.

Harding said he 'had to make' the kick after the performance his team-mates had put in.

"I've missed a lot of penalty kicks recently, I missed one from right in front just then, but I had to make it, the boys put in all their effort today and I couldn't let them down by missing it," Harding said.

"It's a big moment for us, one hundred percent, when Viv came here last year, we knew we were building towards something, whether we had the players or not, we were building towards something, this year I think we've got a team that can do it."

"The improvement's huge, but it comes down to all the work we've put in for it as well, this year we've got the mindset that we know we can make it, especially staying on the grind like that."

Kempston said the result was a bitter feeling for the Roos, but that it had given the side plenty to work on as they head into next week's bye.

"It was a pretty hard game," Kempston said afterwards, summing up his feelings on the effort put in by both sides.

"That was actually my first game in first grade, so I was pretty boogered to lose right at the buzzer after all that, but it's given us a couple of things to work on, we'll just look forward to next week and try and do our best to forget about it and keep moving forward."

ORANGE CITY LIONS 15 (Sia Neman, Steven Widders tries, Keegan Harding conversion, penalty goal) def. DUBBO ROOS 12 (Charlie Kempston 2, Jake Styles conversion).