In an entertaining contest, the Dubbo side suffered a 3-2 defeat to Parkes Cobras at Woodward Oval.

The Cobras were without three of their best in Mitch Hutchings, Marty Doherty and Brent Morgan but it mattered little as they got the job done courtesy of a Brett Tucker strike inside the final 20 minutes.

The loss was Macquarie's third from the opening five rounds and resulted in Paul Crain's side slipping to seventh on the ladder.

The coach had said prior to the match a result was crucial for his side's finals hopes but after a match filled with a number of contentious refereeing decisions, Crain tried to focus on the positives.

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"When both coaches are shaking their heads at the officiating that probably says something about the way the game panned out," Crain said post-match.

"But big congrats to Parkes for the win. They played really well.

"The positive for us is that we played much better football than we have been this season. We had plenty of opportunities, we just needed to finish them off a bit better."

Last season's minor premiers are now nine points off top spot heading into next weekend's meeting with Panorama FC.

For Parkes, the victory was much-needed after just one win in the first four rounds of the season.

A Blake Medlyn goal opened the scoring for the hosts in the 24^th minute on Saturday, only for Macquarie's Glen Schein to level things up as half-time approached.

Macquarie was forced to fight back from behind again after Alec Bateson's goal from the penalty spot following a controversial hand-ball call put the hosts back in control but midway through the second stanza things were all square again.

Tucker scored what turned out to be the winner late on, moving the much-improved Parkes side into the top four in the process.

"A win like this with several players missing just highlights our depth this season," Parkes coach Meghan Kempson said.

"Tonight (Saturday) was the first game where we didn't have a whole team lapse for a period of time.

"We maintained our quality, effort and execution for the full 90 minutes and really dug deep with a few boys missing."

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